Although Wootton Bassett is in no sense a part of either Swindon town or borough our official Royal Mail address does, in fact, include Swindon.
I understand this is because of the location of our main Royal Mail sorting office there. As pretty well the whole country now seems to know, and as publicised in your own columns, later this year we are to receive a signal honour from the Queen in the form of a regal component to our name. We are to be known, thereafter, as Royal Wootton Bassett.
Absolutely no reflection on Swindon but, to my mind, Royal Wootton Bassett, Swindon does not scan as comfortably (or elegantly) as Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire.
The pairing, in this instance, of town plus county seems a more appropriate fit than town plus (another) town.
I think it would be most fitting if the Royal Mail were to consider matching the generosity and imagination of our Sovereign by extending to our town, at the appropriate time, the privilege of using the latter as our official address.
In this era of post codes and automated sorting I would not anticipate any insurmountable technical difficulties caused thereby and, through your publication, invite the responsible postal authority to offer this suggestion serious consideration.
Kenneth Nelson, Beamans Lane, Wootton Bassett.
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