Upriver Or Downriver?

[YnysMon]

Grumpy Helen here.

One thing that slightly irritates me is when people say they are going upriver when (for example) they are settling out from Beccles in the direction of Great Yarmouth. It seems quite prevalent. I’ve always thought that upriver was away from the sea and downriver toward the sea. Have I been mistaken all this time?

My cousin did comment the other night, when we were having a ‘putting the world to rights’ sort of phone conversation, that we are turning into a couple of female Victor Meldrews. I guess is an age thing.

On the other hand.

[Chelsea14Ian]

I don't be lieve  it.

[kpnut]

I get grumpier by the day Helen, you’re not alone. 
Of course, upstream or upriver is away from the sea. How could it be anything else?

[Mouldy]

18 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

. . . . . . . . . . . . I guess is an age thing.

 . . . . . . . . . And it gets worse.  Carrying a soapbox round is a right pain!!  

[Bluebell]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

I get grumpier by the day Helen, you’re not alone. 
Of course, upstream or upriver is away from the sea. How could it be anything else?

Agreed. No argument surely…?

[ExSurveyor]

My middle names are grumpy and intolerant, the older I get, the more appropriate they become.

[Smoggy]

Upriver or downriver is simple, just look at the contours on a map and the sea is lower so must be downriver, Issac Newton wasn't a complete numpty when he sussed gravity (I'm currently quite drunk so feel free to correct me if it was ant & Dec that discovered gravity, I really hope not) and pure water weighs in at 1 ton/m3 without all the crap it carries so is generally gonna follow his rules.

 

[grendel]

Quote

My middle names are grumpy and intolerant

does that make you one of Snow Whites entourage

[FairTmiddlin]

16 hours ago, ExSurveyor said:

My middle names are grumpy and intolerant, the older I get, the more appropriate they become.

 

4 hours ago, grendel said:

does that make you one of Snow Whites entourage

Sure that was Grumpy and Incontinent

[Broads01]

Yeah I usually say upstream and downstream but it means the same. I guess people confuse it with North and south, hence from the south Broads you're going "up" to Great Yarmouth.

So, if I'm travelling along the New Cut I think I'm travelling neither upstream or downstream because I'm on a canal. Am I correct?

[Smoggy]

I always consider it down to yarmouth from either end as once in yarmouth you cant sink any lower.

I regard the new cut as an offshoot of the yare as it generally runs the same way but you are right.

[Vaughan]

13 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

hence from the south Broads you're going "up" to Great Yarmouth.

There is a similar problem with railways, as the original ones in England all radiated out from London, so a train towards London was always in the "up" direction.  So if you took the Flying Scotsman north from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, you were on the "down" train.

I noticed that "Downton Abbey" got this detail right, as characters going to catch a train always said they were going "up" to London.

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, Vaughan said:

There is a similar problem with railways, as the original ones in England all radiated out from London, so a train towards London was always in the "up" direction.  So if you took the Flying Scotsman north from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, you were on the "down" train.

I noticed that "Downton Abbey" got this detail right, as characters going to catch a train always said they were going "up" to London.

When I was growing up in Holyhead (a railway town) I could never work out why people said they were going up to London. they were going south…for goodness sake! I didn’t even figure it out when I worked for Sealink (then part of the public-owned BR).

It wasn’t until I moved to MK and worked in Watford and then Bletchley stations that it dawned on me that there were up slow and fast lines to Euston and corresponding down slow and fast lines. The penny finally dropped!

 

[Vaughan]

Norfolk had its own confusion with railways (it would) as if you took a journey from Kings Lynn to Norwich, you were on the up train, through Dereham as far as Wymondham, where it joined the main line and became the down train to Norwich.

I don't know how the M&GN named their trains, as they were one of the few "cross country" lines going east to west, from Birmingham through to Gt Yarmouth.

[JanetAnne]

If you head upstream across Breydon and then along the Waveney to Oulton Broad you are not only going up whilst heading south, you are also heading downhill because the tide is higher behind you than in front. 

However, heading along the Waveney up stream, you could ultimately be heading towards the sea at Lowestoft, so, at some point, you must surely be heading downstream whilst continuing your upstream journey downhill with the tide behind you.

I think that's right?

. 

[BroadAmbition]

You need to get out more 

Griff

[rightsaidfred]

You take the high road and I take the low road and I will be drunk before thee.😊

Fred

[Wussername]

In my family, if anybody asked, they were never going  "up river" or "down river". They would always say "on the river".

Where your a goin George?

"On the river"

Or, in the case of Grandad  "at sea"........ a fishin.

[JanetAnne]

6 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

You need to get out more 

Griff

Those birds you were with the other night are missing you

[BroadAmbition]

I'm missing them too, as well and the trips to / from work

Griff

[TheQ]

of course you can always go up tide to go down river or down tide to go up river..

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

of course you can always go up tide to go down river or down tide to go up river..

Dont start...I'm easily confused!

[CeePee1952]

In future I'm just going to say "I pointed the pointy bit in that direction and went that way" 

Chris

[Bikertov]

So what about those who are lucky enough to be attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities - they always talk about going "up to" Oxford and "up to" Cambridge to get there, which are both clearly away from London, ie on the Down line.

They also , talk about "going down" when leaving (or being sent down if expelled)

But then they probably won't be taking the train there and back, will they ...

[Smoggy]

25 minutes ago, CeePee1952 said:

In future I'm just going to say "I pointed the pointy bit in that direction and went that way" 

Chris

Would "forward" be an easier description?