The System Develops
New codes were generally needed for one of two reasons; either an existing authority was "running out" of available numbers or a new county borough was being created. The early years of the twentieth century were a period of industrialisation and consequent rapid urban growth, so many towns expanded and reached a size justifying seperate borough status.
The original 1903 allocation in England and Wales ended at FP (Rutland). The next two codes to be used both went to new boroughs, FR to Blackpool and FT to Tynemouth. FU and FW were omitted (it should be noted that FS and FV were both intended for use in Scotland). It is easy to surmise why FU was omitted, but there is no obvious reason for leaving out FW. As has already been explained, FX was allocated to Dorset as residents of that area objected to having BF as their code.
Not surprisingly, the first authority to use up its original code was London. This was allocated LC in 1905 and LN in 1906. The next authority to require a second code was Middlesex which commenced MX in 1912.
Three principles appear to have been used in allocating new and further codes. Some were allocated on a mnemonic basis, e.g. LC (London County) and LN to London, MX to Middlesex and KN to Kent. In other cases an attempt was made to give authorities an "alphabetical run" of codes, e.g. most of the LX codes subsequently went to London and Cheshire after being originally allocated M was given MA & MB.
In yet other cases the original alphabetical sequence was followed, e.g. when Merthyr Tydfil was created a seperate borough in 1908 it received HB. Eventually it was realised that, with reserving G, S & V codes for Scotland, this country would be over provided with codes. Thus some codes with G and V in them "came south of the border", the first one being VB allocated to Croydon in 1927, but codes with S in them remained exclusively Scottish until 1974.
The system of registering vehicles was initially much looser than it is today. For instance, if the owner of a vehicle moved to another authority or a vehicle was sold across an authority boundary, it would often be re-registered. The Roads Act of 1920 included among its provisions a tightening up of procedures relating to vehicle registration. The practice of re-registering vehicles which were moved to another authority area ceased. The Act required that a vehicle would now retain its registration for the lifetime of that vehicle.
In 1921 the Irish Free State, now the Irish Republic was established.
Perhaps surprisngly, the Irish registration system remained based
on the British system until 1987, though when reflective plates
were introduced in the Republic rear plates were given a red background
whereas in Britain the background was yellow. A convention was
agreed whereby in the Republic Zx combinations would be used for
new codes and in the North xZ would be used.
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