A question about UK addresses

Magnetoman

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I'm working on an updated bibliography of motorcycle books and the formatting requires me to list the locations of the publishers. As examples, large, well-known places like, say, Los Angeles or London are to be listed just by those names alone. Smaller places that might not be as universally known, or where it could be ambiguous, like, say Austin, Texas or Birmingham, Alabama (vs. Birmingham, UK) are to be listed with the additional State/Province/Country. Which brings me to my question.

Taking Crowood Press as an example, in their books they list their address as Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 2HR. Googling them shows a more detailed address of The Stable Block, Crowood Ln., Ramsbury, Marlborough, SN8 2HR, United Kingdom. The map shows this is actually a few thousand feet outside Ramsbury proper, which in turn is three miles from Marlborough. Ignoring the fact that other, older publishers list either Great Britain or England as the country, how would I list the location of Crowood Press using only two words; Ramsbury, UK or Marlborough, UK?

OK, now not ignoring the UK question, is it now no longer accepted practice to list a city that is south of Hadrian's wall and east of Bristol as in England or Great Britain, but rather to list it as in the UK? This isn't a question about how it "should be," or how it was when our hair wasn't grey, but how it is now.

Thanks in advance for answering these geopolitical questions.
 

Comet Rider

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The easiest way to think of it is as follows

Physical building address
Town or village
Postal town
County
Postal/Zip code
Country.

Using your example;
The Stable Block This is the physical building name or house number
Crowood Lane
Ramsbury Village or town
Marlborough Postal town (This represents the main sorting town)
Wiltshire County (Similar to use of USA State)
SN8 2HR ZIP/Postal code.
UK

So to abbreviate it I would put;
Ramsbury, Wiltshire UK

Best of luck
Neil
 

vibrac

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If you look on the 'contact us' page on the Vincent spares web site you will see under the small picture of the entrance the ' what three words' address this will lead to a map of the 3 meter square of the actual entrance ( it's easier to see in photo view rather than map view) this system has mapped the entire globe in 3 meter squares very useful for obscure entrances lost in a post code or for emergency services or meeting spots.
 

Magnetoman

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So to abbreviate it I would put;
Ramsbury, Wiltshire UK
Well, that's three words, not two. However, Google only found one Ramsbury in the UK so it's not a problem to drop Wiltshire, but presumably some town names appear in more than one county so there could be ambiguities.

this system has mapped the entire globe in 3 meter squares
Very interesting. I wasn't aware of that system. In a future bibliography some form of a bar code could replace the publishers' information. That is, should books still be published in the future, which doesn't seem like a sure thing.

Still open is the question about England vs. Great Britain vs. UK.
 

Mike 40M

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According to the United Nations, the country's name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The international postal code is GB. I think from the ISO 3166-1 code standard.
Emanating from car and motorcycle nationality plates
On the internet they call themself www.gov.uk.
Very confusing.
But in my country GB is a well known ice cream company, so I'll go for UK.
 
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Prince Duster

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Hi - always better to state the town/village, the county and postcode outside of the major cities. There is a Hayes in Middlesex, and one in Kent. In Essex there is Brentwood, and in Middlesex there is Brentford - we've had a passport sent to the former, not the latter. There may well be many more examples. So, surely better to treat the smaller places as one would Paris, Texas, to be on the safe side. David Lancaster
 

Magnetoman

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always better to state the town/village, the county and postcode outside of the major cities.
Yes, there's no question that stating all the details would be best. But, that's not the issue. The style guide for the bibliography doesn't allow all that information. The question is, given the constraint, how best to list the address to minimize the chance of ambiguity.

In the end, the few errors or ambiguities allowed by the minimalist convention won't be life-and-death matters. It's a bibliography, after all, so an unstated assumption is that anyone using it will be literate and reasonably educated. So, they would be unlikely to head off to visit Abco Publishing of Hayes, UK without first discovering there are two towns by that name and then looking a bit deeper to determine which one houses the publisher.
 

Albervin

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A UK postal code will take you to the address +/- 10 metres. In The Netherlands you can send mail to Mr Van der Sluitzen BR1234bb and it will be delivered. The UK includes ALL islands, Northern Ireland and Britain itself. GB is the main island of Britain and all the islands except Northern Ireland. In your example, Crowood Press. SN8 2HR U.K. is unique enough to find them on a GPS or via mail.
 

vibrac

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Sn8 2hr is in a field across the road

And what 3 words reversed.assemblies.patch
will ( if I have the right building) will get you to the start of their drive
 
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