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215:(the "outward" part of the postcode, before the space); therefore, each post town can cover an area comprising many towns, urban districts and villages. Post towns rarely correspond exactly to administrative boundaries and their associated physical features. As such they often group a small minority of neighbourhoods, streets or houses together with a main settlement in a different
199:, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system. Including the correct post town in the address increases the chance of a letter or parcel being delivered on time. Post towns in general originated as the location of delivery offices. As of 2004, their main function is to distinguish between localities or street names in addresses not including a postcode.
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If no valid postcode is provided, or if the sorting machine rejects the letter, the use of optional locality or county information may assist manual sorting. In the absence of a full valid postcode, locality often prevents ambiguity where there is more than one street with the same name covered by a
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In some places several post towns cover a single postal district (with each post town corresponding to one or more of its postcode sectors). There are anomalies where post towns and postcode sectors have a more unusual co-relation. For example, the postcode sector EH14 5 is split between three post
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In most places, additional locality information such as a village or suburb name is optionally added above the post town, giving a more specific location: the two largest "post town" cities named, for example, have many roads of the same name in different localities and the additional locality
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post town, each postcode district name (which can conflict with administrative boundaries, see above) corresponds to a numbered postcode district and is therefore not required in the postal address whenever the postcode is used. For example,
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Where this is a disambiguating feature, Royal Mail terms this the "dependent locality". For a limited number of addresses a "double dependent locality" line is also required, preceding the dependent locality line: some examples include
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Traditionally only, where a place such as a village was served by a post town entirely distinct from its location, the word "Via" or "Near" ("Nr.") was added before the post town. For example:
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subject to its policy only to impose changes where it has a proven, economic and practical benefit to the organisation, covering its own cost. Each post town usually corresponds to one or more
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lookup tables check for the post town at the beginning of a line if the postcode is missing, unreadable or incorrect. Additionally, "Near" and "Nr." can be confused with "North".
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Locality information other than the post town is not always part of the official postal address. In particular, within the
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Royal Mail states that the post town must be included on all items and should be clearly written in capitals.
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441:"Review of Royal Mail's Licence Condition 20 – Postcode Address File Code of Practice: a Decision Document"
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post town or postcode district, or where post towns in different counties have the same name.
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information is therefore essential if the postcode is wrongly recorded or unknown.
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The use of postcodes means that it is no longer necessary to include the former
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There are approximately 1,500 post towns which are organised by
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deal primarily with the United
Kingdom and do not represent a
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However, the Royal Mail discourages this usage because their
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235:were abolished (but not prohibited) in 1996.
58:The examples and perspective in this article
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477:"Pembrokeshire (Royal Mail Database) c218WH"
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38:. For a list of post towns in the UK, see
96:Learn how and when to remove this message
40:List of post towns in the United Kingdom
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813:Postal addresses in the United Kingdom
584:Postal services in the United Kingdom
7:
772:Intelligent Letter Sorting Machines
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746:Postage stamps and postal history
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27:Part of British postal addresses
402:Postcodes in the United Kingdom
231:. This was a main reason why
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381:optical character recognition
30:For post towns in historical
794:and regulatory arrangements.
784:British Overseas Territories
450:. March 2004. Archived from
225:European statistical region
72:, discuss the issue on the
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767:Integrated mail processing
655:British Forces Post Office
608:List of postcode districts
448:Postal Services Commission
121:Postal administration unit
29:
780:
425:Address Management Guide
628:London postal district
603:List of postcode areas
528:"PAF Code of Practice"
503:"Addressing your mail"
332:" is the name of the "
633:Postcode Address File
397:Postcode Address File
78:create a new article
70:improve this article
792:different operators
227:and/or traditional
149:~1,500 (as of 2013)
788:Crown Dependencies
623:List of post towns
281:special post towns
177:Postcode districts
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457:on 8 October 2007
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16:(Redirected from
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762:Mail centres
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539:. Retrieved
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203:Organisation
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170:Subdivisions
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86:January 2017
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700:Post Office
695:Parcelforce
537:. p. 3
461:13 December
705:Royal Mail
535:Royal Mail
512:25 October
507:Royal Mail
408:References
314:Sinnington
209:Royal Mail
161:Royal Mail
154:Government
739:Philately
618:Post town
598:Postcodes
541:7 October
189:post town
113:Post town
74:talk page
18:Post Town
807:Category
660:Collect+
638:Mailsort
427:, (2004)
391:See also
385:Mailsort
298:Churwell
287:Locality
126:Location
118:Category
68:You may
715:UK Mail
685:Geopost
487:23 July
481:Hansard
375:EN6 1AA
369:Cuffley
308:" and "
249:Balerno
239:towns:
197:Ireland
36:shukuba
725:Whistl
690:InPost
349:E2 1AA
346:LONDON
325:London
310:Marton
302:Morley
271:E2 1AA
267:LONDON
245:Currie
229:parish
217:county
146:Number
34:, see
790:have
730:Yodel
680:FedEx
531:(PDF)
455:(PDF)
444:(PDF)
306:Leeds
255:Usage
76:, or
32:Japan
786:and
675:Evri
543:2015
514:2012
489:2009
463:2009
318:York
247:and
195:and
720:UPS
710:TNT
665:DHL
358:Via
320:".
809::
670:DX
533:.
505:.
479:.
446:.
432:^
416:^
334:E2
316:,
312:,
304:,
300:,
243:,
223:,
187:A
576:e
569:t
562:v
545:.
516:.
491:.
465:.
328:"
296:"
99:)
93:(
88:)
84:(
66:.
42:.
20:)
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