What was the first caravan you ever stayed in?
Steve and I love talk of the "old days" which for us in our childhoods steered around the 70's and 80's.
My dad was made redundant by the now defunct company "ICI" when I was 8, and with the humble redundancy payout, my parents, knowing there would be no other ways to afford holidays, invested in a Ci Sprite Alpine 12 ft - the sort that had glass windows and gas lights with a brown and orange interior! I think the exterior was white and green, and the wheels had hub caps. It would be amazing to get hold of one today.
Then, after 2 years, while caravan browsing (the way you do while just going to a dealer to visit the shop and pick up Aquakem) they came across a fairly new van, which I now know to be quite rare - a Ci Cadet 12. It still had glass windows but it was still much lighter in weight, meaning we could travel for the first time from East Anglia to Yorkshire for a holiday, being towed by the trusty Hillman Avenger estate.
Meanwhile, Steve's childhood van was a was "square" looking Fleetwood Colchester - again, glass windows and hubcaps - beautiful - and again, very rare today. Then his parents went into motor- homing - a Ci Transit motor-homer mk II, followed by a Bedford Glendale.
What were your early caravans? Would so love to know!!
Ben and Steve
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My very first experiences of caravans were of renting statics at Praa Sands when I was about 10-12 years old. I think that gave me a taste for the hobby.
You can see my first touring van in my avatar. A 1949 Bluebird Rambler which we had in the early 70s. After that we upgraded to a late 60s Ace Pioneer. They both had glass windows, gas lighting, no heating or electrical appliances. We've gradually moved on from there.
We bought the Series llA LR after getting fed up with replacing the big ends on our car every time we towed up Haldon Hill on our way home.😀
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This may sound complicated..
My first view of the inside of a caravan was when my friend's boyfriend's parents invited us all for lunch. This was on a rally in a wet and windswept field near Stratford on Avon...we had ham salad (standard caravan fare) and we shared the space with a large hairy dog so the air was a bit damp to say the least and all a bit crowded. That would be in the late 1960s. Not being technical I can't remember the van except it was very chintzy.
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As a child a static in Bude, a Bluebird IIRC back in the mid 50's. My first touring van was a 1980 Eccles Topaz.
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Hi Ben and Steve. My first experience was static in Hastings with my grandparents (I must have been about 7). It was a large square green thing and the first thing I remember was the smell, not unpleasant but distinctive. I can’t remember the sleeping arrangements but I can visualise the flowery brown curtain (why was everything brown?!) that separated to the kitchen area. We loved these holidays and did it for quite a few years, and don’t think it ever rained!!!
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Loving these replies so far - thank you! Memories are coming back of manual foot pump for the cold water feed, whistling kettle to heat the water..........don't get me wrong, there is a luxury in today's caravanning but is it as much fun......?
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A foot pump, what luxury! We had a water container stood on the floor - big jugs were a common sight.
Our space heating was a free standing paraffin heater - yeah, I know😱
Give me the mod cons of the present day any time.👍
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I remember a ?static caravan holiday I would have been about 3 or 4 when we first went - we returned for several years. My abiding memory is gas lamps and my mum being scared of them. Something breaking, not sure that it was the shade but had be to replaced, and it was eating into our tight budget. And my dad struggling to light them in the evenings. Vague recollection of foot pump but lovely memories of being secure and safe. No idea on sleeping/washing/cooking arrangements. Why would I at an early age? It was all sorted by magic!
Caravan hire holidays stopped when I got to about 9 or 10 and we went to IoW to mums friend's guest house. The excitement was the ferry and setting out early in the morning, as well as going with our cousins.
We hired statics when our family came along, might do again but I'd prefer to find a motorhome I'm comfortable to drive as I miss ours 😢 and OH can't drive now so ours has gone!
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When I was around 10 years old we, (parents, me and older brother) stayed in statics in North Wales and Pembrokeshire. We never seemed to book but went on spec and if they liked the site would hire a van there and then for the week. One year it backfired, no availability to be found and we had to return home.
Some friends offered us their van for the rest of the week in Sedbergh in the Yorkshire Dales. It was a very old 50s tourer placed on the site as a static. I remember that opening the wardrobe door at 90 degrees allowed one end of the caravan to be closed off for privacy.
The following year my parents bought a tourer and that was the start of their touring caravan life and we followed, 3yrs after getting married, with our own caravan.
