Did your Coventry ancestor own or drive a vehicle? Find them in this unique record set.
Did your Coventry ancestor own or drive a vehicle? Find them in this unique record set.
In these records you will find -
The year ranges for this record set (1921-1944) refers to the initial registration year, however you may find some records for later years when the vehicle has a new owner. The majority of records will have two images. The first will have information on the vehicle including make, class, and colour. Clicking right will bring up information for that record on the ownership of the vehicle.
These are not just car registrations but also include other motorised vehicles, in particular motorcycles with and without sidecars (references to cycles are to motorbikes and not to bicycles).
Several acts and pieces of legislation passed in the first half of the twentieth century led to great regulation of vehicles including their registration.
Motor Car Act 1903 The Motor Car Act came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register. The act also introduced the crime of reckless driving, made it compulsory for drivers to have a license (though testing would not be introduced until later), and established a speed limit on public highways. The qualifying age was 17 for a car license and 14 for a motor cycle.
Roads Act 1920 The act, which you will find referenced in some of the cards, required county councils to register all new vehicles and to allocate a separate number to them.
Road Traffic Act 1930 In 1930, the Motor Car Act and the Locomotives on Highways Act of 1896 were repealed by the Road Traffic Act. The act, rather controversially, abolished speed limits for cars. It also introduced provisions relating to the classification of vehicles; their construction, weight, and equipment; and the introduction of the Highway Code.
Road Traffic Act 1934 After abolishing speed limits in the 1930 Road Traffic Act, there were a significant number of deaths and injuries caused by vehicles, with at least half being pedestrians. The 1934 act reintroduced speed limits (30mph in built up areas) and made driving tests compulsory for all new drivers from 1 June 1935.
Coventry was Britain’s ‘motor city’. The first British motor car was made in Coventry by the Daimler Motor Company Limited in 1897. Motor and cycle manufacturing then grew in Coventry, employing over 38,000 people by 1939. Several major car manufactures set up shop in Coventry including the British Motor Corporation, Jaguar, and Rootes Group. In the 1930s, car ownership in the UK rose to over 2 million, contributed to significantly by Coventry. During the Second World War, Coventry was bombed regularly by the Luftwaffe due to it being a manufacturing powerhouse in Britain.
After the war, the city quickly recovered and the car industry reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming the world's second largest car-making industry and the leading car exporter. Coventry became known as the UK's 'motor city' and ‘Britain’s Detroit’. In the 1970s, car manufacturing in Coventry and the UK went into decline due to competition from Europe and America, resulting in mass unemployment.