Postal counties of the United Kingdom
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.
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/
1975. 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 1975, was still postally in
Clackmannanshire.
(listed with official abbreviations, if any)
England
| Coverage notes |
|---|
| Avon | | |
| Bedfordshire | Beds | |
| Berkshire | Berks | |
| Buckinghamshire | Bucks | |
| Cambridgeshire | Cambs |
| Cheshire | | Also covered part of Greater Manchester |
| Cleveland | |
| Cornwall | |
| County Durham | |
| Cumbria | |
| Derbyshire | |
| Devon | |
| Dorset | |
| East Sussex | E Sussex | |
| Essex | | Also covered part of Greater London |
| Gloucestershire | Glos |
| Hampshire | Hants |
| Herefordshire | | Covered part of Hereford and Worcester |
| Hertfordshire | Herts | Also covered part of Greater London |
| Isle of Wight | |
| Kent | | Also covered part of Greater London |
| Lancashire | Lancs | Also covered part of Greater Manchester |
| Leicestershire | Leics |
| Lincolnshire | Lincs |
| London | | Corresponded to London post town |
| Merseyside | |
| Middlesex | Middx | Covered parts of Greater London and Surrey |
| Norfolk | |
| North Humberside | N Humberside | Covered part of Humberside |
| North Yorkshire | N Yorkshire |
| Northamptonshire | Northants |
| Northumberland | Northd |
| Nottinghamshire | Notts |
| Oxfordshire | Oxon |
| Shropshire | |
| Somerset | |
| South Humberside | S Humberside | Covered part of Humberside |
| South Yorkshire | S Yorkshire |
| Staffordshire | Staffs |
| Suffolk | |
| Surrey | | Also covered part of Greater London |
| Tyne and Wear | Tyne & Wear |
| Warwickshire | Warks |
| West Midlands | W Midlands |
| West Sussex | W Sussex |
| West Yorkshire | W Yorkshire |
| Wiltshire | Wilts |
| Worcestershire | Worcs | Covered part of Hereford and Worcester |
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
| Coverage notes |
|---|
| Clwyd | |
| Dyfed | |
| Gwent | |
| Gwynedd | |
| Mid Glamorgan | M Glam |
| South Glamorgan | S Glam |
| Powys | |
| West Glamorgan | W Glam |
Northern Ireland
| Coverage notes |
|---|
| County Antrim | Co Antrim |
| County Armagh | Co Armagh |
| County Down | Co Down |
| County Fermanagh | Co Fermanagh |
| County Londonderry | Co Londonderry |
| County Tyrone | Co Tyrone |
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.
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.
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.
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), 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) but in others the post-1974 administrative areas were retained (e.g.
Powys,
Highland). As in England, popular usage varies.
*
Post town*
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
