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.