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

[AY1975]

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

According to the list of postcode areas on Wikipedia, this could be Ilford and Chigwell, or Ilford and Barking.

 

[AY1975]

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire has HP even though it contains no "p". I thought HP might stand for High Wycombe and Princes Risborough, but apparently it stands for Hemel Hempstead, which is in Hertfordshire (another example of a postcode area covering parts of two neighbouring counties).

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

If I am not mistaken, doesn't Richmond have some postcode areas of Surrey despite it being within Greater London?

 

[AY1975]

If I am not mistaken, doesn't Richmond have some postcode areas of Surrey despite it being within Greater London?

Richmond uses TW (Twickenham).

 

[Dent]

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire has HP even though it contains no "p". I thought HP might stand for High Wycombe and Princes Risborough, but apparently it stands for Hemel Hempstead, which is in Hertfordshire (another example of a postcode area covering parts of two neighbouring counties).

The main district in the HP postcode area is Hemel Hempsted, which contains both an H and a P.

I don't think just listing non-main districts with letters not in the name of that district really adds anything to the discussion, most postcodes satisfy this condition. Only the main district in an area has any reason to bear any relation to the letters.

 

[507021]

I think "CH" for the whole of the Wirral is a bit strange, especially as most of it is in Merseyside.

Though if I remember correctly, certain areas of the peninsula came were included in the "L" postcode area until the late 1990s.

 

[baz962]

The main district in the HP postcode area is Hemel Hempsted, which contains both an H and a P.

I don't think just listing non-main districts with letters not in the name of that district really adds anything to the discussion, most postcodes satisfy this condition. Only the main district in an area has any reason to bear any relation to the letters.

Aylesbury is hp too and in Bedford where I live in Bedfordshire we have mk post codes ,Milton Keynes, which is Buckinghamshire.

 

[gazthomas]

I wonder if this thread should be closed!

 

[Busaholic]

If I am not mistaken, doesn't Richmond have some postcode areas of Surrey despite it being within Greater London?

Virtually all places in Greater London that weren't in the old London County Council area have non-London postcodes e.g. Bromley BR1.

 

[anti-pacer]

I think "CH" for the whole of the Wirral is a bit strange, especially as most of it is in Merseyside.

Though if I remember correctly, certain areas of the peninsula came were included in the "L" postcode area until the late 1990s.

CH is Chester, and because the Wirral used to be in Cheshire and they didn't want to be associated with Liverpool, they managed to get CH postcodes. I think high levels of car insurance prices under "L" postcodes also had something to do with it.

 

[Calthrop]

D365 writes: "...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.

Topic-drifting from actual postcodes; but the abovementioned parts of the country -- especially Peterborough and environs -- underwent in the last few decades of the 20th century, a rather dizzy-making sequence of identity-and-designation-changes. Up until a little over half a century ago, Peterborough and surrounding rural areas belonged to Northamptonshire: an area of the county with some local autonomy, called the Soke of Peterborough. The Soke was then merged with Huntingdonshire, to make a county called "Huntingdon and Peterborough". In the mid-1970s widespread reorganisation of such matters, that short-lived county was done away with, and merged into Cambridgeshire. W.e.f 1998, Peterborough and -- more or less -- its one-time Soke, became the Peterborough Unitary Area -- counting "ceremonially" only, as still belonging to Cambridgeshire.

I recall an experience in 1968 (at the very beginning of the postcode era) with a post-office clerk in Oxford, from where I was trying to send an item to Peterborough, then my home town. This gentleman insisted with total conviction, that I was addressing my package wrongly; that for its Peterborough destination, the "county" part of the address should be Lincolnshire. Although -- as above -- the PE postcode covers some of Lincolnshire; Lincolnshire is one county in which Peterborough city, has never been situated ! I forget how, in the end, we resolved this business at the post office.

 

[Domh245]

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

Similarly, Mitcham (which is in the London Borough of Merton) has a Croydon Postcode. Whilst Mitcham is by no means good, it's certainly not Croydon bad!

