ME postcode district map, Rochester
Supplier statuses last checked .
The ME postcode area covers 20 districts and 17,231 live postcodes, from ME1 to ME20. It is centred on Maidstone and also covers Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Chatham and West Malling.
Districts here average 862 postcodes.
Where the ME districts sit
2 districts are plotted without a label where labels would overlap; every one is in the table below.
Where ME sits
It falls across Kent and Medway.
Water supply across ME
All 20 ME districts are supplied by South East Water. That makes ME simple in a way many areas are not: one company, one set of rules, one status to check.
South East Water has a hosepipe ban in force from 3 July 2026, covering the whole of ME.
The shape of the ME area
ME15 is the largest district with 1,388 postcodes around Maidstone, and ME11 the smallest with 104. The area divides into 82 postcode sectors.
Several districts share a settlement, which is a common source of confusion when a form rejects an address: ME14, ME15, ME16 and ME17 all point at Maidstone, ME5, ME7 and ME8 all point at Gillingham and ME1 and ME2 all point at Rochester.
What borders ME
ME sits next to SS (Southend-on-Sea) to the north, DA (Dartford) to the west, TN (Royal Tunbridge Wells) to the south, RM (Chigwell) to the north west and BR (Swanley) to the west.
Its neighbours run in 4 different directions, so ME is landlocked by other postcode areas on most sides.
ME districts, settlements and water supply
| District | Principal settlement | Water company | Hosepipe ban status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ME1 | Rochester | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME2 | Rochester | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME3 | Chatham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME4 | Chatham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME5 | Gillingham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME6 | Snodland | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME7 | Gillingham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME8 | Gillingham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME9 | Sittingbourne | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME10 | Sittingbourne | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME11 | Queenborough | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME12 | Minster | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME13 | Faversham | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME14 | Maidstone | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME15 | Maidstone | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME16 | Maidstone | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME17 | Maidstone | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME18 | West Malling | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME19 | West Malling | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
| ME20 | Snodland | South East Water / Southern Water | Depends on your supplier |
Principal settlement is the town or city each district sits in or nearest to, derived from OS Open Names. It is not the Royal Mail post town, which is licensed data and not published openly. Status is resolved live from each company’s own notice.
Water hardness in ME
No water company covering ME publishes hardness figures as open data. The gap is named per district below so you know who to ask.
| District | Hardness | As published | Supply zone | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ME1 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME2 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME3 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME4 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME5 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME6 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME7 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME8 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME9 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME10 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME11 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME12 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME13 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME14 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME15 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME16 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME17 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME18 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME19 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
| ME20 | Not published by South East Water. Check with your supplier. | |||
Hardness is published per census area, not per postcode, so these figures characterise a district rather than measuring one address. They are a scale and taste matter, not a safety one. Hardness data version wessex-water@2022-2025+yorkshire-water@2026.
Download the ME data
No signup, no email wall. GeoJSON carries the district points, the supplier and the live status, so it can be dropped straight into a map.
District positions are averaged postcode centroids from OS Code-Point Open. They show roughly where a district sits, not where its boundary runs, and are not legal boundaries.
Frequently asked questions
How many postcode districts are in the ME area?
There are 20 ME postcode districts, running from ME1 to ME20, and they contain 17,231 live postcodes across 82 sectors.
What towns does the ME postcode area cover?
ME covers Maidstone, Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Chatham and West Malling. The area takes its name from Maidstone, and each district is listed with its settlement in the table on this page.
Which water company supplies ME postcodes?
South East Water supplies all 20 ME districts. Supply boundaries follow the pipe network rather than postcode geography, so confirm against your water bill if you are near the edge of the area.
Why do ME14 and ME15 both say Maidstone?
ME14, ME15, ME16 and ME17 all serve Maidstone, covering different parts of it. A single town routinely needs more than one postcode district once it passes a few thousand delivery points, so this is normal rather than an error in an address.
Can I download a free ME postcode map?
Yes. This page offers the ME districts as GeoJSON, CSV and SVG, free and with no signup or email address required. The GeoJSON carries each district's position, its water company and its current restriction status, so it can be dropped straight into a mapping tool.
Why is the ME area called Rochester when it covers Maidstone?
ME takes its letters from Rochester, where the sorting office that served the area was based when the code was allocated. Maidstone is the largest settlement in the area today, in ME15, but the area code follows the historic sorting geography rather than current population.
Which councils cover the ME postcode area?
ME reaches into Kent and Medway. A postcode area is not a council area: they were drawn for different purposes and a single district can sit across a council boundary, so your postcode does not tell you which authority you pay.