"Roland Perry" wrote
Tom Anderson remarked:
I don't see how the former is helpful. If you want to write them a letter,
then the postcode is sufficient, and the addition of Essex is completely
superfluous. If you actually want to go there, the addition of Essex is
actually unhelpful, because if you have modern maps and are not aware that
there's a bit of London which thinks it's in Essex, you'll be looking on
the wrong page. Unless you just look up Ilford directly, in which case the
county designation again is completely superfluous.

It's very helpful to have a steer that "IG" is in fact in the old county
of Essex, and not Cornwall.

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out all
the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain, DG=Dumfries &
Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard for IG is Ilford &
Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

"John Salmon" wrote:
As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out all
the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain, DG=Dumfries &
Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard for IG is Ilford &
Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

IL had probably been stolen by somewhere else.
There's a few weirdities around in postcodes.
Bristol is BS, which I always felt was a tad unfair.

In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On Dec 9, 3:30*pm, Steve Fitzgerald ] wrote:
In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. *I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.

Surely Ingatestone postcodes are CM and are separated from IG by RM in
between?

MIG wrote:
On Dec 9, 3:30 pm, Steve Fitzgerald ] wrote:
In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the
middle (roughly) of the area.

Surely Ingatestone postcodes are CM and are separated from IG by RM in
between?

Yeah, Ingatestone can't have an IG postcode, it's in Essex!

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the
middle (roughly) of the area.

Ingatestone is in the CM area, and the RM area is (mostly) between CM and
IG.

I've always thought IG meant "Ilford and barkinG". I have no evidence for
that.

In message , at 15:30:29 on Tue, 9
Dec 2008, Steve Fitzgerald ] remarked:
IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I always understood it was linked to Ingatestone as being in the middle
(roughly) of the area.

Huh? Ingatestone in firmly inside the "CM" postcode, as is Brentwood.
--
Roland Perry

In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I suspect that IG reflects the names of the first two post towns within
the postcode - Ilford (IG1 to IG6) and Chigwell (IG7).

Much the same happens with SM, where the first two post towns within the
postcode are Sutton (SM1 to SM3) and Morden (SM4).

Presumably IL was avoided because OCR equipment couldn't be relied upon
to read the letters accurately, especially when hand written.
--
Paul Terry

In message , John Salmon
writes

As a matter of interest, where did 'IG' come from? In my view, its
derivation is the least obvious of all the postcodes. I can work out
all the other slightly obscure ones e.g. SP=Salisbury Plain,
DG=Dumfries & Galloway etc., but the only suggestion I've ever heard
for IG is Ilford & Gants Hill, which seems unlikely.

I suspect that IG reflects the names of the first two post towns
within the postcode - Ilford (IG1 to IG6) and Chigwell (IG7).

Much the same happens with SM, where the first two post towns within
the postcode are Sutton (SM1 to SM3) and Morden (SM4).

Presumably IL was avoided because OCR equipment couldn't be relied
upon to read the letters accurately, especially when hand written.

Many of the 2-letter codes were in use before postcodes for labelling
mailbags, and generally these were reused for postcodes, probably
because the sorting office staff knew them by heart. As a student in
the 60s I worked on the Christmas post in Edinburgh, and the incoming
bags were marked EH. Outgoing codes that I remember include AB, IV and
DD, but I think Glasgow was GW although it became just G for postcodes.

I think postcodes were introduced long before anyone had any idea of
OCRing them. For a time, at the primary sort a series of blue
fluorescent dots were printed on the envelope and latterly dot-matrix
barcodes. Both of these were done by real people eyeballing the printed
or written postcodes, though OCR is certainly used now.

Peter

--
Peter Campbell Smith ~ London ~ pjcs00 (a) gmail.com