Caravanning to visit our history
Several years ago, I stayed at a bed and breakfast in Staunton, Gloucestershire, and in the evenings I went for local walks. I was intrigued to notice that on several nearby country lanes were smallholdings, each which had the same design of bungalow built on it. I found a local history book, and discovered that this was a Chartist settlement- built in the 1840s – called Snig’s End / Corse. The idea was that you had to have property to be eligible to vote- working class people who were Chartists saved what money they could, and paid it into a fund – a ballot was held, and the winners were given a bungalow and smallholding. The idea was that people would carry on paying in, and money added from ground rents from those who already had the smallholdings, eventually more and more people would have a smallholding. The idea failed in the end, as some of the city dwellers who were given the plots couldn’t make a financial success of it, there was never enough money coming in to keep on expanding the scheme. Anyway, I discovered that there were five Chartist settlements which were built, and have now been able to visit three- the next I went to was Lowbands, not far from Staunton, and then Dodford, near Droitwich. Dodford is especially interesting, because the National Trust has bought one smallholding, called Rosedene, restored it, and you can visit it by appointment on the first Sunday of the month during the summer season. As a member of the National Trust, I started off by enjoying visiting stately homes and beautiful countryside. I use my caravan as a base to visit NT properties which would be too far away from home to visit from my home in a day. Now, the NT has conserved several reminders of the way of life of ordinary people – Rosedene, the Back to Back houses in central Birmingham, the haunting Southwell Workhouse. I’m hoping to visit Mr Straw’s house in Worksop later this year. There’s also Paul McCartney’s childhood house, and that of John Lennon, in Liverpool – many people go as part of a Beatles ‘pilgrimage’, but as well as that aspect there is the preservation of ordinary working class / middle class living in the mid 20th century. There’s also Thomas Carlyle’s house in Chelsea, and the comfortable accommodation of the famous such as George Bernard Shaw’s house Shaw’s Corner, and Winston Churchill’s property at Chartwell. When I plan my caravan trips, I look at the National Trust property map to see which interesting new places I can visit.
The photos here are of Rosedene, which I took on my first visit in the Spring of 2010. I went again on my current trip, as well as visiting the Back to Backs in central Birmingham.