BENTLEY SPOTTING: TU Explained (again)

At the Detroit Auto Show when I was at the Bentley Motors' display, Steve from Bentley mentioned to me that people often ask him what the 'TU' number plates mean.

You may have noticed that some newer 'TU' plates are now turning up on the company cars:

TTU1 for example:

Well, not to dwell on it, but all it is is the old U.K. registration letters for the Cheshire area - the city of Chester to be exact - twenty four miles from Crewe (probably the closest DVLA office to Crewe in the 'thirties).

"Chester (pron.: /ˈtʃɛstər/ CHESS-tər), is a city in Cheshire, England.
Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to
118,925 inhabitants,[1] and is the largest and most populous settlement of
the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a
population of 328,100 according to the 2001 Census.[2] Chester was granted
city status in 1541."

In the U.K. up until 2003 the two last letters of a three lettered plate show where the car was first registered.

'Wiki' explaination here:

"ONE OR TWO LETTERS FOLLOWED BY ONE TO FOUR NUMBERS OR REVERSE
These plates are rare and are normally only seen on newer vehicles as
cherished or personalised numbers. However, some still exist
and were originally issued to vehicles first registered between 1903 and
the mid 1930's. The reverse (where the one or two letters
follow the numbers) are very rare - only a few of these were issued in the
1950's / 60's when three letter plate combinations ran out.
The one or two letters, in the above example AB, make up the 'area
identifier' and indicate where the vehicle was first registered.
Area identifiers for vehicles first registered from 1 September 2001 are
different to those used with this system.
If the plate is reversed, e.g. 1234AB, the two letters (AB) are still the
area identifier.
The numbers, in the above example 1234 are the individual element which
give the vehicle it's unique identity. The numbers are
issued in sequence from 1 to 9999. Not all possible combinations of these
plates were issued - and many have since been sold on as
cherished numbers.
Although this series of plates has long since ceased being issued to new
vehicles, it is still in use for re-registrations for pre-1931
('vintage') vehicles which need new plates. The current series being used
for re-registrations is SV8000 - SV9999 which was never originally issued."