OX postcode area

Postcode district boundaries: Bing / Google

The OX postcode area, also known as the Oxford postcode area, is a group of 26 postcode districts in England, which are subdivisions of 17 post towns. These postcode districts cover most of Oxfordshire, including Oxford, Banbury, Abingdon, Bicester, Witney, Didcot, Carterton, Kidlington, Thame, Wantage, Wallingford, Chipping Norton, Chinnor, Woodstock, Watlington, Bampton and Burford, plus very small parts of Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire.

The original OX6 district for Bicester was recoded to OX25, OX26 and OX27 in 2000, while the OX39 district for Chinnor and the OX49 district for Watlington were formed out of the OX9 district at the same time. In 2001, the original OX8 district for Witney was recoded to OX28 and OX29.

Coverage

The approximate coverage of the postcode districts:

Map

See also

References

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.