Place notation is a short-hand convention for specifying the plain lead of a method.
Between each row of a plain lead, each bell either remains in its place makes the place or swaps place with its neighbour. In place notation, the places which are made in each row are specified; the other bells assuming to be part of pairs that swap. For example, the plain lead of Plain Bob Doubles is
5.1.5.1.5.1.5.1.5.125
This may be shortened by realising that the work, excluding the lead end (last row) is symmetrical about the half-lead (fifth row). It may therefore be written as
&5.1.5.1.5,125
The ampersand & means reflect the following rows, upto the comma, about the last row before the comma. Rows after the comma are then added after.
In even bell methods, there is the possibility that all pairs of bells swap place in a row. For these rows, X is used to denote this. For example, St Clement’s College Bob Minor is
&X16X36X36,12