Err , yes mikey, I know sort codes are important... but if I'm paying a bill to an institution or transferring money to someone they tell me what sort code and account number to use or I ask them what the sort code is.
Finding out the branch address then going on AB to ask for the sort code seems a long way round, and may well result in an incorrect sort code being used because there isn't always a one-to -one relationship between sort code and branch address.
So I'm still puzzled as to why people ask for this sort of information. Having said that I'm not sure why banks link sort codes to branches in these days of centralised processing.