In message oWh7o.113034$Ds3.96847@hurricane, at 19:51:02 on Sat, 7 Aug
2010, Roy Badami remarked:
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.

Back in the 70's I would have said that you could leave of the county if
the letter was addressed to someone in the county town.

I presume Nottingham was once the County Town of Notts, although County
Hall is in West Bridgford and (eg) the Police, Fire and much of the
Education department are in different bits of Arnold.
--
Roland Perry