Coventry Vehicle Registrations

Sorry if I've missed this but this is on the forum.

The picture in post 28 of this thread is almost certainly the green Daimler owned by the Jaguar Heritage Trust that currently bears the DU 1 mark. However it seems quite likely that it is also the vehicle that from 1926 until 1940 was taxed as DU 10, and as such it is quite possibly not legally entitled to either the DU 1 or DU 10 mark if it was ever driven on a public road. In any event it is definitely not the first DU 1 and it seems likely that the vehicle that originally bore that plate between 1904 and 1911 is destined to remain a mystery. The mark FL 921 as carried by the Daimler pictured in the link at post 3 of this thread was issued in Peterborough between 1904 and 1931. It is recorded by the DVLA as a 1921 Daimler but in grey, although the vehicle in the Transport museum with this plate is yellow. Regarding Charles Welch, the address given on patents he obtained in 1893-95 was The Hollies, Eaton Rd.

Not one of the very early DU plates but of interest anyway? Someone on the Forum will be able to pinpoint the year???? The solo rider is called Freddie Evans, machine number DU6442, he was a friend of my wife's grandfather. The group photo also has Freddie on and my wife's grandfather, unfortunately I don't know which ones they are. The group is the Rudge Whitworth Cycling Club about to depart on a Sunday afternoon run from outside the front of the Rudge-Whitworth works, the two motor bikes, DU3870 the side car rider, and the DU4196 rider were both senior officials of the club (presumably past riding??). Like other manufacturers in Coventry, the workers could buy their machines cut rate, subsidised by the factory. The better riders of the club used to go out on Sunday morning for a more serious (strenuous) session, some also joining the far more sedate social afternoon rides. Both form part of my researches into 'Coventry Godiva Harriers and Other Harrier Clubs in the City over the last 140 years'. Godiva had a serious successful cycling section within the club (the Godiva Cycling Club which later became the Godiva Road and Path Cycling Club). In the late 1870s, it was the banked cinder track in Earlsdon which was the centre of cycle racing in Coventry before the Butts was built; the athletics / harriers scene in the city developed well after the cycle racing was established and depended on the managers of the cycle track to allow the Godiva Harriers to promote a very few races.

The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust now has a website describing their current vehicles, which include the current Daimler bearing the registration mark DU1.