Older Number Plates of the form BS xxxx

[bigtwin]

Can anyone offer a better explanation than our FunBot offered?

Thread 'Car registration numbers'
Broken Link Removed

Has anyone else noticed that many older vehicles have a number plate of the form BS 1234 or is it a case of my suffering confirmation bias?

Ian

 

[tribalbrit]

Bull Shit.

 

[pappajohn]

Can't open link

 

[DavidG58]

Do you mean 2 letters followed by 4 digits or more specifically the letters BS then 4 digits?

I think the other thread showed that BS plates were issued in the northern isles where there would be low numbers issued, leading to loads left for the DVLA to sell at auction maybe

 

[bigtwin]

Bull Shit.

There are a number of ways to interpret your response. Go on, give us a clue which is the correct one.

Ian

 

[bigtwin]

Do you mean 2 letters followed by 4 digits or more specifically the letters BS then 4 digits?

The latter.

I think the other thread showed that BS plates were issued in the northern isles where there would be low numbers issued, leading to loads left for the DVLA to sell at auction maybe

Did DVLA auction numbers way back then? Even if they did, why would BS numbers be more attractive than any other two letter combinations?

Ian

 

[bigtwin]

Can't open link

Can’t help you there I’m afraid but it’s in the Fun Bot Forum under The Motorhome Fun Community section.

Ian

 

[DavidG58]

Did DVLA auction numbers way back then? Even if they did, why would BS numbers be more attractive than any other two letter combinations?

Quite a few possibilities for initials I would say , plus lots left to sell as not issued pre 1963 new style plates I would guess

I went for a phase noticing a lot of DS plates 20 odd years back , no idea why then either

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[tribalbrit]

There are a number of ways to interpret your response. Go on, give us a clue which is the correct one.

Ian

Sorry Ian. I meant BS stands for Bull Shit, around my area anyway. No offence meant.

 

[bigtwin]

Sorry Ian. I meant BS stands for Bull Shit, around my area anyway. No offence meant.

No worries.

Ian

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

Around Windsor Berkshire there was a whole fleet of BS number plates. They were all affixed to vehicles belonging to Billy Smart, of the circus fame. His winter quarters are where the Safari Park was housed, which in turn became Legoland.
Mike.

 

[Spriddler]

DVLA have a vast stock of blocks unissued numbers. Many of them were allocated to the Scottish Highlands. When I've re-built old bikes in Sussex when neither the log book nor original Bill of Sale exists they issue an age-related number.
BS was Orkney. There were so few registrations in Orkney that BS lasted 61 years!

Likewise SV (Kinross-shire) lasted 59 years

 

[Tombola]

Bard says the same . but then adds this



A UK license plate beginning with the letters BS indicates that the vehicle was first registered in Birmingham.

BS license plates were issued from 1963 to 2001, so they are common on older vehicles. However, they are still valid today, so some newer vehicles may also have BS license plates.

If you see a vehicle with a BS license plate, you can be sure that it is registered in Birmingham, England.

 

[Tigger-Tim]

Bard says the same . but then adds this



A UK license plate beginning with the letters BS indicates that the vehicle was first registered in Birmingham.

BS license plates were issued from 1963 to 2001, so they are common on older vehicles. However, they are still valid today, so some newer vehicles may also have BS license plates.

If you see a vehicle with a BS license plate, you can be sure that it is registered in Birmingham, England.

I think they're getting confused.

Pre 2001, Birmingham number plates had an O as the middle letter. I owned a few - NOVxxxR, NONxxxX, etc.
But not all with a middle O were Birmingham. OD was Exeter, I seem to remember.

Since 2001, Birmingham plates start with a B. My (Birmingham registered) car starts BP.

 

[steve69]

I used to often see the number plate on a Range Rover near where I lived.
BOI 10X

 

[BwB]

Northern Ireland number plates? (Belfast?)

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[Reallyretired]

One I see a lot RWE88 belongs to a chap R.Webb. First registered in 1903 I'd like to know how much that cost.

 

[Spriddler]

I think they're getting confused.

Pre 2001, Birmingham number plates had an O as the middle letter. I owned a few - NOVxxxR, NONxxxX, etc.
But not all with a middle O were Birmingham. OD was Exeter, I seem to remember.

Since 2001, Birmingham plates start with a B. My (Birmingham registered) car starts BP.

Agreed. As I posted earlier the two letter BS area registration is an Orkney designation used from 1903 to 1964. It probably lasted so long (61 years) because so few vehicles were registered there.
For more than 20 years I've done a lot of research helping people reclaim the original reg'n. nos. for vintage motorbikes which they had 'discovered' in barns etc. here and abroad but for which they didn't have any original paperwork and the reg'n was no longer on the DVLA website. It's quite a complex task not made any easier by the DVLA's bureaucracy and adherence to data protection regs.
In short, when the reg'n data was transferred from paper records (1979 I think) to the computerised system the nos. that had been dormant for a very long time were archived onto a separate computer file. (A team of temps was employed to do the transfers and many keyboard mistakes were made transferring the dormant and the live records).
After computerisation some local authorities retained their original manual ledgers (with their copper plate handwriting) for historical interest and I've spent time searching through quite a few of them in dusty basements. The computerised archived data is still held by the DVLA. A large amount (but not all of it as some was irretrievably lost) was made accessible by the Kithead Trust charity to whom the public can apply for info on rediscovered vintage vehicle registrations, including the supplying dealers and the names and addresses of the first owner.

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