Orkney Image Library

It looks like it indeed, see picture #311

Is this known as a Matador?

Confusion reigns. picture #7503 shows the BS number plate BS7777, which we are told was the last BS registraion number in 1964, before the ABS***C came out.
So how does this Matador Snowplough have the number BS7812?

I'm sure someone out there has the answer...

The Matadors were on the go in the 50's and were only taken out in the snow. Boy could they shift the snow.

It is not my intention to add to ny 'confusion', but I am reliably informed that the following information is correct!

Vehicles were registered by DVLA Swansea after the closure of the local office in Old Scapa Road, the number sequence BS**** onwards being used on vehicles throughout the UK from that time to the present day. A 'classic' example of this is a 1919 Stanley Steamer, one of the attractions in the annual London-Brighton veteran car run, which carries BS8814 and was issued by the DVLA to the then owner having completed the steam-driven car's renovation - in the 1980s.

I was told that they were ex RAF so would have been reregistered with BS plates when the town council bought them, if I remember correctly Billy Skea's son in Aberdeenshire has the Matador that my grandfather drove.

The vehicle registration office at Old Scapa Road was there till the late 70s or thereabouts, long after BS plates with no suffix letters stopped being issued. When original plates were sold off old cars, Swansea used to issue A-suffix plates to replace them. As this looked silly on many classic cars, by the early 90s they had begun to issue "age-related" plates which looked more like the ones the cars would have had originally, and were made non-transferable so they couldn't be sold off as well. These were numbers never before issued, so often came from the smaller counties. Many used the Caithness letters SK. A 1953 Standard Vanguard I used to own had been issued with the plate WSK 587 for example. BS numbers are often issued to much older cars, like the Stanley Steamer referred to, as two-letter plates were the norm when they were new. I think what Eoin says about the Matadors is an earlier example of the "age-related" idea - it would not have been appropriate to issue a new plate to an old vehicle, so an unused non-suffix BS plate would have been used instead.

I think I saw one of the matadors down by the river in Helmsdale a few years ago, (is it still there?) perhaps at Mackay's garage, not in Aberdeenshire as I earlier thought, It's an old Scammell Billy's son in law has.

I think this is the one that I spotted a few years ago in a Nissen shed nr Acharacle Lochaber. I have contacted the new owner and he is going to check the reg as it has a BS number too! If it is then it was converted as a breakdown recovery vehicle and is now used by a local Bus Operator.

I have good reason to be thankfull of the matador as i once got help on clay loan in a bad snow. I was at highland park for draff with a tractor and trailer, ( on a day i shouldnt have been out in, hit at my then boss ) and i went down clayloan and the trailer slipped on the snow and i landed up against the old doctors house the only thing that could help was the matador witch pulled me and tractor up the hill then eased it down to the bottom, cant remember who was driving but once again thanks if your still around. date i think was 1972.

i drove an AEC matador 7.7d for many years as a recovery vehicle for Omands garage Thurso. If you need any info there's not many of us left! The truck is still in Caithness.

Do you know vince (driver j&w tait kirkwall)?
! towed his 6 wheeler leyland from berridale caithness and put it on board the st ola with our matador, he had a broken rear hub.
Can't remember when, long time ago.

Alas the Matador is now sold that i saw in Lochaber, The Reg no was BS7816.

My grandfather the late david shearer of tankerness had a matador that had a snow plough on the front of it and im sure this is the same one as it had a bs number on it. my grandmother has some photos of it and belive it or not the matador is still in orkney but in poor shape now.

I believe Walter Scott is doing it up Willie.
I remember playing in it when i was a boy running about at Breck, the place was like a treasure trove of vehicles!

In 1973, when i was a apprentice mason with the old county council there were two matadors. Both were snowplows, one was driven by the late Jimmy Leys. They also had two spare Matadors lying at their Scapa yard. One was grey and the other brown. If i remember correctly both still had some military markings on them plus auction markings. They could fairly shift the snow alright, better than the so called snowplows of today.