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My parents 1950,s Bluebird.Solid fuel stove,drop down double bed and a plastic churn for water.Towed by a 1950,s riley 2.5 and then an Alvis from the late 1940,s (TA14).Nearly every trip would involve a blow out on the caravan (probably due to the weight of the stove!)After getting married and having children the wife and I bought a trailer tent which we used for 6 months before our first caravan which was a 1968 sprite musketeer towed by my Wolseley 18/85.First brand new van was a Thompson Gleneagle GL 1978 towed by a mark 1 granada gxl.This was followed by 13 Buccaneers,a couple of Abbeys and now a swift elegance.We have seen over the years,fluorescent lights,electric water pumps,water heaters,cassette toilets,wet central heating and now microwave ovens,self levelling,remote control movers and even spare wheels!
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Many thanks for all of these replies - really fascinating. Of course, when I was a child, inhouse leisure batteries were starting to come in with the mini-fluorescent kits to replace the gas lamps, and I remember seeing a new Swift for the first time through friends we befriended on a CL site in Norfolk - it had an electric pump and I was so jealous! Back then, the sites used were all generally just a field, a cold water tap, a bin and a cess-pit tucked away around the back of a barn - all at £1.00 per night! Showers for me and my kid brother were standing in a square made of two beach wind-breaks and buckets of tepid water thrown over us!!
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I don’t come from a caravan background. I can recall a couple of holidays as a child in a big static belonging to a friend of my Dad, somewhere on Yorkshire Coast.
First thing my OH to be and I bought when we got together was a tiny camper van. A Morris Suntor, with a pop up roof, and the most ingenious insides we have still ever seen. It had a tiny little sink, a two burner hob with grill that was brilliant, a tiny wardrobe and a little food cupboard. All the seats reversed/unfolded to make a cosy little sitting area, or a tight double bed. The Rottweiler was in luxury space in the rear, with a case of clothes stored up in the roof space! We had our touring honeymoon in this, and did thousands of miles until it finally died. We took out the cooker, put it into a customm built box and used it for camping. These rare vehicles now go for serious classic car money.
Loaned SIL’s Monza caravan one Summer, bought it Summer after. That did us for a few years, then back to camping. Then we found a Cotswold Windrush caravan in 1996. We still have it. Along with a small motorhome.....the adventure continues.....😁
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The first caravan we ever stayed in was a Bluebird (type unknown but it had a pull down double bed) which my parents had on a permanent pitch on the Warren near Abersoch in the early 50s before it became a posh site! We used to go there for about 6 weeks every summer and remember it being fantastic. We used to meet the same families every year and had great fun racing our model cars down the sand hills, damming the stream that ran through the site and chasing the tide to walk around the headland to Abersoch, or walking over Llanbedrog Old Man. There were 6 of us in a 4 berth so my brother and I used to sleep in a tent. The caravan was very basic, no water, an 'Elsan Type' wc, no fridge, gas mantle lighting but we usually used a Tilley Lamp. In the early 70s when we had a young family we had a Sprite Alpine with a foot pump for water and still gas mantle lighting. Moved up to a Piper 400 and I installed mains electricity with one of the kits you could get then. This was a massive enhancement to our caravanning, we could use an electric kettle, had a free standing electric light and we had a box fridge which we could use on electricity! We towed this caravan all over Europe and don't recall any problems. It was stolen in the late 80s so replaced with s modern caravan with all mod cons.
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Our first caravan holiday was in 1978 in a small 4 berth static at Presthaven Sands in Wales. You had to convert the dinette into a double bed every night and had hardly any room to move about but it was OK as a holiday base for a week. I have an Eldiss Autoquest motorhome for myself and my 2 dogs for the last 7 years, but my paragplegic son, myself and 2 dogs have hired a static on Hayling Island a couple of times to visit my ex in laws. What a difference to 1978. Three bedrooms, good size living/dining area, huge TV with DVD player, etc. The only problem was that although my son could move about OK in his wheelchair once inside the van, he had to crawl up and down the steps to get in and out. Unfortunately, most vans with disabled facilities don't allow dogs, and vans which allow dogs, don't tend to cater for disabled people.
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It would be around 1964 when as a child my parents bought a caravan. It was a Bessecarr Regis maybe 14ft, towed with a Hillman Minx. Four berth, glass windows, two ring cooker and grill, 3 gas lights, whale hand pump ( cold only ) from a water container under the sink, waste through the floor into a bucket. The toilet compartment had a bucket and chuck-it toilet with a small sink but no tap, no light in there either, you needed a torch, no 12v or mains in those days but we had a freestanding gas heater which connected to a gas outlet with a rubber pipe.... Luxury. I distinctly remember going to Damage Barton near Woolacombe when it was just a field with a tap. We went back a couple of years ago in our current van.. :-)
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We used to covet Romahomes ‘cos you could stand up straight in one!😂
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FIL had an AC for towing, BIL had Morris Oxford for towing.
