Even Stephen's

« previous page

Because he has the original old-style log book, Stephen knows the complete history of 9 SWL, but tracing the history of SWL 9 was somewhat more difficult. He wrote to the Senior Archivist at the Oxfordshire County Council who was able to tell him only when the vehicle was first registered and who originally owned it. But, alas, the owner of the 1952 moped in question had since long gone.
A further record was found, however, which showed that the mark must have been the subject of a cherished transfer in 1971. Stephen was advised also to contact the public record office at Kew but to no avail.

In 1982, during another dispute at the DVLC concerning yet another 9 SWL transfer, his V5 registration document became ‘locked in the system’ for nearly 6 months before he was able to proceed with a transfer to another Morris Minor (giving him yet another set of twins). One year later, during the next transfer, he received a fixed penalty ticket by a traffic warden for not displaying a current tax disc.
At that time it was necessary to submit the discs with the transfer application, leaving him with no alternative but to break the law. After writing an explanatory letter to the Chief Constable, the fine was quashed.

Since first becoming a two-car man sporting gloriously legal matching plates. Stephen has amassed 22 awards at a total of 36 Registration Numbers Club (RNC) and Cherished Numbers Dealers’ Association (CNDA) rallies which he has attended -travelling thousands of miles all over the country and collecting virtually every publication on the subject.

Stephen is an ‘old campaigner’ and did it the hard way, fighting tooth and nail to beat the system, but his personal ambition to own a cherished number has been balanced by the sheer pleasure of motoring. After becoming a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists at the age of just 19, he has always considered all the prestige that comes with cherished plate ownership to be just the icing on the cake.

1 | 2 | 3