Everyone in Fermanagh has one and undoubtedly take it for granted, but for 150 years the humble postcode has been an invaluable tool to ensure mail is delivered accurately and promptly.
The system of postcodes that we know today was rolled out throughout the country, including Northern Ireland, in the 1960s. There are now in excess of 1.7 million postcodes across the UK, covering 27 million addresses. In Northern Ireland we have around 50,000 individual postcodes covering 750,000 addresses.
It was in 1857 when, faced with London's ever-burgeoning population, Sir Rowland Hill, inventor of the postage stamp, introduced a scheme to accelerate mail delivery. This divided the capital into 10 separate postal districts – N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, EC and WC. The public were then asked to add these district letters to the bottom of addresses.
The BT postcode is used for the whole of Northern Ireland covering one of the largest geographical areas in the UK and is the fourth largest area within the Royal Mail network. Local codes in the Fermanagh area include BT74, BT92, BT93 and BT94
So what do the components of your postcode really stand for? A typical postcode consists of two main elements: the outward code (needed to sort mail from one town to another) and
the inward code (required to sort within the town).
Taking the postcode BT74 7AA as an example, the outward code is BT74 where BT identifies the Area as Northern Ireland and the 74, a particular district in Enniskillen. There are 80 districts in Northern Ireland each relating to a particular area, like BT34 Newry and BT80 Cookstown.
The second part of the code 7AA is the inward code where the 7 is the Sector that covers around 3000 addresses and the AA is the particular Unit covering approximately 15 addresses.
The importance of including the postcode on all correspondence cannot be over-stressed. Postcoded letters can be read by Royal Mail's automated systems and sorted 30 times faster than by hand enabling speedier delivery of the mail to its intended destination.
As well as including the postcode Royal Mail encourages everyone to make sure they properly address their mail. Any individual postcode covers, on average, 15 letterboxes so the addressee's name, building or house name, street name and number, townland and town are equally important to aid our postmen and women to deliver the item successfully.
Unfortunately, every year, millions of items of mail are posted but considered undeliverable simply because the address is incomplete. This can be for a number of reasons including combinations of no postcode, town, street or name and sometimes no address at all. These items end up in the National Returns Centre in Belfast where our people make every effort to connect the item of mail with its intended recipient. The Centre successfully processes around 45 million such items every year.
Today, 98% of all mail includes the postcode, keeping Royal Mail's delivery system running smoothly and efficiently. They are also the backbone for many services, such as online shopping, internet map searches and satellite navigation systems. Even so, one in six items of non-business mail omits the postcode.
To obtain a postcode customers can visit our website www.royalmail.com alternatively they can telephone 0906 302 1222 (weekdays) or 08457 111 222 (evenings and weekends) for the postcode of any UK address.
