Talk:List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom

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[edit] Postal counties

There's lots of mention of counties in this article, but I believe that county's aren't actually part of offical addresses any more: check any address on http://pol.royalmail.com/dda/txt/af.asp

Anyone want to correct me? ~ Scurra 17:16, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Since about 2000 the Royal Mail has not required a county in an address, and have removed their 'postal counties' from the Postcode Address File. They now have traditional counties and administrative counties for each postcode in a separate database. However, some resellers of PAF data re-bundle the old postal counties in to their products which is what perpetuates their usage. In fact, if you do a search for a postcode on the Royal Mail's own site you can see they even appear there - contrary to their own guidelines! http://pol.royalmail.com/dda/txt/pf.asp Owain 19:10, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] KA

I can't substantiate this, but I believe KA, which covers the former county of Ayrshire and parts of Bute, actually stands for Kilmarnock and Ayr, as opposed to simply Kilmarnock. If it were only Kilmarnock, then the unused KK would make more sense (that being the local abbreviation for the town).

[edit] Fictional postcodes

AM - Ambridge, Borsetshire, (The Archers)

I doubt this has ever been used, even in fiction. "Ambridge" is a small village -- would not have its own postcode. I propose deletion of this fun, but doubly mythical "fact". -- Picapica 20:06, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] IG Ilford and Barking ??

IG is listed here as <<Ilford and Gants Hill>>.. Can anyone confirm that IG actually stands for I lford and barkin G ??IsarSteve 16:04, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

This has come up before somewhere. It stands for Ilford, the location of the sorting office. But for some reason to do with characters getting mixed up with others, G was chosen instead of any of the other characters from "Ilford". Mrsteviec 16:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
I thought maybe the reason for not using IF was the reluctance to use codes that were two letter words:- at, by, he, if, is, on, etc; etc; but after checking the list again I came across SO ... so there goes that theory.......IsarSteve 12:45, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] One and two letter postal areas

Can anyone explain why most postal areas are designated two letters, such as BA Bath, BS Bristol, but a few only have one letter such as B Birmingham and E East (London)? Such irregularity would seem highly undesireable in a postcode, most of which internationally are a fixed number of characters so that mistakes are easier to spot.

Historically, London was split into geographical areas N (North), S (South), E (East), W (West), NW (North West), NE (North East), SW (South West), and SE (South East) North East was merged with East, South was split. It would also be desirable to have a standard length for the digits - hence East London E6 2MA could become EL06 2MA - but the present system works OK. Australian postal abbreviations aren't a standard length either - NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT, TAS, WA, SA, NT Quiensabe 19:02, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Turks and Caicos?

I don't think the Turks and Caicos has a UK post code - I've done a search on the post code TKCA 1ZZ and all the entries are either from Wikipedia or information taken from it- [1] Quiensabe 18:49, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] KW postcode

In nearly everything I see, including here, KW is listed as Orkney (Kirkwall) but only about 2 or 3 of the KW postcodes are on Orkney, the rest are on the mainland of Scotland and cover Caithness and Sutherland. KW1 and KW2 are in Wick one of the two main towns in Caithness. Can anyone confirm that KW is taken from Kirkwall or more likely a reversal of the letters in Wick

According to the Royal Mail the KW postal area is called Kirkwall. Mrsteviec 08:36, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Derivations

I think we ought to have the derivations of the Fylde and Medway postcodes, at least. They do seem a bit random otherwise - and probably also Galashiels and Lerwick. Morwen - Talk 09:04, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking of maybe turning it into a table with a column for broad coverage and another for notes/derivation as these tend to get edited in/replace the names. Mrsteviec 09:08, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

It would seem to me far more likely that SM is formed just from "Sutton and Morden". Morwen - Talk 11:17, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Most definitely. I would hesitate at adding that to the article as there is no evidence to support it. SM and IG seem to have been victims of a lack of suitable characters for Sutton and Ilford. MRSC • Talk 16:47, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Postal area > Postcode area

Royal Mail literature refers to these as 'postcode area' rather than postal areas. [2] The National Statistics page on postal geography also confirms this. [3] I can't find any usage of 'postal area' other than Wikipedia and its mirrors. Unless anyone objects, I will rename the various articles. MRSC • Talk 12:13, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

No comments in the last week. I will update. MRSC • Talk 15:20, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Priority sub articles

A note of some sub-articles which need attention. MRSC • Talk 17:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Letter articles

I added B postcode area to B (the article about the letter 'B'. Does anyone have the time, or a bot, to add all the one- and two- letter postcode area articles to the respective letter articles? Andy Mabbett 23:34, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Father Christmas

Isn't there a special code - advertised by Royal Mail - for letters to Father Christmas? Something like SAN TA1? Andy Mabbett 23:36, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Found it on UK postcodes and added it to article. Andy Mabbett 23:40, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
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