On 03/08/10 19:27, Eric wrote:

surname,suburb worked for us when I were a nipper, though mostly we
put the road in, and later, a direction.

I believe the PAF used to contain rural addresses in isolated villages
where there were no street names or house numbers. Instead, the
Building Name field in PAF was set to a parenthisised surname.

No idea if such entries still exist in PAF.

-roy

On 31/07/10 19:07, Tom Anderson wrote:
Evening all,

Not related to transport, but a topic which flares up here now and then:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10825499

I was particularly pleased to see the 'Romford is/is not in Essex'
argument being brought up immediately in the comments. Now, could
someone get on there and tell them about Metropolitan Kent?

The big change was really a couple of years ago when, IIRC, the use of
counties was made optional for all UK addresses (provided the postcode
was included). The proposed change referred to here is really just a
logical progression of that decision.

Prior to that the county was manadatory in most postal addresses, but
there has always been a list of post towns for which the county was
optional.

I know that Cambridge, where I live, was on the list - i.e. you've
always been able to write just "Cambridge" rather than "Cambridge,
Cambs." and I rarely-to-never see anyone include the "Cambs." in an
address here.

But I've always wondered what the general rule is as to when the county
is omitted. Is it basically County Towns (such as Cambridge, county
town of Cambridgeshire), plus those of the modern metropolitan counties
(e.g. Manchester as effectively the County Town of Greater Manchester),
plus of course London, which is a bit of a special case (in lots of ways).

Or is it more complicated or arbitrary than that?

-roy

In article 1Ub7o.56047$lF5.40201@hurricane, (Roy
Badami) wrote:

On 03/08/10 19:27, Eric wrote:

surname,suburb worked for us when I were a nipper, though mostly
we put the road in, and later, a direction.

I believe the PAF used to contain rural addresses in isolated
villages where there were no street names or house numbers.
Instead, the Building Name field in PAF was set to a parenthisised
surname.

No idea if such entries still exist in PAF.

There are parts of the country where the lack of street addresses is quite
widespread. Round Llandrindod Wells, I think.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote on 07 August 2010 14:18:59 ...
In article1Ub7o.56047$lF5.40201@hurricane, (Roy
Badami) wrote:

On 03/08/10 19:27, Eric wrote:

surname,suburb worked for us when I were a nipper, though mostly
we put the road in, and later, a direction.

I believe the PAF used to contain rural addresses in isolated
villages where there were no street names or house numbers.
Instead, the Building Name field in PAF was set to a parenthisised
surname.

No idea if such entries still exist in PAF.

There are parts of the country where the lack of street addresses is quite
widespread. Round Llandrindod Wells, I think.

Do you mean that there is neither a street name nor a building
number/name? That seemed to be the situation that Roy described,
otherwise they wouldn't have needed to use the present occupier's name.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On 07/08/10 14:18, wrote:

There are parts of the country where the lack of street addresses is quite
widespread. Round Llandrindod Wells, I think.

Now I come to think of it, I think the place where I encountered this
was in OS Address Point sample data, and I'm pretty sure the sample data
was for some part of Wales...

-roy

In message K7c7o.13937$Ai7.4940@hurricane, at 13:15:40 on Sat, 7 Aug
2010, Roy Badami remarked:
I know that Cambridge, where I live, was on the list - i.e. you've
always been able to write just "Cambridge" rather than "Cambridge,
Cambs." and I rarely-to-never see anyone include the "Cambs." in an
address here.

But I've always wondered what the general rule is as to when the county
is omitted. Is it basically County Towns (such as Cambridge, county
town of Cambridgeshire), plus those of the modern metropolitan counties
(e.g. Manchester as effectively the County Town of Greater Manchester),
plus of course London, which is a bit of a special case (in lots of ways).

Or is it more complicated or arbitrary than that?

It's very simple, there's a list of "Post Towns", and everyone should be
aware of the one where they live. A long time ago the Post Office sent
postcards to everyone telling them, and it's the bit in CAPITALS if you
get a PAF-derived letter. The county has been optional for a long time.

Where I live, "NOTTINGHAM, Nottinghamshire" would look a bit odd,
especially as Nottinghasm is a unitary authority, and in that sense is
not part of Nottinghamshire!
--
Roland Perry

On 07/08/10 18:45, Roland Perry wrote:
The county has been optional for a long time.

Ok, Wikipedia tells me the county has been optional since 1996. I was
sure the change was more recent than that, but apparently not.

I'm still curious as to in which places the county wasn't traditionally
written, even prior to 1996. I'm guessing Nottingham would be another
example since "Nottingham, Notts." would be somewhat odd, as you say.

-roy

"Roy Badami" wrote in message
newsWh7o.113034$Ds3.96847@hurricane...
On 07/08/10 18:45, Roland Perry wrote:
The county has been optional for a long time.

Ok, Wikipedia tells me the county has been optional since 1996. I was
sure the change was more recent than that, but apparently not.

I'm still curious as to in which places the county wasn't
traditionally written, even prior to 1996. I'm guessing Nottingham
would be another example since "Nottingham, Notts." would be somewhat
odd, as you say.

It is the post towns with (N) after them in this list

http://abcounties.co.uk/bpa/bpasection3.htm

Generally seems to be towns with the same name as the county, plus other
towns deemed large and famous enough to not need a county.

Peter Smyth

On Aug 7, 8:35*pm, "Peter Smyth" wrote:

"Roy Badami" wrote:

On 07/08/10 18:45, Roland Perry wrote:
The county has been optional for a long time.

Ok, Wikipedia tells me the county has been optional since 1996. *I was
sure the change was more recent than that, but apparently not.

I'm still curious as to in which places the county wasn't
traditionally written, even prior to 1996. *I'm guessing Nottingham
would be another example since "Nottingham, Notts." would be somewhat
odd, as you say.

It is the post towns with (N) after them in this list

http://abcounties.co.uk/bpa/bpasection3.htm

Generally seems to be towns with the same name as the county, plus other
towns deemed large and famous enough to not need a county.

I like how that page dutifully lists all the London postcodes and the
olde counties that they're in - though I'm sure that many postcodes
straddle the old boundaries so presumably it's what the county the
majority of the postcode sits in that the author has used.

On 07/08/10 20:59, Mizter T wrote:

I like how that page dutifully lists all the London postcodes and the
olde counties that they're in - though I'm sure that many postcodes
straddle the old boundaries so presumably it's what the county the
majority of the postcode sits in that the author has used.

Postal counties are a bit arbitrary anyway, and don't entirely conform
to the real world.

I grew up in "Rochdale, Lancs." even though Rochdale hadn't been in
Lancashire since the creation of Greater Manchester.

-roy