TRIVIA: Postcodes containing letters that are not in the area in question

[AY1975]

Following on from the thread on address formation at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/address-formation.158413, can you think of any UK postcodes where the letter code for the area in question contains letters that are not in the name of that town, city or area?

 

[Dai Corner]

ZE is Shetland, which apparently is the traditional name for the islands and also the name of the Council until 1975. So it meets the criteria now but didn't when it was created.

 

[djpontrack]

I always thought that SP was a bit strange for Salisbury.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There are some that have explaniations but do not follow the name of the main individual settlement it serves; for example, FY for Blackpool (Fylde) and DG for Dumfries (Dumfries & Galloway). SP I would hazard a guess derived from Salisbury Plain.

 

[Dai Corner]

SP would be Salisbury Plain, I agree.

The P was probably chosen to avoid clashes / confusion with SA (Swansea), S1 (Sheffield), SS (Southend), S8, SW (London) etc

 

[AM9]

IG for Ilford. Apparently, the letters were chosen in preference to 'IL' to avoid confusion with 11 or LL.

 

[gazthomas]

LL covers the whole of North Wales so take your pick! Bangor, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay!

 

[A Challenge]

BX, QC, and XX!

In all seriousness, SM (Sutton) and each of the London districts (maybe).

 

[Bevan Price]

St. Helens, Widnes & Runcorn all have a WA (Warrington) post code.
Rainhill (within St. Helens borough) has a L (Liverpool) post code, even though it has never been part of Liverpool - and I understand that some residents dislike the L post code, because they think it incrases insurance costs.
Birkenhead has a CH (Chester) post code.

 

[Busaholic]

St. Helens, Widnes & Runcorn all have a WA (Warrington) post code.
Rainhill (within St. Helens borough) has a L (Liverpool) post code, even though it has never been part of Liverpool - and I understand that some residents dislike the L post code, because they think it incrases insurance costs.
Birkenhead has a CH (Chester) post code.

And much of East Cornwall has the PL (Plymouth i.e. Devon) postcode which is just loved by the Cornish nationalists

 

[TheNewNo2]

Pretty much everything in London. I mean it's all SW, SE, E, N, etc.

 

[TrainloadCoal]

Is the Scottish border region still TD?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Epsom comes under Kingston, KT. Not all that far away geographically, though, so it's borderline if it qualifies!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Aberystwyth does contain the S and Y of the postcode area, though as they refer to ShrewsburY it is perhaps a source of discontent to locals or anyone with a geographic OCD!

 

[Calthrop]

In all seriousness, SM (Sutton)...

I've always interpreted that -- perhaps wrongly -- as Sutton and Morden.

 

[D365]

Does this include areas like Huntingdon, which is very much in Cambridgeshire but has a PE postcode.

 

[Wirewiper]

Does this include areas like Huntingdon, which is very much in Cambridgeshire but has a PE postcode.

Bit ironic - Peterborough was part of Cambridgeshire before it became a Unitary Authority. Huntingdonshire meanwhile was once a separate County in its own right!

The PE postcode also extends into southern parts of Lincolnshire.

 

[AM9]

St. Helens, Widnes & Runcorn all have a WA (Warrington) post code.
Rainhill (within St. Helens borough) has a L (Liverpool) post code, even though it has never been part of Liverpool - and I understand that some residents dislike the L post code, because they think it incrases insurance costs.
Birkenhead has a CH (Chester) post code.

The OP said: "can you think of any UK postcodes where the letter code for the area in question contains letters that are not in the name of that town, city or area?"
I think that means the post town to which it refers, i.e. WA is perfectly logical for Warrington. If you want to include the names of every town, village or hamlet that the postcode embraces then every postcode in the country would qualify making this a pretty pointless thread.

 

[Wirewiper]

The OP said: "can you think of any UK postcodes where the letter code for the area in question contains letters that are not in the name of that town, city or area?"
I think that means the post town to which it refers, i.e. WA is perfectly logical for Warrington. If you want to include the names of every town, village or hamlet that the postcode embraces then every postcode in the country would qualify making this a pretty pointless thread.

In which case there wouldn't be many at all, as most postcodes are based on (in some cases, arguably) the main town or city within that postcode area, with that location having the lowest-numbered postcodes (e.g. TQ1 and TQ2 cover Torquay and higher numbers cover places further afield, such as TQ3/4 Paignton, TQ6 Totnes and TQ14 Teignmouth). This doesn't always follow though, as Uxbridge is UB8 and UB1 is allocated to Southall.

 

[thejuggler]

There are plenty as postcodes don’t follow Local Authority areas.

BD postcode covers areas which aren’t even in the same County as Bradford, never mind the same District! BD23 is Skipton and Settle.

BD19 and BD11 are both in neighbouring Authorities. LS29 Ilkley is in Bradford district.

All of Rotherham, Barnsley Chesterfield and Worskop have Sheffield Postcodes.

 

[Wirewiper]

There are plenty as postcodes don’t follow Local Authority areas.

BD postcode covers areas which aren’t even in the same County as Bradford, never mind the same District! BD23 is Skipton and Settle.

