Licences to drive motor vehicles were introduced to the UK as a requirement of the Motor Car Act 1903. Prior to that drivers of motor cars required no authority in order to drive a vehicle.
Until 1930, driving licences were issued by local authorities (counties or county
boroughs) using designs of their own creation. The only common features were those mandated by the Act
but the general size, colour and dimensions varied enormously.
After the Road Traffic Act 1930, the design of the licence document became standardized and (although
this varied over the years) standard designs were retained until the card licence was phased out in the
1970s. The licence slips that were pasted inside were produced to a broad standard but each local
authority seems to have ordered its own stock and there was considerable variation between one authority
and another.
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