Car Numbers
Car Numbers were first issued in the UK in 1903 purely to identify each vehicle. As the years have gone on though they have become more and more interesting to many as people realised that names and words could be made out of the numbers and letters. A market for cherished number plates began and is still going strong but although there is often a serious amount of money changing hands there is also a very much fun aspect to car numbers.
Some car numbers related trivia:
CGH 111 is owned by a Mr C G Hill who in 1959 told a car salesman he would only buy a car if it had his name on it.... the car salesman subsequently obtained the number for him for the princely sum of £5.00! If only it was so easy these days!
Nothing to do with any particular number plates but a gentleman from India discovered his amazing ability to memorise numbers at the tender age of 4, his parents were hosting a party and during the party he ventured into the car park, read the car numbers for each guest’s car and recited the entire list later on in the evening!
The first recorded cherished number is T 8 which was owned by Harry Tate the Scottish Comedian (1872-1940)
S8 RRY was bought for Robbie Williams to put on his new Ferrari to say 'Sorry' to his fans for spending so much money on a car. He later bought a moped!
MT 906 is on an 1896 Arnold Dogcart. Not too interesting a fact at first glance it is true. However, the vehicle is the only known survivor to have taken part in the Emancipation Day Run on 14th November 1896 (the first day motorists could drive without being preceded by a pedestrian!).
When a friend told Paul Daniels that MAG 1C was for sale he didn’t believe it as he’d already looked into acquiring the number many years earlier and been told it had never been issued. He answered the ad in The Times though and found that it was all above board and on a Ferrari so went ahead and purchased the plate with the car. He had however been correctly informed all those years ago because at the time the number hadn’t been in existence, it had actually only been issued later as a replacement for a donor vehicle involved in a cherished transfer!
You might have heard of Chris Tarrant of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and 'Tiswas' fame. But did you know he started out as a teacher? Early on in his teaching career and a little short of cash he lived in the grounds of the school he taught at in his minivan which showed the registration mark 161 GLO. The postman would very kindly deliver his mail to the car, so when a friend addressed a letter 161 GLO, Sprules Road, London SE4 it has to be the only time car numbers have been used as an address!