BS postcode area

Postcode district boundaries: Bing / Google

The BS postcode area, also known as the Bristol postcode area, is a group of postcode districts around Axbridge, Banwell, Bristol, Cheddar, Clevedon, Wedmore, Weston-super-Mare and Winscombe in England.

Coverage

The approximate coverage of the postcode districts:

Historic codes

Until the 1990s (?date) different numbers were used for Bristol postcode districts from BS12 upwards.

Missing from the above list are: BS12, BS17, BS18 and BS19. Previously these were assigned as below.

BS12 covered: Almondsbury, Alveston, Aust, Awkley, Bradley Stoke, Earthcote Green, Easter Compton, Elberton, Filton, Ingst, Itchington, Littleton-on-Severn, Morton, Northwick, Oldbury Naite, Oldbury-on-Severn, Olveston, Over, Patchway, Pilning, Redwick, Rudgeway, Severn Beach, Shepperdine, Stoke Gifford, Thornbury, and Tockington

BS17 covered: Chipping Sodbury, Mangotsfield, Old Sodbury, Pucklechurch, Rangeworthy, Winterbourne, and Yate

BS18 covered: Compton Dando, High Littleton, Saltford, Long Ashton, West Harptree, Wrington, Chew Magna, Blagdon, and Temple Cloud, Keynsham.

List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom

For the purposes of directing mail, the United Kingdom 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. There are currently 121 geographic postcode areas in use in the UK and a further 3 often combined with these covering the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.

Subdivision

Each postcode area is further divided into post towns and postcode districts. There are on average 20 postcode districts to a postcode area. The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.

Scope

The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally intended as a mnemonic for the places served. Postcode areas, post towns and postcode districts do not follow political boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the place names with which they are associated. For example, within the PA postcode area the PA1 and PA78 postcode districts are 140 miles apart; and the eight postcode areas of the London post town cover only 40% of Greater London. The remainder of its area is covered by sections of twelve adjoining postcode areas: EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB.