Postal counties of the United Kingdom
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The postal counties of the United Kingdom, now known officially as the former postal counties, were subdivisions of the UK in routine use by the Royal Mail until 1996. The raison d'etre of the postal county (as opposed to any other kind of county) was to aid the sorting of mail by enabling differentiation between like-sounding post towns. Since 1996 this has been done by using the outward code (first half) of a postcode instead.
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Boundaries
In many places the postal counties did not match the counties of the United Kingdom. There were several reasons for this:
Places part of a post town in another county
Firstly, many of the approximately 1,500 post towns straddled county boundaries and the Royal Mail-assigned addresses of all places in such areas included the postal county of the post town regardless of their actual location, for example Denham which is in Buckinghamshire was part of the postal county of Middlesex as it was covered by a sorting office in Uxbridge.
London
Secondly, the London postal district, created in 1858, did not conform to any county boundaries and did not change to match either the County of London in 1888 (which was somewhat smaller) or Greater London in 1965 (which was much bigger); thus leaving parts of Greater London in the postal counties of Surrey, Kent, Essex, Middlesex and Hertfordshire.
Changes in 1965 and 1974
Thirdly, the Royal Mail adopted some, but not all, of the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974. Postal counties in some places remained coterminous with the traditional county while in other places they changed to match reforms of the administrative county.
In non-metropolitan areas of England, the postal counties broadly followed the changes of 1974 but there were differences such as Hereford and Worcester which was not used as a postal county because of the risk of confusion with the respective post towns.
The 1974 changes were also followed with regard to most metropolitan areas, so Sunderland was referred to by the Royal Mail as 'Sunderland, Tyne and Wear' not 'Sunderland, County Durham'. Greater Manchester however, was not adopted as a postal county. Humberside was, but the two parts of Humberside, being on opposite sides of the estuary of the River Humber, were counted as 'North Humberside' and 'South Humberside' respectively.
In Wales, the 1974 changes were adopted by the Post Office, so that Rhuddlan was no longer postally in Denbighshire, but in Clwyd. In Scotland, however, the postal counties were not changed. Thus Alva, despite being in the Central Region after 1974, was still postally in Clackmannanshire.
1974-1996 postal counties
(listed with official abbreviations, if any)
England
Avon Bedfordshire Beds Berkshire Berks Buckinghamshire Bucks Cambridgeshire Cambs Cheshire Cleveland Cornwall County Durham Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset East Sussex E Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Glos Hampshire Hants Herefordshire Hertfordshire Herts Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Lancs Leicestershire Leics Lincolnshire Lincs London Merseyside Middlesex Middx Norfolk North Humberside N Humberside North Yorkshire N Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northants Northumberland Northd Nottinghamshire Notts Oxfordshire Oxon Shropshire Somerset South Humberside S Humberside South Yorkshire S Yorkshire Staffordshire Staffs Suffolk Surrey Tyne and Wear Tyne & Wear Warwickshire Warks West Midlands W Midlands West Sussex W Sussex West Yorkshire W Yorkshire Wiltshire Wilts Worcestershire Worcs
Scotland
Aberdeenshire Angus Argyll Ayrshire Banffshire Berwickshire Caithness Clackmannanshire Dumfriesshire Dunbartonshire East Lothian Fife Inverness-shire Isle of Arran Isle of Barra Isle of Benbecula Isle of Bute Isle of Canna Isle of Coll Isle of Colonsay Isle of Cumbrae Isle of Eigg Isle of Gigha Isle of Harris Isle of Islay Isle of Iona Isle of Jura Isle of Lewis Isle of Mull Isle of North Uist Isle of Rum Isle of Scalpay Isle of Skye Isle of South Uist Isle of Tiree Kincardineshire Kinross-shire Kirkcudbrightshire Lanarkshire Mid Lothian Morayshire Nairnshire Peeblesshire Perthshire Renfrewshire Ross-shire Roxburghshire Selkirkshire Stirlingshire Sutherland West Lothian Wigtownshire