 

[infobleep]

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.

The problem is that Royal Mail design postcodes purely for the distribution of mail but also sell the Postal Address File, Multiple Occupancy File and Not Yet Built File. Some companies buy one or all of those.

That is why some people cannot find their address when looking something up online. The company in question decides not to buy the Mutilple Occupancy File as it costs more.

Also Royal Mail hold addresses as they wish to hold them and because people see them more often that the addresses held by the councils, they think Royal Mail must be right. Not always so. The official address is also created by a local authority and not Royal Mail.

Sometimes people would like an address in PAF so people can find their business, for example maybe a stables. However if it doesn't have a letterbox then Royal Mail refuse to hold the address.

Vince Cable was a big part of the sale of Royal Mail and the privatising of it, including their address gazetteers.

Now the Government want to create an open address gazetteer and have put £25 million towards this aim. So how are they going to get hold of the postcode and make it freely available, given it's privately owned?

Not one of Vince Cable's finest hours.

 

[SteveP29]

Oban is in the PA postcode, which is based around Paisley. According to Google Maps, there's an 89.6 mile drive between the two

 

[Groningen]

Blackpool = FY
Rochester = ME
Galashiels = TD
Cleveland = TS
Southall = UB
Lerwick = ZE (it comes from Zetland) > As Norn was gradually replaced by Scots in the form of the Shetland dialect, Hjaltland became Ȝetland. The initial letter is the Middle Scots letter, "yogh", the pronunciation of which is almost identical to the original Norn sound, "/hj/". When the use of the letter yogh was discontinued, it was often replaced by the similar-looking letter z, hence Zetland, the form used in the name of the pre-1975 county council.

 

[AM9]

Blackpool = FY
Rochester = ME
Galashiels = TD
Cleveland = TS
Southall = UB
Lerwick = ZE (it comes from Zetland) > As Norn was gradually replaced by Scots in the form of the Shetland dialect, Hjaltland became Ȝetland. The initial letter is the Middle Scots letter, "yogh", the pronunciation of which is almost identical to the original Norn sound, "/hj/". When the use of the letter yogh was discontinued, it was often replaced by the similar-looking letter z, hence Zetland, the form used in the name of the pre-1975 county council.

One of the few posts that keeps to the OP's topic. Those you have listed do seem to have some local reference though:
FY - Fylde
ME - Medway
TD - Tweed
TS - Teesside
UB - Uxbridge

 

[telstarbox]

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.

Does some of this relate to a time when more post went by rail? For example the TN postcode area (Tonbridge) extends along the railway east to Ashford and south east to Wadhurst / Battle / Hastings. Similarly a lot of the BN postcode area (Brighton) is reachable by train from Brighton.

 

[507021]

CH is Chester, and because the Wirral used to be in Cheshire and they didn't want to be associated with Liverpool, they managed to get CH postcodes. I think high levels of car insurance prices under "L" postcodes also had something to do with it.

Ah right, that explains it. Thanks.

 

[xotGD]

Clearly most contributors have failed to get the point here.

Anyway, not strictly on-topic, but I would just like to note that NE is not the post code for London north-east.

 

[LAX54]

Sudbury (Suffolk) Postcode is CO (Colchester Essex)

 

[PR1Berske]

CH is Chester, and because the Wirral used to be in Cheshire and they didn't want to be associated with Liverpool, they managed to get CH postcodes. I think high levels of car insurance prices under "L" postcodes also had something to do with it.

If Southport ever loses its PR postcode, there'd be trouble!

 

[anti-pacer]

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

LL is an odd one. It's based on Llandudno but LL1, LL2 or even LL10 doesn't exist. They start at LL11, in Wrexham, and cover MOST of North Wales, save for parts of Flintshire which have CH postcodes.

Llandudno incidentally comes in at LL30, and the reason they start at LL11 and not LL1 is to apparently avoid confusion with Liverpool postcodes.