CWGC postcode search inaccuracies

[Davedrave]

I have only just come across the postcode search feature on the CWGC website. I was initially impressed, but very soon I’ve realised that it probably contains a great many inaccuracies. For example, putting a postcode in I found a 1918 record where the soldier lived in Brook Street in my town (cleared away in the 1950’s) but the postcode search shows a property in Brook Road (several miles away and 1960’s or later).

At least that record shows the correct town. However, a civilian death in 1941, in Lewisham, London, shows a modern development in a street of the same name in a Midlands suburb! The road still exists in Lewisham, and most of the houses pre-date 1941, though a block has been rebuilt (the bomb-damaged ones?). The Midlands location is 100 miles away and dates from well after the war.

Another postcode search shows the wrong village suburb for another record. And these errors are out of only about ten records viewed so far.

I suspect that these errors are probably the tip of a very large iceberg.

[JenB]

I've just tried a search using my postcode.

It gives me a result a few streets away in an Alexandra Crescent (Hexham).

The only problem is that the correct Alexandra Crescent was in Blyth, some 30 miles away.

[Deirdre784]

I have just tried this having not seen the postcode option before. It produced one result, a few streets away from me, and the entry was spot on

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have just had a play with it and it seems utterly pointless to me. As has been said, the postcodes bring up fairly random places, or nothing at all. As most of the houses the soldiers lived in have long gone and postcodes were only invented in the 1970s(?), how is it supposed to work?

[rosie99]

My postcode produced one result which was spot on.  The map that was attached showed 2 other records, the only thing wrong was they were linked to each others house in different roads but just a few hundred yards apart.

[heywood]

Same for me too, Deirdre. - Just a short walk down the lane.

[BumbleB]

Deleted

[heywood]

It is showing those who died from your present area.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Except that it doesn't!