Catalogue description Motor Taxation

VEH/1 East Sussex: AP registrations 1903-1974

VEH/2 Hastings CB: DY registrations 1903-1974

VEH/3 East Sussex: NJ registrations 1933-1976

VEH/4 East Sussex: PM registrations 1923-1976

VEH/5 East Sussex: PN registrations 1927-1974

VEH/6 East Sussex: Trade Plate Registers 1935-1949

VEH/7 East Sussex: Register of driving licences 1904

VEH/8 Hastings CB: Register of licences 1904-1932

VEH/9 Brighton CB: CD registrations 1904-1977

VEH/10 Brighton CB: UF registrations 1925-1978

VEH/11 Brighton CB: Register of driving licences 1904-1919

VEH/12 Brighton CB: Register of disabled driving licences 1920s-30s

VEH/13 Eastbourne CB: HC registrations 1927-1974

VEH/14 Eastbourne CB: JK registrations 1928-1974

For further information, see How to trace the history of your car by Philip Riden (1991)

For East Sussex County Council motor car licensing letter books 1905, 1913-1919, see C/C29/1-2

Motor Taxation Office, Hastings

East Sussex County Council

Motor Taxation Office, Brighton

Sussex Police

Records are open for consultation

Records transferred from the Motor Taxation Office, Hastings 14 Mar 1978 (A2215) VEH/2/1-3; 8/17,28,30

Records transferred from County Hall, Lewes 4 Apr 1978 (A2225) VEH/1/1-20; 3/1-22; 4/1-26; 5/1-27; 6/1-2; 7/1

Records transferred from the Motor Taxation Office, Brighton via Brighton Museum 22 Dec 1981 (A2784) VEH/9/1-13; 10/1-10

Records transferred from the Sussex Police, Lewes 15 Jun 1987 (A4854) (VEH/1/21-72; 2/4-15; 3/23-65; 4/27-67; 5/28-68; 9/14-69; 10/11-63; 13/1-32; 14/1-34

• East Sussex
• Motor vehicles

The registration of cars and motor-cycles was made compulsory by the Motor Car Act 1903, which established the general principles of registration and licensing. The detailed arrangements were set out in the Motor Car (registration and licensing) Order issued by the Local Government Board on 19 Nov 1903

Vehicle licensing was entirely the responsibility of local authorities, who could either maintain a separate series of registers for cars and motor-cycles, or a single register (as Hastings CB did). The issue of driving licences was registered separately

Under the terms of the Roads Act 1920 local authorities became agents of the Minister of Transport. The Ministry allocated code letters to the various local authorities. Initially two letters only were used, but by 1936 it became necessary to add a third letter in front of the code letters. In 1964 the system of allotting a different letter, at the end of the number, for each year was begun

The Vehicle and Driving Licences Act 1969 established a centralised system and in 1974 the Driver Vehicle Licensing Centre at Swansea was established

The covering dates for each volume are not intended to be absolute; registration numbers were not allocated in strict sequence, because an organisation running a fleet of vehicles often took a batch of numbers, registering individual vehicles over a period of months and because certain distinctive numbers were allocated separately

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