Wales
Clwyd Dyfed Gwent Gwynedd Mid Glamorgan M Glam South Glamorgan S Glam Powys West Glamorgan W Glam
Northern Ireland
County Antrim Co Antrim County Armagh Co Armagh County Down Co Down County Durham Co Durham County Fermanagh Co Fermanagh County Tyrone Co Tyrone
Usage
The postal county was omitted for 110 of the larger towns and cities and places where the county name was derived from the post town. These post towns were:
ABERDEEN ABOYNE ANTRIM ARMAGH AYR BANFF BATH BEDFORD BELFAST BERWICK-UPON-TWEED BIRMINGHAM BLACKBURN BLACKPOOL BOLTON BOURNEMOUTH BRIGHTON BRISTOL BROMLEY BUCKINGHAM BUSHEY CAMBRIDGE CARDIFF CARLISLE CHELMSFORD CHESTER CLACKMANNAN COLCHESTER COVENTRY CREWE CROYDON DARTFORD DERBY DUMBARTON DUMFRIES DUNDEE DURHAM EDINBURGH ELLESMERE PORT EXETER FALKIRK GLASGOW GLOUCESTER GUERNSEY HEREFORD HERTFORD HOUNSLOW HUDDERSFIELD HULL INVERNESS IPSWICH ISLE OF MAN ISLES OF SCILLY JERSEY KINROSS KIRKCUDBRIGHT LANARK LANCASTER LEEDS LEICESTER LINCOLN LIVERPOOL LONDON LONDONDERRY LUTON MANCHESTER MILTON KEYNES NAIRN NESTON NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE NORTHAMPTON NORWICH NOTTINGHAM OLDHAM ORKNEY OXFORD PEEBLES PERTH PETERBOROUGH PLYMOUTH PORTSMOUTH PRESTON READING REDHILL RENFREW ROMFORD SALFORD SALISBURY SELKIRK SHEFFIELD SHETLAND SHREWSBURY SLOUGH SOUTHAMPTON SOUTHEND-ON-SEA STAFFORD STIRLING STOKE-ON-TRENT STRATHDON SUNDERLAND SWANSEA SWINDON TORQUAY TWICKENHAM WALSALL WARRINGTON WARWICK WATFORD WOLVERHAMPTON WORCESTER YORK
Elsewhere popular usage did not always follow the postal counties as prescribed by Royal Mail. In those places where the postal county differed from the traditional or administrative county, popular usage varied either because of ignorance or defiance.
Modernisation
The Royal Mail has ceased to use the postal counties as a means of sorting mail following the modernisation of their optical character recognition equipment in 1996. Instead the outward code (first half) of the post code is used to differentiate between like-sounding post towns. The former postal county (as they are now known) for each post town as it was in 1996 is still held on record by the Royal Mail but where new post towns are created they will not be assigned to a former postal county.
Flexible addressing policy
Under the Royal Mail's 'flexible addressing policy' a county no longer forms part of a correct postal address. If they prefer users can add traditional (e.g. Huntingdonshire), former postal (e.g. Avon) or administrative (e.g. West Berkshire) counties to their addresses.
A supplement to the Postcode Address File (which is the definitive source of correct postal addresses), the Alias File, identifies local, colloquial and 'postally-not-required' details in addresses such as these that have been added by individuals and organisations. Some forms continue to include a section for a county and this is sometimes compulsory.
After modernisation
In 1996 some non-metropolitan counties such as Avon and Humberside were abolished. Where a county is given, popular usage now divides these places between the former postal county (which remains unchanged on many databases), the traditional county and the name of the replacement unitary authorities.
In both Scotland and Wales local government was also reorganised 1996, such that in some places administrative counties reverted to traditional counties once more (e.g. Pembrokeshire, Angus) but in others the post-1974 administrative areas were retained (e.g. Powys, Highland). As in England, popular usage varies.
See also
External links
- Information from Royal Mail about PAF and Alias data
- BBC News Article about residents of a village unhappy with their former postal county
- Some details of postal counties including Scotland