One of the first cars seen in Cwmdu 1902

Description

This is a photograph of Mr. Edward Lester, outside the Cwmdu Inn. He was the owner of the Carmarthen Tin Plate factory and was on his way to visit the Edwinsford Mansion in 1902. The car Ford Progress was registered BX8 in 1903 and seems to have generated much excitement in Cwmdu. The number plate was first issued in 1903 but legislation requiring all vehicles to be entered onto an official register came into force on 1st January 1904. Initially, the number plates consisted of a one or two letter code followed by a sequence of numbers from 1 to 9999. the codes were allocated in order of population size (from 1901 census) of local authorities, 'A' = London and 'BX' = Carmarthenshire. Thus, Mr Lester's car was the 8th car to be registered in Carmarthenshire.