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Order of Issue of Registration Numbers

It was initially envisaged that single and two-letter index marks would be followed by the numbers 1 to 999. The Local Government Board's circular to county and county borough councils dated 20th November 1903, which set out the minutiae of the operation of the Motor Car Act, contained in this paragraph:

"The Board contemplate that Councils will usually assign consecutive numbers to cars registered with them. They think, however, that for purposes of ready identification, it is not desirable that numbers consisting of more than three figures should be assigned, and they will be prepared, if desired, to assign a fresh index mark to any Council who may require to start a fresh series of numbers under a new mark."

However, it would appear that the Local Government Board very quickly had second thoughts, even before London exhausted its initial mark, since it must have become obvious that the increasing use of cars would require a system with a greater capacity than original envisaged. Thus, all one and two-letter marks were followed by up to four numerals.

The commonest method of issue of registration numbers was, of course, to allot numbers sequentially from 1 to 9999, but there were numerous variations from this practice. Article IV of the 1903 Regulations stated "If the ownership of the car is changed, notice of the change shall be given either by the new, or the old owner to the Council with which the motor car is registered, and an application shall also be made either to cancel the registration of the car or to continue the existing registration under the new ownership."

Article VI provided that "If the Council are satisfied that a motor car which has been registered with them is destroyed, broken up, permanently removed from the United Kingdom, or registered with another registering authority under the Act of 1903, or if the owner of a registered motor car by application in writing requests them to cancel the registration thereof (except where in the case of a change in ownership, there is an application to continue the existing registration) they shall cause the entries in the Register of Motor Cars with respect to the motor car to be cancelled, and may, if they think fit, assign the registered number of the moror car to any other motor car whether belonging to the same or any other owner." Thus, these two regulations authorised the re-issue of void numbers, and it was possible for a car to receive a new number on change of ownership, or for a new car to receive a void registration number (The Roads Act of 1920 put an end to this practice). The 1903 Regulations further specified that "The Council of any County or County Borough may, if they think fit, keep the Register of Motor Cars in two parts, one relating to motor cars not being motor cycles, and the other part relating to motorcycles."

In those early days motorcycles where, in some areas, as numerous as cars. As with much of the original legislation, there was no uniformity of practice between the various authorities. Many simply kept seperate registers for the two categories, but used a common sequence of numbers issued in numerical order as and when required. At the other extreme were those authorities who not only kept seperate registers, but also adopted a seperate and duplicate sequence of numbers for motorcycles; in many cases the two series continued side by side until the end of 1920. Derbyshire, for example, issued to the end of 1920 R 1-5395 for cars and R 1-5795 for cycles; from 1.1.21 a common series R 5796 upwards. In a few cases there were three parallel series, in the case of those authorities using a seperate sequence for Heavy Motor Cars. Other authorities, whilst using a common series of numbers, adopted numbering schemes by means of which motorcycles could readily be identified.