Postcodes

[milly143]

In most places, the first 2 letters of a postcode match the area, for example Milton Keynes in MK, Slough is SL. Why then is Buckinghamshire HP?

[dzug]

I think it's from Hemel Hempstead.

HP1 1AA is the Royal Mail office in Hemel

[Jansy]

Has it something to do with Hemel Hempstead being Buckinghamshire's administrative town perhaps?

[sherrardk]

I think it is because Hemel Hempstead has the nearest automated sorting office. Also, Bedford's postcode is MK47 which is Milton Keynes!

[Quizmonkey]

Postcodes do not respect county borders at all - in fact counties pay no role in addressing in the UK. As said above, it's all to do with proximity of sorting offices.

[charliebaps]

I lived in Buckingham and the postcode was MK. Aylesbury being the admin centre of the county

[sense4all]

I live in Bucks but have SL as my postcode.

[littleoldme]

Hemel Hempstead is unlikely to be Buckinghamshire's administrative town, seeing as it's in Hertfordshire! It is, as Quizmonkey says, based on where your nearest sorting office is, irrespective of county boundaries. I live in West Sussex, and as far as I know, there are no postcodes anywhere in the county that refer to towns actually in West Sussex.

For example, my postcode starts with PO, for Portsmouth (Hampshire). Other West Sussex postcodes begin with BN for Brighton (East Sussex), GU for Guildford (Surrey) and RH for Redhill (also Surrey).

[waimarie]

Grimsby has a DN postcode. As DN is for Doncaster,which is in one of the Yorkshires, and a good hours motorway drive away, makes you realise it's all part of a John Prescott plot for his plans to become king of the north east.