Number plates: A History of Vehicle Registration in Britain

Registration marks are one of the very few unbroken links between the earliest days of the motor vehicle and the present day. The system introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century had a straightforward purpose in identifying the place of origin of motor vehicles, providing links to owners. As more and more vehicles came into use, the original system evolved through piecemeal development and sheer necessity to the point where adaptations changed it almost beyond recognition. This b...