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The postal counties of the United Kingdom, now known as former postal counties, [1] were postal subdivisions in routine use by the Royal Mail until 1996. [2] The purpose of the postal county – as opposed to any other kind of county – was to aid the sorting of mail by differentiating between similar post towns.
Until 1996, Royal Mail required counties to be included in addresses, except for 110 of the larger post towns. For these "special post towns", the former postal county is shown in brackets below. Since 1996, counties are not required for any address. Postcode district codes are also known as "outward codes".
The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally intended as a mnemonic for the places served. [1] Postcode areas, post towns and postcode districts do not follow political or local authority administrative boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the place names with which they are associated.
The Louth-London Royal Mail, by Charles Cooper Henderson, 1820 Edinburgh and London Royal Mail, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse Lower Edmonton Royal Mail sorting office, in London. The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts", [8] a position that was renamed "Postmaster General" in 1710. [9]
The mail bags of letter bundles are sent by road, air or train, and eventually by road to the delivery office. [69] At the delivery office the mail that is handled manually is inward sorted to the postal walk that will deliver it; it is then "set in", i.e. sorted into the walk order that allows the deliverer the most convenient progress in the ...
For the purposes of directing mail, the United Kingdom (although the populations listed just show figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland), is divided by Royal Mail into postcode areas. The postcode area is the largest geographical unit used and forms the initial characters of the alphanumeric UK postcode . [ 1 ]
After the opening up of the industry, competitors such as Whistl and UK Mail found their place offering business postal solutions. These companies, despite being competitors to Royal Mail, hand over sorted mail to the Royal Mail for "last mile delivery" due to the sheer dominance the latter hold in a process called 'Down Stream Access'. [3]
Post Office Limited, formerly Post Office Counters Limited and commonly known as the Post Office, is a state-owned retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of postal and non-postal related products including postage stamps, banking, insurance, bureau de change and identity verification services to the public through its nationwide network of around 11,500 ...