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Post Codes

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Appropo to something I read on the Forum recently, regarding Post Codes in Birmingham. A member was given the existing PC of an old address to help put it into the right area. A question was raised saying that there were no post codes in the early years in Birmingham. In fact we have always during my life time, and I'm ancient, had a post code. Witton and Aston were Birmingham 6. Great Barr and Hamstead were Birmingha 7A. I think Erdington was 6A. It must have helped get the mail sorted quicker. :)
 
My postcode was Birmingham 26 which was and still is the district, the 1 number & 2 letters added give were the house is in the road you live in. Len.
 
Where I lived the area code was 22A, but I think with the latest post codes, they only need the code and your house number and they know where you live.
 
hi all
Weoley Castle was Birmingham 32, when I joined up in 1962 anyway, and I think Bartley Green was Birmingham 29.
regards
paul
 
Hello there, the original numbers for Birmingham were not Post Codes but
District Numbers, as someone who spent their whole working life in the Post Office I know a little bit about it, As the city got bigger district offices were needed to deliver the mail, when I started at Pinfold Street in
1953, numbers 1 to 5 were deliveryed from town, 6and 7 were Aston,8,9 and10 were EDO, 11 and 12 were Camp Hill, 13 and 14 Kings Heath, 15, 16 and 17 were Western DO, 18 and 19 were Hockley DO. 20, 21, 22 and 22A Handsworth, 23 and 24 Erdington, 25 and 26 Yardley, 27 and 28 Hall
Green, 29, Selly Oak 30 Kings Norton, 31 Northfield, 32 Quinton, 40 and 41
Smethwich. They later built Kitts Green ,33 and 34. Gosh how did I remember all those? As someone said POST CODES came in 1959 at
Norwich, this was because of mechanization, when the mail was no longer
handled by hand. Pre war most other big towns and cities had district
numbers, London, Manchester etc. Hope that helps Paul? Bernard :cool:
 
Thanks Bernard. It did make for a speeded up delivery if you had the district number on the envelope, so well done to who ever devised them. Thanks also for putting me right on Great Barr and Hamstead, they were 22A, same as Handsworth, as soon as I saw that number it clicked. I think 7 might have been the bit of Witton on the border of Erdington.
 
Hi Di, when I first started you did two weeks in the training school, one on
forward sorting, and the second week on town sorting as we called it, there are some areas which are boaderline, part of Balsall Heath was town
5, and the rest was 12, Stechford was 9 Glebe Farm was 25 but they opened Kitts Green they moved to the, then new sorting office. The history
of Royal Mail as they call it now, in Birmingham is most interesting, but you need plenty of time to study it. bye for now Bernard
 
I still have 99% of on line sites telling me its wrong when I try to register.:(
 
Bernard, two of my uncles worked all their lives for the Post Office as it was then. They were my Dads brothers Len and Sid Worrall.:)
 
We lived in Leamington Road, Sparkbrook, between Ladypool Road and Stoney Lane, that was always marked as B 12.
 
Di.Poppitt said:
Thanks Bernard. It did make for a speeded up delivery if you had the district number on the envelope, so well done to who ever devised them. Thanks also for putting me right on Great Barr and Hamstead, they were 22A, same as Handsworth, as soon as I saw that number it clicked. I think 7 might have been the bit of Witton on the border of Erdington.
Click to expand...


Hi Di,

I think Handsworth/Handsworth Wood were 20/21.

Kind regards

Dave
 
The first part of the Postcode, the 'short postcode', gets the mail to a delivery office; the second part makes up into the 'long Postcode' which then dictates which 'walk' the address is on, basically the street and section of the street.
County names are in nearly every case not part of addresses. I live in Rugby which geographically is in Warwickshire but Warwickshire is not part of Rugby addresses. Birmingham is Birmingham - not West Midlands, Warwickshire or anything else. Form filling, where the county is asked for is a real irritation to me, sad character that I am!
Ted
 
When I filled in my Election Voting form last time they sent it back telling me it was the wrong and I lived in Nursery Cottage Poplar Grove.
I rang and was told they were not allowed to accept any other address.
But I have lived here 21 years and you have always used that address when you send out my Council Tax Bill only to be told thats not our department.

I said I live in a wood with no houses near me, besides there is no Grove at all in the Village.

Then the sent me a copy of a map and it was marked Poplar Grove. Sorry they said thats the only address we are allowed to accept.