BD19 and BD11 are both in neighbouring Authorities. LS29 Ilkley is in Bradford district.

All of Rotherham, Barnsley Chesterfield and Worskop have Sheffield Postcodes.

Postcode areas are not intended to correspond with Administrative areas, and never have been. Postcodes were created solely for the benefit of the Post Office's (now Royal Mail) distribution systems.

When the County of London was expanded into Greater London in 1965, the Post Office was asked to bring the new areas of outer London into the London postcode system. The Post Office refused because the cost of doing so would have been colossal.

 

[AM9]

Far too much attention is paid to postcodes when in fact they are merely there for the organisation of mail deliveries. Other organisations that have adopted them as defining other aspects of life have just created an obsession of postcode snobbery, just like telephone codes, (remember the Beattie Bellmasn jibes when London was split into 071 (inner) and 081 (outer) areas?).
Misapplication of postcodes is rife in insurance (see the reference to L postcodes above) where assumptions have carried on as snobbery by the residents themselves. In some respects, a purely numerical system, like the US zip code could remove some of the more devisive aspects of postcodes, especially if it was randomly allocated.

 

[richw]

And much of East Cornwall has the PL (Plymouth i.e. Devon) postcode which is just loved by the Cornish nationalists

And yet a few miles east of Plymouth they have TQ postcodes. My job (grocery delivery) based out of Plymouth we go down to Fowey (40+ miles) and up North west of launceston, yet we we don’t go very far to the east. Strangely we cover out on dartMoor to Hexworthy near ashburton as that has a Yelverton postcode PL19 or PL20 I can’t remember, but don’t do ashburton, South Brent as they’re TQ, despite driving through them on the way.

 

[Keith Jarrett]

IG for Ilford. Apparently, the letters were chosen in preference to 'IL' to avoid confusion with 11 or LL.

Variously quoted as being Ilford and BarkinG or Ilford and Gants Hill

LL covers the whole of North Wales so take your pick! Bangor, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay!

LL - Llandudno

I've always interpreted that -- perhaps wrongly -- as Sutton and Morden.

Correct although some folk think its Sutton and Merton but parts of Merton borough have SW and KT postcodes!

 

[Jonny]

The SR8 postcode area (Easington, Horden, Peterlee) is entirely within County Durham. In spite of SR correlating to Sunderland...

I'm not sure about the SR7 but that at least abuts Sunderland Council area. It's highly doubtful that any SR7 addresses are in Sunderland.


Meanwhile, there are 17 geographic postcodes in the Darlington (DL) area of which only the first three (DL1, DL2, DL3) have any of their area in Darlington borough (DL1 and DL3 are entirely within Darlington). Settlements such as Northallerton, Bishop Auckland, Spenymoor, Ferryhill and all of the settlements in Weardale proper are in the DL postcode area (as is Wensleydale, North Yorkshire for that matter!)

 

[Macwomble]

Is the Scottish border region still TD?

Indeed it does.....stands for (River) Tweed.

 

[Wirewiper]

Indeed it does.....stands for (River) Tweed.

Another river-based postcode is TS - Tees or Teesside.

Some other area-based postcodes:

DG - Dumfries & Galloway
HS - (Outer) Hebrides
FY - Fylde
ME - Medway (as opposed to Maidstone - ME1 is Rochester)
SP - Salisbury Plain
ZE - Zetland (archaic spelling of Shetland)

KW is an oddity; although the postcode area is named Kirkwall after the town on the Orkney Islands, the Post Town is actually Wick, on the mainland, which has the postcode KW1 - indeed most of the KW postcodes cover Caithness and Sutherland with only KW15-17 allocated to the Orkney Islands. Some people assume that the KW postcode for Wick must be a mistake and invent WK postcodes, which of course don't exist!

CR0 was originally designated CRO (i.e. letter O instead of number 0) as it was issued experimentally in the 1960s. It was recoded in 1974.

Glasgow was given compass-point postcodes similar to London in 1923: C, W, NW, N, E, S, SW, SE. These were changed in the 1970s, with C1-C5 becoming G1-G5, W1-W5 becoming G11-G15, NW becoming G20, N1-N3 becoming G21-G23, E1-E4 becoming G31-G34, SE becoming G40, S1-S6 becoming G41-G46, SW1-SW3 becoming G51-G53.

 

[cactustwirly]

Basingstoke has a Reading postcode, which isn't even in the same county!

 

[Wirewiper]

Basingstoke has a Reading postcode, which isn't even in the same county!

That's hardly unusual; many towns are in postcode areas based on towns in a different county. As I said before, postcode areas were created purely for the convenience of the Post Office's delivery systems, and do not correspond with administrative areas, political boundaries, or Counties - whether, administrative, ceremonial, historical or just plain abolished. Indeed some postcode areas straddle the boundaries between England and Wales (NP, HR, SY, CH) , and England and Scotland (TD9, TD12, TD15, DG16).

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Basingstoke has a Reading postcode, which isn't even in the same county!

Likewise Aberystwyth has a Shrewsbury postcode but isn't in the same country!