Gazetteer and Directory

Gazetteer of British Place Names

The Gazetteer provides an exhaustive index to the place names of Great Britain; it relates each place name to its historic county. Over 50,000 place names are included alongside their National Grid reference. The aim is to include every settlement (above isolated houses and farmsteads) which has a distinct name and identity. This includes hamlets, villages, towns and cities. Visit the Gazetteer.

The Traditional County Postal Directory

Under the Royal Mail's Flexible Addresing Policy, the correct traditional County name can now be included in any U.K. postal address. This Directory provides all the data necessary to enable this to happen.  Visit the Directory.

Which resource should I use?

The Gazetteer is the most exhaustive resource, allowing a search by town/village etc. In applications such as addressing systems, which rely on the Postal Town for searches, the Directory, which is based on Postal Towns is most useful. The ABC encourages address providers to use the Directory in their databases, and it can be downloaded from the Directory website.