By Monica Chard
Well, the answer is A LOT!! The new pretty sign by the riverside at Kings Lawn, welcom-ing boaters to our village declares Welcome to Sunbury upon Thames…UPON??? Many of us have lived in Sunbury for many years and it has always been ON. The comments on social media were very interesting. A few didn’t care, but the vast majority very much do care. This sign is simply wrong.
But what is the difference, you may ask. UP-ON is used when a town straddles the river. Hence Staines upon Thames, Kingston upon Thames, Stratford upon Avon etc. But Sun-bury is on only one bank of the river, so it absolutely must be ON.
The final chapter is yet to be written on this sign. As we go to press we have found out that the sign has disappeared. Maybe it has been taken as a souvenir. Maybe it is to be replaced by the council and we will be ON again before we know it. Well, well! The name most certainly does matter!
While we are on the matter of names, Shepperton also has a nice new sign, but in the case of Shepperton it is not ON or UPON. Some locals tell me that at one point it was in fact called Shepperton on Thames. Maybe we should get that changed while we are at it and have two new signs and names which are factually and grammatically correct!
My only gripe about the Shepperton sign is that it is positioned so as to entirely obscures the view upstream towards the Manor House if one is sitting on the bench under the tree behind the sign. Oh well. Nothing is perfect!