by Chris_R » Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:48 am
Yes Simon, the letters indicated a geographical area.
Codes were allocated alphabetically from A through Z based on population size. A was allocated to London, B to Lancashire, C to Yorkshire West Riding and so on. The letter I was not used as it could be confused with the number 1. The letter Z was allocated to Dublin (in those days Ireland was ruled by the UK).
When they got to Z, they continued with AA, AB, AC, AD and so on until all the areas had an initial allocation. FP was the last code initially issued. EA was allocated to West Bromwich as part of this first round of allocations.
Registration plates were then allocated by the local authority using their allocated code plus 1 to 4 numbers. The first 9,999 vehicles registered in London would have been A1 through A9999. When that was used the area went to another 2 letter code but there was no system to the allocation of subsequent codes which went on a first come first served basis. GS for example was allocated to Perthshire, GT and GU were allocated to London, GV to Suffolk.
EA was allocated to West Bromwich and registrations in this series were issued between 1904 and 1938.
In the UK registrations are never recycled after a vehicle is scrapped. There was no system put in place to put a registration back in the system, once issued the number stayed with the car regardless of where the owner lived and once an owner moved out of the area where a registration was issued the local authority would lose track of it. So, by 1932 the available numbers for 1 and 2 letter codes were running out and so the system changed from 1 or 2 letters plus up to 4 numbers to 3 letters and 3 numbers. The local authority could add a letter in front of their allocated area code. Using again EA as an example, in December 1938 West Bromwich started issued AEA registrations with 1 to 3 numbers following, in November 1939 they started the BEA series, CEA came in June 1946 and so on.
By the mid to late 1950s some areas were again running out of numbers so a new system was introduced by reversing the sequence and having the numbers preceding the letters, still using the allocated area codes. On the first page of this thread is the Norcros 541S, registration 579 FEA. This is a reversed style issued by West Bromwich from July 1961. The regular letters/numbers style had been used from January 1950. Sometime in the first 3 months of 1950 registration FEA 579 was issued. Just over a decade later 579 FEA was issued.
In 1962 the system changed again, registrations reverted to the letters followed by 1 to 3 numbers format and a year suffix letter was added. A = 1963, B =1964 and so on. Not all areas used the suffix system until 1965 when it was made compulsory. Initially the year suffix ran from January to December but the car industry lobbied for a change so in 1967 the E suffix only ran from January until July, the new F suffix started on 1st August 1967.
Clear as mud? I hope so.
There is no facilty for making up your own registrations as exists in some other countries so the concept of "desirable" registrations has grown up over the years for example, RAD 10 (RADIO) for the BBC, IND 1A (Indian Embassy) and so on. There was always competition to get the number 1 of a series each year. Although strictly speaking it should not be done, Jensen arranged with the West Bromwich office sets of "nice" registrations hence HEA 1D, HEA 2D, HEA 4D, JEA 4D, NEA 2F, NEA 3F, NEA 4F and so on, the letter 4 in these registrations signifying the 4 wheel drive Jensen FF.
Last edited by
Chris_R on Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Chris
JOC Member 6116
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