A Visual History of Caravans: Photographs from the 1920's to Modern Day

By Andrew Jenkinson

This book is a visual and informative look at the heritage of the touring caravan covering over a 100 years of this now very popular form of leisure. The book witnesses the UK being the inventor, developer and major producer of touring caravans. Images; (many from the Authors own personal archive) shows how caravan interior/exterior design has evolved and has been influenced by domestic trends through the decades. With nostalgic images the book brings to life this often forgotten yet important aspect of the modern touring caravan. Covering imported caravans as well as UK manufactured models shows just how continental tastes differ from UK buyers.

The touring caravan is a modern and sophisticated leisure vehicle that has evolved since the first commercial built Eccles brand caravan back in 1919. A then rich mans hobby, it became more affordable by the 1930’s and this was made possible with more modern production techniques. The design of the caravan emerged from a basic box like profile influenced by the 1800’s horse drawn gypsy caravan that became a fashionable form of holiday with the gentry. Dr Gordon Stables a retired Naval Officer influenced this idea with his specially built horse drawn caravan “The Wanderer” – now on show at the Broadway Caravan & Motorhome Club Site. Stables wrote of his adventures and caravanning in a sense had begun. The book contains many unpublished and rare images which also features cars from the period too. Andrew writes for Practical Motorhome, Practical Caravan and Park Home and Holiday Caravan Magazine among others and attends all major related shows.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Feb 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399092326

Andrew Jenkinson

Andrew grew up with caravans from his grandparents owning two touring caravans’ in the late 50’s and early 60’s. His own parents bought their first caravan a 1968 Sovereign 343 4 berth. Andrew became instantly fascinated by the design and different manufacturers and became a UK Industry expert, appearing on TV/radio and writing 14 books on caravan, motorhomes and static caravan histories to date. His passion has evolved over 50 years amassing a very substantial archive. He also has his own Youtube channel: The Caravan Industry Expert-Andy Jenkinson.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOURING CARAVAN

The Pioneers of Over a Century in Caravan Design and Development

There is always a pioneer in any industry and the caravan industry was no different. I have chosen as an introduction into the first chapter names that would have an impact on the touring caravans design and development over 100 years. Although there have been many involved with the history of caravan design, my choice is what I think deserve to be included in this introduction to the visual history of the touring caravan. Without these pioneers, caravan design may never have happened for years or simply never really moved on as quickly. The UK, though, would be the leaders, with ideas and marketing of this now extremely popular form of leisure vehicle. The names mentioned were designers and manufacturers of caravans and would become successful with their ideas and would become wealthy men – some also lost wealth too.

The Rileys

The touring caravan began on a commercial scale in 1919, in Gosta Green in Birmingham in the small premises of the Eccles Motor Transport Co, owned by father and son team Bill Riley senior and junior. They had seen an opening in what they thought was a new way of combining motoring with holidaying. Their transport business bought from a Mr Eccles was used as a platform for the new business venture of manufacturing car-pulled caravans. The idea of a caravan as a way of spending leisure had begun with horse drawn gypsy type. Dr Gordon Stables, a retired naval officer, had a horse-drawn caravan built to tour the UK. Writing journals of his adventures he inspired others – but only those only who could afford it, who were few. It was a hobby then for the rich who wanted to experience the freedom of the road.

So with the motor car becoming more reliable and being advanced in design yearly, using a car to ‘pull a caravan’ was not impossible. However, it would need to be light in weight and small in size. Fredrick Alcock, a keen motorist, had built a two wheeled caravan in 1914 to tow behind his Lanchester car. It had a swept back roof and looked more modern than designs that would follow on a commercial scale. But Alcock never saw a market and the caravan is presumed to have been left to rot in a garden and it is rumoured that the axle was all that was left in the early ’70s.

So the Rileys, who would both design, build, market and sell the Eccles caravan, set the footprint for other manufacturers to follow. The early Eccles was primitive in design, but the Rileys would be influenced by car design. Other small concerns followed such as Bertram Hutchins – later Winchester caravans, who based their early designs on horse-drawn caravans. The Rileys did experiment, for example with a design using rounded corners for better airflow on tow and using aluminium sides and developing larger caravans with better accommodation. The Rileys would also begin the commercial manufacture of the motorised caravan, again putting the idea on the map.

Bill Riley Junior went out towing an Eccles, selling the idea and taking on board new design ideas. The Rileys had also designed an overrun brake system by 1926/7 which other manufacturers copied. They tested their caravans and proved their reliability. So the Rileys no doubt shaped the way the touring caravan would evolve. Eccles would be the main innovators with the world’s first purpose-built caravan factory and its early exports into Europe and beyond. We will be hearing a lot more of the Eccles brand over the chapters.

Major Flemming Williams

Major Flemming Williams began his Car Cruiser caravan company in 1925. An artist in the First World War, his drawings were used by the newspapers of the time. Getting interested in the car-pulled caravan idea, he thought out of the box and used back then very streamlined profiles influenced by the latest aircraft designs. He also went for light weight with single panel construction. Insulation was poor but the design was modern and had appeal. The boxy early designs did allow more internal space and headroom, though. Williams’ Car Cruisers were always popular and the 1930s especially saw the company at its height of appeal. Williams was well liked but his caravans were seen as a bit off the wall with their steeply raked rear end. Williams earned the nickname ‘Streamlined Bill’ and though his Car Cruisers styling was not to everybody’s taste, they still attracted buyers.

Arthur and Joy Gardner

Another maker, Cheltenham – founded in the late 1920s as Summerfield caravans – would also quickly look at styling. Very square as in the early models from the early ’20s, they had by the next decade changed to a more streamlined look but not as extreme as Car Cruisers. Cheltenham would attract a following with proven designs which Arthur and Joy would use and improve, making their tourers very practical. After the Second World War, they, together with their son Cecil, would pioneer the use of glass fibre in the construction of the Cheltenham caravans by 1956. Distinctive and stylish, the upmarket Cheltenham became well known amongst caravanners.

Norman Wilkinson Cox

Wilkinson Cox, a caravan builder from around 1924, looked at the square box design but with a curved roof line. Like other makers by the early ’30s, Raven also adopted the curved sweeping ends to create a new profile. Established in an old warehouse in the West End of London, Cox’s factory wasn’t the most efficient. He had built some motorhomes but trailer caravans ruled the day. He based his designs on square profiles with a curved roof on the sides. In the 1920s, Cox stuck to his design ideas also building lightweight models for small cars/motorbike combinations. Cox would also design and come up with the idea of corner steadies, as we know them today. He also moved into the streamlined profile of the ’30s with his distinctive Raven models such as the Argon aut

Bertram Hutchings

Hutchings was a caravan user from the horse-drawn days, hiring out caravans; he and his wife lived in one for a time. After the First World War, Hutchings began building caravans for car towing. One model was the Hutchings Tom Thumb, which owed its style to the horse-drawn caravan, but it wasn’t till1930 that the Winchester-based Hutchings caravans went into streamlined models. Not only this, Hutchings also went into high end luxury models earning them the slogan ‘The Rolls Royce of caravans’. They had fittings such as a floor bath and earned a reputation for practical