How do postcodes work and why are some places nowhere near their postcode town?

8 comments

1. https://www.mapmarketing.com/pages/custom-postcode-maps-site-centred-maps-to-suit-your-business

2. Sparsely populated areas often don’t get their own postal code because why bother.

3. Post codes are for areas not towns, but with the town referenced being by initial district in that post code.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom#Formatting

   So PA1 is for paisley but the PA district covers a larger area.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_postcode_districts_in_the_United_Kingdom#PA

4. They are areas designed for maximum efficiency of postal services (collection, delivery etc) without paying attention to administrative boundaries. That’s why half of mid-Wales is in SY (Shrewsbury, England) postcode.

5. It’s a postcode not a town code.

6. We live in a Leeds ls postcode but come under Selby duristriction what can be quite annoying when it comes to filling out forms

7. That’s nothing, the entirety of Northern Ireland has a postcode that starts with BT (which I assume is from BelfasT)

8. The first part (before the space) is known as the outbound part, so that denotes which sorting office an item gets sent to once collected. The second part is known as the inbound code, which the sorting office use to sort the mail into area and street level for delivery.