Full postcode area list - for a business website .where?

cem

Hi, I am after a list of areas against postcodes.

I am setting up a website and my website developer's asking me a for a list of all postcodes against areas so when a website visitor types in their postcode their area is automatically picked up (does not have to be as specific as the road name)..

Could anyone help ?

Thanks

paulwf

I'm not sure what resolution you need but http://www.postcode-info.co.uk/counties.html has a list at town level.

The Royal Mail database is not free so you may need to pay - for street level rather than individual addresses it looks like being cheaper. There is some free data from Ordnance Survey but I'm not sure it is so easy to use. To be honest your developer should be telling you what he/she needs as they should know what will and what won't work with your website.

Just make sure that if you do use a free source that you are allowed to use it for commercial use, it looks like most databases are still chargeable.

MsHoarder

Its not perfect, but Free the Postcode has open source (i.e. free to use for any purpose) postcode data. Any other source you must pay for before using: Royal Mail have been known to sue companies who have broken licence agreements. Would a search on place names (Open Street Map) work instead?

cem

paulwf wrote: »

I'm not sure what resolution you need but http://www.postcode-info.co.uk/counties.html has a list at town level.

Thanks for this .. It looks pretty good but it seems like you have to click into each town which then gives you a list of all the postcodes in the town..What would be really great is a list of these towns against first bit of each postcode.

Agreed with what you say about developer already knowing but unfortunately I chose an offshore developer (yes, lesson learnt) who doesn't know his postcodes from zipcodes and I literally have to give him a list of the above.

Openstreetmap also looks good but it does not seem to cover all town postcodes. so I am still looking...:question:

Any more gents? Thank you

eslick

sorry cant help but wouldnt the website developer know this or be able to advise on one they have used before, if you dont get an answer on this thread might be worth asking on the techie thread they know lots about things like that there and might be able to recommend a data base to use.

patman99

You could always start with a blank database, then as your customers add their addresses the post code, street, village & town could then automatically be added to the database. Over a period of time, you will end-up with your own free postcode database.