SOUTHAMPTON CITY COUNCIL: Motor taxation registers, licensing forms and indexes

Before the centralisation of licensing at DVLC Swansea in 1978, local authorities acted as agents of the Department of the Environment to register vehicles and renew licences. Before 1921, licensing had been entirely the responsibility of the local authority (some registers from this period can be found for CR registrations in SC/MT 2).

For Southampton CBC, the registration marks CR, TR and OW were used. The forms (RF 1 and others) which survive here are principally the original declaration forms, when vehicles were first registered in Southampton. They have been frequently marked up with the name of last known owner or disposal. The index cards (often RF16/1) give class and make of vehicle; they would be replaced with a card from another council if the vehicle was transferred to that area. Originally, this could be used to see which authority held a particular file of documents currently.

These records were transferred in 1978 (Acc. 3999).