The History of UK Number Plates and Registrations

 Since the petrol engine began to replace the steam engine in the mid 1890s the popularity of the motor car has been explosive. By the early 1900s there was already a reputed 5000 cars on the road. With this rapid rise in car ownership came an equally rapid rise in car accidents and car crime and it soon became apparent that the government would have to devise a method of identifying vehicles and their owners.

The British vehicle registrations system began in 1903 with the passing of the Motor Car Act, though it didn't actually come into force until 1st 1904. The Act stated that each Local Council was to set up its own Registration and Licensing Authority and that all vehicles within their catchment area would have to be registered with it Private registration plates at a cost of 20 shillings each. As the number of cars on the road continued to grow it was becoming clear that transport in general needed its own Government Department so in 1919 the Ministry of Transport was created to deal with motoring legislation. The Roads Act of 1920 was subsequently passed which, again, required all vehicles to be registered with their regional Registration and Licensing Authority but also required car manufacturers, vehicle repair shops and car dealers to apply for a General Licence which was the forerunner to the Trade Plates of today. Hackney carriages were also required to display a separate plate stating how many people the vehicle was legally allowed to carry.

Registrations from 1903 to 1932

The first system of dateless registration numbers was issued from 1903 and ran until 1932 using the series A1 to YY 9999. The single letter or pair of letters at the beginning of the registration, known as the Tag, indicated the local authority to which the vehicle was registered, (A= London, B = Lancashire, C = Yorkshire). In England and Wales the tags were initially allocated in preference to population size of given areas, whilst Scotland and Ireland had sequences using the letters S and I respectively, which were allocated in alphabetical order (IA = Antrim, IB = Armagh, etc). When a licensing authority reached 9999 it was allocated another tag but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations, they were given out on a first come first served basis.