We construct a large number of record-breaking binary, ternary and quaternary codes. Our methods involve the study of BCH-codes over larger fields, concatenation, construction X and variants of the Griesmer construction (residual codes). 1 Review of the theory Let IFq be the ground field, F = IFq2 . Denote the interval {i, i + 1, . . . , j} ZZ/(q2 -1)ZZ by [i, j]. Let A = [i, j] ZZ/(q2 -1)ZZ. Interval A determines a (primitive) BCH-code C(A) of length q2