Barnstaple Flood Risk

Rivers and the sea Low a 0.1% to 1% chance in any year

Surface water 846 addresses at risk that rivers and sea does not explain — a minimum, not a total

Groundwater Not mapped No national band is published for this source

Reservoirs Not mapped No national band is published for this source

Barnstaple has a Low flood risk from rivers and the sea , with 6.7% of homes in a Medium or High band. The nearest gauge is 0.5 km away.

Barnstaple has 30,682 residents and 16,181 homes. Ranked 620 of 7,114 in England for rivers and sea flood risk.

Why Are Parts Of Barnstaple In Flood Zone 3 But Rated Low Risk?

18.3% of postcodes in Barnstaple fall in Flood Zone 3, but the flood risk band for rivers and the sea is low. The two maps measure different things: the Flood Zone ignores defences, and the band counts them.

Why a Flood Zone 3 house can be Low risk

When Has Barnstaple Flooded Before?

The Environment Agency holds 12 recorded flood outlines covering Barnstaple, the most recent dated 9 March 1981.

Absence of a record is not evidence that a place has never flooded — the Environment Agency states that a lack of coverage does not mean an area has never flooded.

What Does Barnstaple's Flood Risk Classification Mean?

18.3% of postcodes in Barnstaple sit in Flood Zone 3, the planning band for land with a 1% or greater annual chance of river flooding or 0.5% or greater of sea flooding — and the map that draws it deliberately ignores flood defences.

The flood risk band for rivers and the sea is Low , with 6.7% of homes in a Medium or High band. Unlike the Flood Zone, the band counts the defences that are actually in place, which is why the two can describe the same street differently and both be right.

Barnstaple is one of the places where they disagree most in England: a large share of its postcodes are in Flood Zone 3, yet few of its homes carry a Medium or High band. The gap is the defences — land the planning map must treat as floodplain, behind a barrier that lowers the present-day chance of flooding.

Flood Zone versus flood risk band: the full comparison

Which Postcode Districts Cover Barnstaple?

Each district below is one postcode district that falls inside Barnstaple. The band is the one shared by most of that district's postcodes, so it describes the district rather than a single street — enter a full postcode in the checker for one address. A district can cover more than one town, and the district pages linked from the checker are keyed to the town that holds most of its postcodes.

Postcode districts covering Barnstaple, with the flood risk band shared by most of each district's postcodes. A district can span more than one local area, so its band is a summary and not a property-level answer.
Postcode district	Postcodes here	Rivers and sea band	Surface water addresses
EX32	429	Low	411
EX31	413	Low	435

What Else Is Near Barnstaple?

Devon flood risk Every town ranked in this county
Flood risk in England How this nation classifies flood risk, and its gaps
What each flood risk level means The annual chance behind each band word