Brass plates

[rewdco]

Hi,

I've just seen the Ministry of Supply rebuild plate in this thread: http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...?threadid=9539
I have also seen similar plates on motorcycles, all with a post war date. Does anybody know if these plates were used during the war as well?

REgards,
Jan

[rewdco]

Another one:

[rewdco]

Is this war time or post war?

[rewdco]

Last question: these brass contract plates were rivetted to the rear mudguard of BSA M20's and Norton 16H's, but I've never seen them on Royal Enfields. Somebody told me that Enfield used to have "a rectangular brass plate wrapped round the rear mudguard carrier giving the contract number...". Can anybody confirm this? Were these plates used on other makes as well?

REgards,
Jan

By the way, in my research for the war time history of the WD/CO, I have found that quite a few of these motorcycles were despatched from the factory to Dudley Zoo in 1943. Was this a military depot during the war?

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by rewdco
I've just seen the Ministry of Supply rebuild plate in this thread: http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...?threadid=9539
I have also seen similar plates on motorcycles, all with a post war date. Does anybody know if these plates were used during the war as well?

Hi Jan,

My own BSA WM20 carries one of these plates on the rear mudguard and it is wartime dated, but slight variation on the first line;
MINISTRY OF SUPPLY T.T.3 (BR)

Mine is dated 3-3-44 and AAW number is B180

These Army Auxillary Workshops were usually civilain garages contracted to the Ministry to carry out rebuild work.

[Darren Witty]

This plate is on my the rear guard of my bike. Is someone able tell me what it is and what the number refers to? Does it help date the bike?

Thanks

[rewdco]

Darren,

This is the so called “contract plate”, fitted to all (?) the vehicles during the early years of the war. Later contract plates were made in pressed steel, but I don’t know if the system was still in use towards the end of the war. The purpose of this plate was to find out quickly which parts that had to be ordered when the vehicle came in for a repair. The same contract number (in the case of your BSA M20: C/9310) and catalogue reference number (in your case Catalogue Reference Nr 30) were stamped in blue ink on the maker’s documents. So it was easy to find the right book for the right vehicle with this code: “Contract number” / “Catalogue number” / “ * “ , with “ * “ being either 1, 2 or 4:
1: this is always “A list of spare & replacement parts”
2: this is either the “Instruction Book”, or the “Hints and Tips” book, which is in fact also an instruction book…
3: ???
4: this is the “Driver’s Handbook”, which is also a kind of an “Instruction Book”…

This “easy recognition system” became a bit unreliable when lots of vehicles had gone through a complete rebuild. During these rebuilds, parts from different contracts got mixed up…

Can this plate help you to date your motorcycle? Well, BSA contract C/9310 was ordered (“demand date”) on 3rd December 1940, and the contract date was 30th December 1940. From the military receive cards (in the VMCC library), I know that the deliveries started in August 1941, and according to Orchard and Madden’s “British Forces Motorcycles”, the deliveries ended in January 1942. Frame numbers ran from WM20-44213 until WM20-53212, and the allotted census numbers were C4553722 until C4562721. With this information, you should be able to interpolate the approximate build date and census number of your motorcycle.

Regards,
Jan