What sort of information will a vehicle or licensing register for a county or burgh tell me about a vehicle and its owner(s)?

If the vehicle licensing register for a county or burgh survives, it may contain quite a lot of useful information, or it may contain very little. The problem is that, after the Roads Act of 1920, record keeping by licensing authorities became gradually less standardised. Some authorities kept registers faithfully, while others merely listed the registration number without any other details (putting more efforts into keeping the card record system).

The registers themselves are usually quite bulky. Where information has been entered consistently and competently, there are lots of details, such as the name and address of the licensee, the type of vehicle, and subsequent changes in registration.