On This Day

Friday 1st January 1904

116 years ago

The first motor vehicle registration plate in Great Britain, A1, was secured by Earl Russell for his ‘Napier’. There have been six major modifications over the years, but basically a registration mark issued long ago is valid today. The first type of marks consisted of one or two letters, plus a number series starting from 1 and progressing to 9999. Allocation of marks for England and Wales was A to FP, with a few gaps; allocated in order of population figures from the 1901 census. I and Z marks were allocated to Ireland (which included what is now the Republic of Ireland) and G,S and V combinations were allocated to Scotland, though some were later released and appeared with English authorities. It was soon obvious that more issues were required as new county boroughs were created. Major cities quickly exhausted their initial allocation. L combinations were given to London, M to Middlesex etc. In 1932 a prefix letter was added to an existing two-letter index mark to invent three letter marks By 1932 only three combinations remained unused; BF, OO and WC, so a major change occurred. A prefix letter was added to an existing two-letter index mark to invent three letter marks, the first being ARF used by Staffordshire in July 1932. Staffordshire was again to take the lead in 1953 when it issued the first reversed combinations; with numbers preceding the registration letters. 1000 E being the first issued, quickly followed by Middlesex with 1000 H. Thereafter reversed registrations with one, two or three letters were all quickly brought into use. In 1960/1 the BF, OO and WC combinations were finally issued as the system again began to run out. In 1963 the suffix letter system was introduced by placing a year identifier after the number combination: AHX 123A etc. In 1965 this was made compulsory for all authorities. Having used all the combinations it was decided to take the X series away from London, and to use these for newly created authorities from 1963 to be used with suffix letters only. AXA 1A being issued by Kirkcaldy CBC, etc.In October 1974 the business of car registration was taken away from county and county borough councils and moved to the DVLA, Swansea. The number of offices was reduced considerably and registration marks were moved from their original areas - CF moved from Suffolk to Reading for example.In 1983, with the issue of Y suffix letters the system there was a need for further reorganisation, and the suffix letter was reversed and became the prefix letter system - A123 ABC, etc. This continued until 1998, when it was decided a further change would be required. The year system was speeded up to be changed twice a year, and after the use of Y prefix letters, the present system of year identifier was evolved; the first letter indicating a geographical region, the second letter being an issue letter, two numbers indicating the year, and a three letter combination being the issue. High numbers such as 51 indicate a vehicle registered between September and February 2002, whilst 02 plates commenced in March 2002.