Post Office Blunder

[Kodiak]

POST Office chiefs stunned residents of Britain’s most northerly town by advising them to take a ferry to pick up their mail.

http://i.imgur.com/z5hAhwi.jpg



http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/blundering-post-office-bosses-think-2946855

[Big Gaz]

A pleasant day out to collect the mail. Just don't get too seasick or you may not be able to read your mail for the lumps. Also i guess there won't be many Ebay sales or purchases during that time so maybe local trade will see a boost?

[Gronnuck]

It's a worry - if these people are not familiar with the geography of Britain what are they doing running a mail service?

[orkneycadian]

It has been previously suggested on here, by others, that the KW postcode is not centred on the Post Town of Kirkwall at all, but of Wick. I recall a thread where it was suggested that at the time the post codes were devised, WK was not available, so KW was used instead.

A cursory examination of the list of postcodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_post_towns_in_the_United_Kingdom suggests that (in all the ones I have checked out of rather a lot...) the area that gets the 1 after the first letters is the actual Post Town. London is excepted, which uses compass points as the post codes.

For example, B1 is Birmingham, L1 is Liverpool, HX1 is Halifax, SS0 (slight variation there...) is Southend on Sea, IV1 is Inverness.

Kirkwall is KW15 whilst Wick is KW1. In all cases, the numbers seem to radiate outwards from the Post Town, which has the lowest number, and generally get bigger the further from the Post Town you go. In the KW area, Kirkwall (KW15), Stromness (KW16) and the rest of Orkney (KW17) have the highest numbers. So there is maybe something in it after all.

[gillsbay]

Get your head down Kodiak, I don't think the residents of Orkney or Shetland will like Thurso being referred to as Britain's most northerly town :-)

[orkneycadian]

No problems with that statement here. As far as I am aware, Thurso must be Britains most northerly town.

Though technically, they should refer to it as Great Britain. But we can let them off with that!

[colingel]

And what would steven heddle make of that statement Orkneycadian ?

[RagnarRocks]

Thurso may well count as mainland Great Britains most northerly town. I mean if John O Groats can become the most northerly point despite Dunnet Head sitting unmoved for considerably longer than JOG has even existed as a town,village,label it as you wish ,anything may and could be possible. Bah Humbug and all that :0))

[orkneycadian]

And what would steven heddle make of that statement Orkneycadian ?

As an educated man, I am sure that he would agree that Thurso must be about the most northerly town in (Great) Britain.