For the local elections they sent a form with the address To the Occupier Nursery Cottage Nacton.
You couldn't make it up
 
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Hi Bernard67Arnold i remember well the first weeks of training at Pinfold Street/Royal Mail Street with the reversible "letters",after 3 years off working down the Station i applied to go on the grade which involved passing the coding test,one had 3 weeks to achieve a certain key rate at 100% error free on a blank keyboard then having done the PHG training one was allowed on the floor to do live coding four banks of coding machines,if one failed to keep up the speed you were taken off the coding and back to mere postman.After 1 year i decided to go on the, "night mail" TPO`s and spent 10 years eventful years travelling between Derby and Plymouth before going back in the sorting office in `93.In the early days we cared for the job and customers and when the mail moved to Aston the job worsened with the advent of open planning and the new breed of Management,straight from uni into the job and a mission to cut costs on the floor and to hell with the morale and consequencies to the public.
 
I thought Handsworth was 21 - it was in 1960 when I lived there. I moved from South Yardley which was 26 and prior to that Warstock, which was 14, same as Kings Heath. Hockley was 18 and Lozells 19. This is the 60's mind, it might have been different earlier.
 
(
Di.Poppitt said:
Appropo to something I read on the Forum recently, regarding Post Codes in Birmingham. A member was given the existing PC of an old address to help put it into the right area. A question was raised saying that there were no post codes in the early years in Birmingham. In fact we have always during my life time, and I'm ancient, had a post code. Witton and Aston were Birmingham 6. Great Barr and Hamstead were Birmingha 7A. I think Erdington was 6A. It must have helped get the mail sorted quicker. :)
Click to expand...
Hi Di, I am sure you are a youngster conpared with me, we have had this postcode
question before on the forum, there were not any Post Codes until 1957/59 what we had in Brum, along with the
other big towns, like London, Manchester etc were District Numbers there was no need for codes to a degree when you sorting mail by hand, Post Codes are for mechanised sorting machines. I worked at
Royal Mail in Brum, Burtonon Trent and Derby from 1953/1995 a total of 42 years, I think you find that
Great Barr used to be 22A, Erdington 22/23 cheers Bernard (hope that helps, on my hobby horse I am afraid) The numbers gave the DO as per my earlier post.
 
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Alf said:
When I filled in my Election Voting form last time they sent it back telling me it was the wrong and I lived in Nursery Cottage Poplar Grove.
I rang and was told they were not allowed to accept any other address.
But I have lived here 21 years and you have always used that address when you send out my Council Tax Bill only to be told thats not our department.

I said I live in a wood with no houses near me, besides there is no Grove at all in the Village.

Then the sent me a copy of a map and it was marked Poplar Grove. Sorry they said thats the only address we are allowed to accept.

For the local elections they sent a form with the address To the Occupier Nursery Cottage Nacton.
You couldn't make it up
Click to expand...
Hi do you ever meet Little Red Hood in your wood?? Alf
 
ed smith said:
Hi Bernard67Arnold i remember well the first weeks of training at Pinfold Street/Royal Mail Street with the reversible "letters",after 3 years off working down the Station i applied to go on the grade which involved passing the coding test,one had 3 weeks to achieve a certain key rate at 100% error free on a blank keyboard then having done the PHG training one was allowed on the floor to do live coding four banks of coding machines,if one failed to keep up the speed you were taken off the coding and back to mere postman.After 1 year i decided to go on the, "night mail" TPO`s and spent 10 years eventful years travelling between Derby and Plymouth before going back in the sorting office in `93.In the early days we cared for the job and customers and when the mail moved to Aston the job worsened with the advent of open planning and the new breed of Management,straight from uni into the job and a mission to cut costs on the floor and to hell with the morale and consequencies to the public.
Click to expand...
Hi there Ed, Derby was a training centre for code sort training etc, when I took my collection upstairs and saw
the Coders I always thought they looked like battery hens, not for me! I liked it outdoors, cheers Bernard
 
paul stacey said:
hi all
Weoley Castle was Birmingham 32, when I joined up in 1962 anyway, and I think Bartley Green was Birmingham 29.
regards
paul
Click to expand...
Hello again Paul, I think you have them the wrong way round, Weoley Castle was 29, and Bartley Green delived by Quinton 32, cheers Bernie
 
the silver fox said:
The first part of the Postcode, the 'short postcode', gets the mail to a delivery office; the second part makes up into the 'long Postcode' which then dictates which 'walk' the address is on, basically the street and section of the street.
County names are in nearly every case not part of addresses. I live in Rugby which geographically is in Warwickshire but Warwickshire is not part of Rugby addresses. Birmingham is Birmingham - not West Midlands, Warwickshire or anything else. Form filling, where the county is asked for is a real irritation to me, sad character that I am!
Ted
Click to expand...

Adding a county to an address is personal choice as long as the postcode is quoted. The post office no longer observe counties since the postcode came in but have no objection to those even sadder people like me who are proud of our Shire counties and carry on putting them on my letters. I'm probably an even more sadder person for prefering to make my emails and thread postings look like old fashioned typewriting - there's nowt so unusual as folk as an old saying used to say:rolleyes:
 
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