The Directory is essentially a list of the Post Towns of the U.K. (Column 1) along with the traditional County of each Post Town (Column 2). Column 3 contains some commonly accepted alternative versions of certain County names.
Using the Directory it is easy to determine the correct traditional County name for any U.K. address. For example, to find the correct traditional County for the following address
Chichester Road
ARUNDEL
NB18 0QB
one simply has to look up the Post Town, "ARUNDEL", in the list of Post Towns in Column 1 and read off its traditional County, "Sussex", from Column 2. The address should then be written as:
Chichester Road
ARUNDEL
Sussex
NB18 0QB
The Directory has several further features which are best understood by a more detailed consideration of its contents (Section 2.2). Users are also recommended to read Section 2.3 for some further advice on using traditional County names in postal addresses in certain situations.
Column 1. This lists all the Post Towns of the U.K. in alphabetical order. Where two or more Post Towns have the same name, then the Post Town name is followed by the postcode area of that Post Town (e.g. "NEWPORT NP" or "NEWPORT SO"). Each postal district in the "LONDON" postal area is treated as a separate Post Town (e.g. as "LONDON SE12").
Even before the introduction of Flexible Addressing, there was no requirement for a postal county to be included for certain large Post Towns (e.g. "COVENTRY", "BRISTOL", "GLASGOW"). These Post Towns still return a blank "postal county" field in the Royal Mail's Address Finder software. We have denoted these Post Towns by placing an "(N)" after the Post Town name. See Section 2.3(ii) for some comments on how to treat these Post Towns.
Column 2. This lists, for each Post Town, the traditional County name which A.B.C. recommends should be used as the "county line" in addresses. In most cases this is the Ancient or Geographical County of that town from which the Post Town takes its name (e.g. "DIDCOT Berkshire"). There are several provisos to this:
(i) For "LONDON" postal districts, the County given is that within which the majority of the addresses in that postal district lie. In fact, most London postal districts lie entirely in one County and those which do cross a County border generally lie primarily in one County with only a small area in another County.
(ii) Post Towns on the Isle of Wight have been listed under the island name rather than that of their County, Hampshire. The Isle of Wight has always been treated as separate postal county and this is an uncontroversial and geographically sensible policy to continue. We have followed the same approach for the 3 Post Towns of STORNOWAY (Isle of Lewis), PORTREE (Isle of Skye) and BRIDGEND (Isle of Islay). The traditional Counties of these islands are listed in Column 3 (see below). Note that most Scottish islands (e.g. Isle of Jura, Isle of Cumbrae, Isle of Bute) are now used as Post Towns. For these we have listed the Ancient or Geographical County in Column 2.
(iii) The list includes reference to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the U.K. but are covered by the Royal Mail.
(iv) There are six Post Towns which lie within a "detached part" (i.e. a part of one County entirely separated from that County's main body). Such places can be described as being either in their parent County or within that County within which they are locally situated. For five of them ("AVIEMORE", "CARRBRIDGE", "BOAT OF GARTEN", "GRANTOWN-ON-SPEY", "SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR") we have listed the latter County in Column 2 since this is the County with which they are commonly associated (and which, historically, formed their postal county). However, for "DUDLEY" we have listed its parent County (Worcestershire) since this is the County with which it is most commonly associated (and which formed its postal county prior to 1974).
(v) Two Post Towns ("CROMARTY" and "ULLAPOOL") actually lie in the County of Cromartyshire. Cromartyshire is a curious County which consists of several pieces scattered about within Ross-shire. Because of this the two Counties are often regarded as one geographical unit. The postal county of "Ross-shire" has long since formed the postal county for this whole area (including the two Cromartyshire Post Towns) and this seems not unreasonble. However, "Cromartyshire" is included as an "acceptable alternative" traditional County name in Column 3.
Column 3. This provides what A.B.C. considers to be acceptable alternative County names for certain Post Towns. Some residents of these places may prefer to use the County listed in this column in their addresses. They fall into several categories, each of which is denoted by a superscript as listed below:
[1] For those Post Towns for which an island name is listed in Column 2 (e.g. "Isle of Wight"), Column 3 lists the correct Ancient or Geographical County, e.g. "STORNOWAY Isle of Lewis Ross-shire[1]"
[2] For those Post Towns which lie within a detached part, Column 3 lists the parent County, e.g. "GRANTOWN-ON-SPEY Morayshire Inverness-shire[2]"
[3] For "Yorkshire" addresses, Column 3 provides an alternative name which incorporates the Riding name of the particular Post Town. Prior to 1974, the whole of the County of Yorkshire was covered by a single "Yorkshire" postal county and the riding names were not commonly used in postal addresses. This data is provided for those who wish to include the Riding name as well, e.g. "BEVERLEY Yorkshire East Riding of Yorkshire[3]"
[4] For the 13 Welsh Counties (i.e. including Monmouthshire), Column 3 lists the Welsh version of the County name. The spellings of these are those recommended by The Language and Literature Committee of the Board of Celtic Studies of the University of Wales in their "Gazetteer of Welsh Place-Names".e.g., "ABERDARE Glamorgan Morgannwg[4]"
[5] For the two Cromartyshire Post Towns which are listed as "Ross-shire" in Column 2 (see above), Column 3 simply lists Cromartyshire, e.g. "ULLAPOOL Ross-shire Cromartyshire[5]"
[6] The Counties of West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Dunbartonshire and Angus are also commonly known as Linlithgowshire, Edinburghshire, Haddingtonshire, Dumbartonshire and Forfarshire respectively. These alternative names are listed in Column 3, e.g. "LONGNIDDRY East Lothian Haddingtonshire[6]"
The convention within postal addressing has always been that the County name included in a postal address is that of the Post Town. This can mean that the County name which appears in the address is different from that in which the address itself is actually located. Consider the village of Uplyme in Devon. This lies within the Post Town of "LYME REGIS". The town of Lyme Regis lies in Dorset and "Dorset" is the "postal county" for the whole of the Post Town area. Using this Directory would produce the following example Uplyme address:
Cathole Lane
Uplyme
LYME REGIS
Dorset
DT7 3SJ
This address makes sense in that the mail will firstly go to the sorting office in Lyme Regis which lies in the County of Dorset. From there it will then be delivered to Uplyme.
