Woah, when did Middlesex disappear? The Royal Mail still seems happy to use it.
Middlesex hasn’t existed as an actual place for aaaages. Most of it got swallowed up into Greater London (cf: Uxbridge and so on. It’s on the tube, it must be in Greater London). But it still exists for the purposes of postcodes and addresses on letters. At least, I’ve been sending cards to my nan in Ruislip, Middlesex for years and they seem to get there.
Wow. I never knew.
Looking on the bright side, when I receive mail (ie mean actual paper mail) addressed to the non-existent county of Lanarkshire, then it is obviously junk.
But, I too, got bored with the number of times names have change since 1974. 
Middlesex was filtered out of existence by over-zealous web decency software 
John Major brought Rutland back, IIRC.
The postal service are pretty cluey. You can put the most vague, inexact addresses and they do their utmost to find the right place. I don’t know how much this is to do with not having much of a “return” address culture in the UK, or because how many letters are sent by poor old grannies with spidery writing who can’t manage new-fangled postcodes (as younger generations prefer email).
In some small villages you can probably successfully get a letter delivered to “Marjorie Hartleworth, Littleton-under-Snedd” alone, if the village is small enough and the village postie willing.
Please address your complaints to:
Mr Gobfrey Shurdlu
Sunshine Desserts
Shitlington Hall,
Cuntgropelane
Shitterton, Dorset
Surely Leeds can be a county if you’re counting Woodlesford as a city?
BTW, it’s Marjorie’s birthday Thursday week if you’re interested. She’s 83 and has still got all her own teeth*
*keeps 'em in a jar.
I want the Isle of Ely back – and Hallamshire!
::: grumbles :::
Things just haven’t been the same since those newfangled Tudors took over!
This is precisely why my ancestors came to the New World.
[sub]Woodlesford? For real?[/sub]
Berkshire = Berks. Weirdly enough.
Signed,
Former denizen, RG15DX
Or send a damp postcard to:
Tristan & Isolde Lambert-Collings-Woodduck
17 Mount Rainer
Fruitbat-up-the-Khyber
Saturday, Wessex
PJX18 2FU
Things aren’t that much better over here in the newer world. My state has 120 counties. Who can remember that many?!
I guess we’re kinda territorial people.
Yeah, but at least we don’t name 'em Woodlesford. We have somber, dignified names.
Like Great Neck.
All my mail (from major financial institutions etc) is addressed to me in Manchester, Lancashire.
It totally baffles me.
The West Midlands is a weird one. It used to be part of Warwickshire (hence the Warwickshire Cricket Ground being in Edgbaston) but Birmingham, Coventry and some other bits and pieces got moved into the nwely cerated West Midlands. Anyway, it seems a large percentage of West Midlands residents can’t handle the fact that they are no longer in Warwickshire and insist that they still live there. Coventry even has “Welcome to the Coventry, the City is Shakespeare Country” signs, even though Shakespeare was born in a (now) completely different county.
Oh, for flip’s sake … it’s Gropecunt Lane. How are the Post Office supposed to manage if you can’t get these simple little details right?
(Factual note: I think Gropecunt Lane in Oxford has actually been renamed. But to what, I don’t know.)
The Royal Mail does (IMHO) a remarkable job of routing post, in the past I have tested this by sending letters to people with the scantiest of addresses (such as name and postcode only or name and town only; they all arrived (a day or two later than expected).
A postcode is generally accurate down to about six individual addresses (I used to work for the Post Office), so in theory all you need is a house number and a postcode in the UK.
That can vary a bit - I have two friends who happen to live in the same street (at numbers 6 and 19), and have the same postcode. But, yes, in theory all you need is the house number and postcode. Which does not explain why I keep getting the mail for number 78 (hint: 78 != my flat number.)