Autonumerology
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Autonumerology is a name given to the study of unusual license plate numbers. The term was coined in 1964 by Noel Woodall, from Staffordshire, England, and is used to promote dealing in personalised or unusual registration numbers.
Woodall's interest in Number Plates began shortly after moving to Blackpool in 1962, when he saw a car with the registration BB 4, belonging to a local bookmaker.
After a fruitless visit to the library, Noel decided to put an advert in the RAF's Air Mail magazine asking other members for information about mayoral and distinctive number plates. Noel’s tenacity paid off and he received so much information that he decided to compile and publish a book entitled Car Number Galaxy – Celebrities. It cost Noel £250, which was 6 months' wages at the time.
Noel’s book contained a list of registrations, the cars they were on, and their owners. Noel did considerable research and included in the book's forward a brief history of car registrations from 1903 on, and included a whole page on the history of A1. Noel’s particular interest in number plates with only one letter and one number resulted in his first personal purchase, W3.
Noel followed this with other small books entitled Veterans, More Celebrities and the also a very rare cartoon edition illustrated by his friend Fred Fawbert. Noel has since compiled over 20 books on the subject of number plates, several of which were edited by his friend and colleague Brian Heaton. The last book to be published was in 2000 and was called Car Numbers, which was the 11th edition to bear that name, the first being issued in 1969.
Noel Woodall and Brian Heaton were responsible for bringing autonumerology to the masses in the UK and for largely creating a market that has traded hundreds of millions of pounds worth of vehicle registrations. Their passion helped fuel the creation of NewReg.com in 1996, one of the UK’s very first E-commerce web sites. In 1996 the BBC got in on the act and interviewed Noel at the premises of New Reg Limited for the TV series Top Gear.