However, in reality many people will not include in their address the name of a town or a County where they don't actually live. For example, the proud Devonian of Uplyme may write his address as:
Cathole Lane
Uplyme
Devon
DY7 3SJ
Such a form of addressing has much to recommend it. This postal address provides a geographically accurate description of where the property is located, whilst at the same time including the postcode to facilitate efficient mail delivery.
However, it should be noted that the Royal Mail still requires the inclusion of the Post Town name in every U.K. Address. Those who omit it from their address risk a delay in delivery. The Post Town name itself does not provide any mail sorting information not also contained in the postcode. Nonetheless, it is still used by Royal Mail, firstly to provide a partial check that the postcode is correct and, secondly, to aid manual sorting in cases where the postcode is missing and/or incorrect.
In cases like the Uplyme example quoted above, a possible approach for those who wish to include their actual County name in their address would be to include it between their village/town name and before that of the Post Town. The above example would then read:
Cathole Lane
Uplyme
Devon
LYME REGIS
DY7 3SJ
This approach looks unconventional but it does make logical sense in that the mail will first go to the sorting office in the Post Town of LYME REGIS and, from there, will go on to the village of Uplyme in the County of Devon.
Meanwhile, it can be hoped that future developments in postal delivery practice or technology will enable Royal Mail to end the requirement for a Post Town name. If this could happen then all addresses could consist of the village or town name followed by the County name (not necessary for well-known large towns) and finally the postcode. All addresses could then make good geographical sense as well as providing the information necessary for the efficient delivery of mail.
(ii) Post Towns for which the "postal county" was not part of the recommended postal address
In the Directory, we have included an "(N)" after those Post Towns for which even before the introduction of Postcode Defined Circulation there was no requirement for a postal county to be included. It might be felt that this convention should be maintained in that Post Towns such as "BIRMINGHAM", "BRISTOL", "MANCHESTER" etc. do not need a County name to make it clear where they are. However, traditional County names can be used in all these cases if desired.
County names have never been a part of recommended postal addresses within the "LONDON" postal area. In fact, the "LONDON" postal area presents something of a challenge to those who seek to use County names within it. Firstly, it covers large parts of 4 Counties. Secondly, the Royal Mail no longer uses any form of locality data for addresses within it. This may satisfy Royal Mail's delivery needs but it doesn't give the casual reader much idea where an address is actually located. For example,
Highbury Road
LONDON
SW19 7PR
is not terribly helpful unless one has an extraordinary understanding of postcode geography. Simply adding the County name:
Highbury Road
LONDON
Surrey
SW19 7PR
not only looks odd but doesn't help much in pinpointing the location.
Fortunately, most residents and businesses do (sensibly) still include a locality name in their "LONDON" address. A County name could more easily be included in such an address. It might, however, be thought more logical to include the County name between the locality name and "LONDON", e.g.:
Highbury Road
Wimbledon
Surrey
LONDON
SW19 7PR
This is the same idea as applied to the Uplyme address discussed in Section 2.3(i) above.
As mentioned in Section 2.2, it has long been the convention that for some islands (e.g. the Isle of Wight) the island name itself forms the "postal county" rather than that of the Ancient or Geographical County to which that island belongs. This seems quite reasonable and we have included such island names in Column 2 of the Directory. However, in such cases we have included the relevant County name in Column 3.
Most Scottish islands now form Post Towns. In these cases, we have listed the County in Column 2.
It is, of course, possible to use both island name and County name in an address and many people may wish to do this, e.g.:
Macaulay Road
BPA Contents |
BPA Section 1 |
BPA Section 2 |
BPA Section 3 |
BPA Appendix |
ABC's Home Page
(iv) using County names in island addresses
STORNOWAY
Isle of Lewis
Ross-shire
HS1 2AF
Website designed and maintained by the
Association of British Counties
Last updated 1st July 2007
Email us at mailman@abcounties.co.uk