Postal addresses: a little history and a lot of photos

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CO

Alongside CM, the postcode area CO is centred on Colchester and covers northeastern Essex along with a small area north of the border in Suffolk. A significant part of the post towns SUDBURY and BURES includes villages in Essex.

(A little aside: The Royal Mail uses the unhyphenated 'Walton on the Naze' rather than its official name 'Walton-on-the-Naze' as a consequence of its Mailsort scheme, a little-known and now defunct system of separate codes which looked at the first ten characters of the post town name. Thus WALTON ON THE NAZE was distinguishable from WALTON-ON-THAMES by virtue of the absent hyphens.)

CO1-7 – postal address COLCHESTER



CO8 – postal address BURES, Suffolk
CO9 – postal address HALSTEAD, Essex
CO10 – postal address SUDBURY, Suffolk (separated from parts of COLCHESTER, CO6, and HALSTEAD, CO9 – both Essex – in August 1992)
CO11 – postal address MANNINGTREE, Essex
CO12 – postal address HARWICH, Essex


CO13 – postal address FRINTON-ON-SEA, Essex
CO14 – postal address WALTON ON THE NAZE, Essex
CO15-16 – postal address CLACTON-ON-SEA, Essex

CR

CR concerns itself with the Croydon area of south London. The addresses within Greater London but outside the London postcode areas still allude to their historical counties, so Surrey is still the correct county name. CR is unusual in featuring the zero code CR0, despite not having a CR1: this is a throwback from early postcode trials, where the zero was originally the letter O in CROydon.

CR0 – postal address CROYDON
CR2 – postal address SOUTH CROYDON, Surrey
CR3 (part) – postal address CATERHAM, Surrey
CR3 (part) – postal address WHYTELEAFE, Surrey
CR4 – postal address MITCHAM, Surrey


CR5 – postal address COULSDON, Surrey
CR6 – postal address WARLINGHAM, Surrey
CR7 – postal address THORNTON HEATH, Surrey
CR8 (part) – postal address KENLEY, Surrey
CR8 (part) – postal address PURLEY, Surrey


There is also the non-geographic postcode area CR9 (post town CROYDON) reserved for a specific large user.

CT

The letters CT come from the name Canterbury and the area covers eastern Kent. Numbers start in the city and spiral clockwise, around the Kent coast from Whitstable to Hythe.

CT1-4 – postal address CANTERBURY, Kent


CT5 – postal address WHITSTABLE, Kent
CT6 – postal address HERNE BAY, Kent
CT7 – postal address BIRCHINGTON, Kent
CT8 – postal address WESTGATE-ON-SEA, Kent


CT9 – postal address MARGATE, Kent
CT10 – postal address BROADSTAIRS, Kent
CT11-12 – postal address RAMSGATE, Kent


CT13 – postal address SANDWICH, Kent
CT14 – postal address DEAL, Kent
CT15-17 – postal address DOVER, Kent


CT18-20 – postal address FOLKESTONE, Kent
CT21 – postal address HYTHE, Kent


There is also the non-geographic postcode area CT50 (post town FOLKESTONE) reserved for a specific large user.

CV

CV is for Coventry, and this area covers not only the city but the surrounding parts of Warwickshire.

CV1-7 and 8 (part) – postal address COVENTRY
CV8 (part) – postal address KENILWORTH, Warks.



CV9 – postal address ATHERSTONE, Warks.
CV10-11 – postal address NUNEATON, Warks.
CV12 – postal address BEDWORTH, Warks. (separated from NUNEATON in July 1997)
CV13 – postal address NUNEATON, Warks.


CV21-23 – postal address RUGBY, Warks.
CV31-33 – postal address LEAMINGTON SPA, Warks.



CV34-35 – postal address WARWICK
CV36 – postal address SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR, Warks.
CV37 – postal address STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, Warks.
CV47 – postal address SOUTHAM, Warks. separated from parts of LEAMINGTON SPA and RUGBY in June 1999)

CW

The CW area is based on Crewe, and covers the southern part of Cheshire. The CREWE post town area is in two separate parts, the district CW4 not adjoining CW1-3.

CW1-4 – postal address CREWE
CW5 – postal address NANTWICH, Cheshire


CW6 – postal address TARPORLEY, Cheshire
CW7 – postal address WINSFORD, Cheshire
CW8-9 – postal address NORTHWICH, Cheshire


CW10 – postal address MIDDLEWICH, Cheshire
CW11 – postal address SANDBACH, Cheshire
CW12 – postal address CONGLETON, Cheshire


There is also the non-geographic postcode area CW98 (post town CREWE) reserved for a specific large user.

DA

The DA postcode area is based on Dartford and comprises the London suburbs on the south side of the Thames, east as far as Gravesend. The post town ERITH, comprising DA8 and DA18, is unusual in that these two districts do not adjoin – BELVEDERE is between them.

The addresses within Greater London but outside the London postcode areas still allude to their historical counties, so Kent is still the correct county name.

DA1-2 – postal address DARTFORD
DA3 – postal address LONGFIELD, Kent
DA4 – postal address DARTFORD (again)
DA5 – postal address BEXLEY, Kent


DA6-7 – postal address BEXLEYHEATH, Kent
DA8 – postal address ERITH, Kent
DA9 – postal address GREENHITHE, Kent
DA10 – postal address SWANSCOMBE, Kent


DA11-13 – postal address GRAVESEND, Kent
DA14-15 – postal address SIDCUP, Kent


DA16 – postal address WELLING, Kent
DA17 – postal address BELVEDERE, Kent
DA18 – postal address ERITH, Kent (again)

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