Free UK Postcode Towns & Counties Database
Discrepancies Present
A new version is in development that’s 500 times bigger, more accurate and more comprehensive.
A new version is in development that’s 500 times bigger, more accurate and more comprehensive.
You may (or may not) know that post codes in the UK aren’t free. The Royal Mail makes quite a fair sum (£75,000 for one type of corporate license, ouch!). It’s PAF (Postcode Address File) contains over 28 million addresses and I had previous experience with it before on a ticket agencies system. It’s not completely accurate but it’s the best thing available.
When you come across websites that fills in your address after entering a postcode you can bet they’re using the Royal Mails PAF. But what if you’re looking for something less specific such as associating a town or county with a postcode? There are free tools and databases out there but I couldn’t find anything specific enough for my needs.
I’ve extended on the ezpy Free UK postcode data file to include the region and county for each postcode (along with the longitude and latitude provided by ezpy). It includes 2822 postcodes and a postcode such as “EX32″ will contain the town “Barnstaple” and the county “Devon”.
The download contains an SQL and CVS file which you can use freely.
Great Job!! really helpful and handy for the kind of work I am doing.
Unfortunately the UK towns/counties dbase seems to have quite a number of innacuracies. e.g a number of “counties” are in fact just the POST TOWN duplicated, which rather spoils it all.
Regards,
John
Hi John and thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to improve on the accuracy but for my specific task I needed the postal town. Anybody wanting to make additions and improve upon it are free to do so. When I have the time I’ll try and work on it and maybe even house it somewhere on the new (not live) site.
Cheers
Thank you. This is just what I was looking for, to validate delivery addresses. The SQL script will save me a minute or two. I am surprised that it is not more readily available. In some places there are two or more posttowns for one outward postcode. Do you plan to include all of these and the remaining counties at some stage?
Hey AMF. This is far from perfect I completely agree on that. I do plan on an update but it’s going to take time.
I’ve generated a massive list of over 3 million postcodes and have validated if they exist of not. The difficult part starts after then. It will have more specific regional information though instead of generalising things under the main post town.
this is a great start – and whilst don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, am really looking forward to your updated version!
I wondered however if this news story give you any extra information to use in order to validate your data?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8402327.stm
Looking forward to your finished goods.
will be an excellent belated xmas present.
the ezpy is a fabuolous database/resource – i was just thinking of adding towns to it myself… you’ve beaten me to it !
.. but plz move up a gear and finish it. Just work on the epzy 2822 records.
for full blown postcode database http://www.linuxbox.co.uk has something on offer. 3-million will take you far too long and will still be way short of the 28-million postcode royal mail database.
let us know when your done with the 2822-records.
thanks and good luck.