Story · Curiosities map · about 2 min
How far is the silliest place from a train?
Every one of Britain's silliest real place names, checked against the nearest railway station in NaPTAN, with the distance measured to the closest station on the map.
Named after its own station
Slaggyford sits just 159 metres from Slaggyford Rail Station, about as close as a village and its station can be.
As far from a railway as Britain gets
Muckle Flugga, the northernmost point in the whole United Kingdom, is 292.7 km from the nearest railway station. Shetland has no railway at all, so every silly name there is judged against the mainland.
Only 13% are a short walk from a train
Of all 141 silly place names on the map, only 18 (13%) are within 2 km of a railway station. Most of Britain's silliest names, like most of Britain, are not near a railway at all.
Check your own favourite
Both layers are switched on here, so click any silly name, then look for the nearest rail dot, and see how close (or far) it really is.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- What does "nearest station" hide, for example a station that has closed or runs rarely?
- Why does the distance to a station matter for who can visit a place?
Try it on the map: Pick your favourite silly name and find the nearest station. Would you walk it?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.