[OSM-talk] Google Maps comparison

[Richard Fairhurst]

David Earl wrote:

> A few years ago our council put up a big direction sign to my village
> "Fulbourne" but it is actually Fulbourn, and they were very embarrassed
> by the photo of it that appeared in the local paper. What the paper
> didn't know, though, was at the same time they put up a cycle route sign
> at the station directing people to "Foulbourn". It vanished extremely
> rapidly once they got to know about it!
>
> It's interesting just how much names change too. The NPE maps frequently
> have spellings that I think were common at the time (rather than being
> mistakes) that are different from today's naming only 50 years later.
> "Long Stanton" near me has now morphed into "Longstanton"

A lot of this is to do with railway stations, which were often the  
first "official" codification of a placename. I believe, for example,  
that your village station was actually called Fulbourne! (Certainly  
the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company 'Town Class' boat is Fulbourne,  
and they were generally named after stations...)

There's a village near us which is signposted as Bletchingdon on the  
way in, Bletchington on the way out. Oxfordshire County Council have  
failed to grasp the subtlety of the spelling here: Bletchington is the  
name of the area near the old station (also known as Enslow), a good  
mile away; Bletchingdon is the village proper.

cheers
Richard