Grimsby Evening Telegraph July 30th 1971

The day your (code) number comes up

Next Spring every house in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham will be issued with an official code number, and you will be well advised to use it

Another step by officialdom to put us all into secret files? Fortunately, it is nothing quite as sinister. as that.

The Post Office is going over to computer sorting to speed up the handling and distribution of mail.

Before the new system can get under way efficiently each address will have to be given a special coding to make things easier for the mechanical sorters.

The job looks easy enough, but in fact it takes months of preparation.

Grimsby's Assistant Postmaster, Mr. Alf Curry, is in charge of the local operation.

He has a team of four men,EricHorton,AlecSmith, HarrvBarlowandTom Crampton,to carry out research and fieldwork.

Lengthy job

Phase One of the operation -identifying every house, every office, in fact every where where mail is delivered - has just been completed. "It was a very lengthy' and protractedjob,"saidMr. Curry. “Not only do we have to look at existing addresses, we also have to take into account likely development within the next 10 years so new houses and offices can be given a code number as soon as they are occupied.” “We could not have managed this part of the job without the help we received from the local authorities, the public and the docks board.”

The team has pinpointed over60,000differentaddresses. “Itwascomparatively easy in town” said Mr. Horton.

“Theworstpartwas, examining the rural areas where there are no street names and houses, often have no numbers. And the fish docks. was quite a problem where merchants and firms often give theiraddress asjust Grimsby, Fish Docks.”

Code units

“We must have their exact locationsothey getthe right coding. This is where the help fromthe dock authorities came in useful. The next step now is to groupeveryaddressinto nearly 1,000 different code units. Each unit hasa separatenumberalthough the prefix will be' the same. Each unit, said Mr. Curry, must not have more than 70 addresses or more than 100 items per delivery. “For example, Cleethorpe Road will probably have nine or 10 units. “What we have to ensure is that no address has been missed."

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