Coventry Vehicle Registrations

How were the letters DU chosen? Good question! All the English & Welsh councils were arranged in order of population and letters were assigned in that order; thus A was for London down to FP for Rutland. Coventry came just behind Devonport with DR and ahead of Newport, Monmouth with DW. The letters DT and DV were missed out until much later for some reason, and DS went to Peebles (all series containing the letter S were initially reserved for Scotland). I believe this is a picture of the current DU 1 on ebay

Chief Constable Charsley appears to have been the man that issued the first Coventry registration numbers and an interesting person himself. (Newspaper archive confirms his role concerning the new identification motor plates from the onset in 1903). It may give another lead to the first registered DU 1

Hi guys, I hope you don't mind me jumping in here, I am tracing the history of my Rover P4. I got some details through from DVLA and my cars original registration appears to be AHP2. It was registered on the 20.01.1961 - is there anyway to confirm this using a list similar to the one used for the DU registrations. Using the oldclassiccar link I found out AHP2 was first used in October 1934 and then in 1960, which may tie in as it was the beginning of '61 when the Rover was registered. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards Marc Harvey

To trace a vehicle history, in general first refer to this page, produced by the Kithead Trust in Droitwich who hold some of the records themselves. You will see that in the case of Coventry registration marks, surviving records are located either at the Transport Museum, who have allocation books from 1949-75 (JRW 1 up to SRW 172N), or at the History Centre who have a card index of cancelled marks from 1903-63 (DU 2 to YKV 999 and 1 DU to about 999 CRW). You could try to ring the History Centre if they are willing to look up a number for you, but as the number was possibly not cancelled before 1963, they may have no record. The earliest cards show the name and address of the first owner and the last, not those in between, but I'm not familiar with the cards as late as 1934 which may well differ. Also if the mark was transferred to another vehicle, I think records of the original vehicle were then lost.

Many thanks mcsporran, will try calling the History centre.

In my early twenties, when in college in Bristol, I owned a Lambretta scooter to get me there and back. The registration was SRW.

Here is a photo of WK1203 on a 1927 Alvis 12/50 Sports Tourer

I have the registration mark 9830 RW, acquired originally on an old Morris Minor, it has graced many of my cars over the years, presently adorning my Lexus LS400. What does anyone think the registration may be worth these days?

Hi Roger 9399 RW is currently on the market for £3,545.

If you're taking that value from Googling the registration, mickw, you'll get a similar price for wingy's registration! Don't take them as gospel!

Sold my Series 2 Land Rover, fairly rare as they were only built between 1958-1961, at Christmas after owning it for twenty years, the registration plate was 1005 NX. The NX was the old reg for Warwickshire and as it was made in Lode Lane Solihull when Solihull was in Warwickshire it had never left the county it was built in, but now it lives with a yuppie in Royal Berkshire who probably uses it to take the kids to the organic yogurt emporium in Windsor every Saturday, he certainly gave me that impression when he came to buy it!

I've tried to find out a little more about Coventry's first registration mark DU 1. The Daily Telegraph of 27th October 1932 contains this article extract: "LATE MR. C.K. WELCH'S EARLY CARS In a beautifully equipped, private garage and workshop at the rear of a house in Warwick Road there is a Daimler car bearing the number DU 1 Coventry's first registration number. Alongside is a quaint old 10 h.p. Panhard-Levassor, and this was the original DU 10. These two cars have not been outside the garage for years. but they are not for sale ..." Charles Kingston Welch (1861-1929) was the inventor of the beaded rim for the pneumatic tyre. Although born in Tottenham, by the time of the 1891 census he was living at Parkhouse, Warwick Rd, Coventry. The card index of cancelled registrations at the history centre indeed shows him at Warwick Rd and owning DU 10 in 1926, but this is a green 34.9 hp Daimler saloon which was last taxed by A Pargetter & Sons of Bishop St in 1940. It is quite possible that prior to 1926 this mark was assigned to a different vehicle, quite likely the Panhard-Levassor. Mr Welch died in Coventry on 7th December 1929 and on 9th August 1938 the Telegraph reported "A HISTORIC VETERAN ... an opportunity of tracking down to its lair the car bearing the first Coventry registration plate ever issued

Another Coventry Evening Telegraph article, 19th August 1938. Search terms, C K Welch and Coventry registration in the 'what else' field. If you have a 'findmypast' account then: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000337%2f19380819%2f076

According to the DVLA site DU1 is still taxed until September 2018

By the way Mcsporron, if you search for Charles Kingston Welch, before you click on the Wiki page on the right hand side it says "translate this page, if you click on that you get it in English CKW in English