User:Richardguk/M postcode area

The M postcode area, also known as the Manchester postcode area, is a group of several postal districts in Greater Manchester, England.

The area is divided into three post towns: Manchester, Salford, and Sale. The Manchester post town forms most of the area, and the other two post towns are enclaves within it.

It includes parts of all Greater Manchester boroughs except for Stockport. The entirety of the metropolitan district of the City of Manchester itself is included within the area, except for Ringway, which is in WA15. The postcode area also includes nearly all of the City of Salford and most of the borough of Trafford.

Coverage
The approximate coverage of the postal districts:

Note: The original M10 postcode is obsolete, having been re-coded as M40 in 1993.

Adjacent areas
Clockwise from the east, the adjacent postcode areas are:, SK (Stockport), WA (Warrington), WN (Wigan), BL (Bolton), OL (Oldham).

Former scheme
Before the introduction of postcodes in the 1960s, Manchester along with other major cities like Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield was divided into numbered postal districts. With a few exceptions these were directly incorporated into the outcode (the first part of the postcode). The districts were based on Manchester and Salford together and districts outside the city boundaries were also included.

For example, the City Centre had postcode districts 1 - 4 (north-east, south, west and north-west respectively: Manchester 1 was around Piccadilly and 4 was around Victoria). 5, 6, 7 and 8 were in Salford and then the sequence continued across north Manchester and so round to M17 (Trafford Park). M18 onwards were further out still.