Lovely outfit, I bet that garden was colourful AD. (I always notice gardens....😁)
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After several years of one week a year in a static or chalet at a Haven type site, with three young children we borrowed a 1970's 10 ft Cadet 4 berth off my brother, how we all fitted in who knows. Off we went with our brother and sister in law in their brand new Marauder to Unity Farm at Breen for a week. We were hooked, came home and purchased our first caravan. A 1972 Elldis Whirlwind 4 berth. Gas lights, footpump cold water supply, no washroom but previous owner had fitted EHU with one socket. We purchased a used gas only fridge and had it fitted, luxury. 35 yrs on and many changes of caravan, we are still enjoying caravaning though now our grandson comes with us.
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As a Kid in the 1950s we used to stay at a site in Rhyl in a tourer used as a static, much later when our kids came along we used to stay in large static caravans for the main weeks (never liked hotels) but bought a tent for weekends away, then we moved up to a trailer tent but a couple on the site we were staying advised us get rid of it and buy a caravan so we had the marauder 4D (shown in the picture) we sold that and started jetting abroad then the son arrived home with a dog just after that he then moved out and the daughter started at Uni and of course we were left with the dog ! then my wife took me for a sunday drive "as it was a nice day" and as we drove into the caravan dealers I was met with the words " Well we can't really put the dog in the kennels when we go away so I thought......" we are now on our 4th van, the new tow car is on order, still we saved on kennel bills
but she does love her driving and touring and by the way the dog is now 16 years old and still goes mad when we load up the van 2 -
Circa 1958 - Brighouse Bay. I've no idea of the make. My uncle towed it up and we went up in our old sit up and beg Ford Anglia.
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Wow - thank you all so much! Really glad I joined up on here, now!
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We bought our first caravan in 1968, it was a 16ft Bluebird. We were yet to be married and we bought it with my future wife’s redundancy money (It was me who made her redundant !!). The ‘van cost £15. It had two single beds and two single bunks but. I quickly modified the singles to a double. We towed it all over the UK and traded it in for £100 six years later for a brand new Robin 12ft ‘van. Happy days.
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Like the OP our first van was a Fleetwood Colchester. In this case a 1972 model. It came with a bucket and chuckit Elsan, a two ring cooker hob with grill and nothing more, not even 12volt lights. The mantles in the gas lights broke every time it was towed. I have no nostalgia for the van itself because it leaked like a sieve. After quite a few years retirement as a children’s play house, we gave it to a couple who were emigrating to North Cyprus, for transporting bulky items by boat. Rather than support it on a triangular frame for craning it onto the tramp cargo boat, lazy dockers slung it on straps which caused extensive crushing. It was so down on its springs that it couldn’t be towed loaded, uphill on rough roads in Cyprus, so the contents were unloaded and ferried to their new home, leaving the rather worse for wear van at the back of the beach as a changing room. In due course, our friends allowed a homeless person to live in it, and so it remained until the Millenium and beyond. I’ve lost track of it now, but I can’t imagine that anything more than mouldering wood amidst corroded aluminium panels remains.
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Only just seen this but what a jog it gave to my memories/recollections.
First van was a static on a farm in Mevagissey.I was about 7, 1961, and it was quite an adventure as we lived in Bolton and had no car.
Dad hired a Renault Dauphine and a journey of what, to us children seemed like forever, and was over 12 hours, arrived for a long weekend stay.
Finding Cornwall appealing a Lamont frame tent and equipment was purchased, from Howard’s of Bolton, and the annual trips to Trevelgue holiday park at Porth near Newquay began.
The tent was passed to us, and more holidays taken, till it was ripped to shreds by our cat whilst erected on the lawn to dry out following another wet pack away.
We had been invited into a caravan, in 1986, when our daughter befriended a girl on holiday at Woolacombe Bay and what a difference it was.The only problem with considering a caravan was money, or a lack of, so this was not considered again till following a Eurocamp holiday in tents we had had enough and, in 1991 bought our first van.
Other posters have mentioned the vans with glass windows and gas mantle lamps and that was initially every van we looked at that we could afford.
Then we saw an ad for a van that was affordable, towable, and more recent. It was an Avondale Pearle Custom and it was affordable due to it being an ex hire van that was ‘well used’.This did us till in 1995 when a deal on a new van, Elddis Typhoon, worked out only slightly more than secondhand Van and we have had new vans since with a Lunar Clubman SR now.
Vanning is a great way to holiday and the couple we met back in 1986 are still our holiday buddies, they have an Autotrail MH, and we usually go abroad with the vans each year and also have a long haul holiday together.
Each year at the start of the summer holidays we meet up at their place, the two ‘girls’, their now six children, three each, for a weekend long BBQ catch up and reminiscing.
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Great memories of static caravans in the 60’s and early 70’s on caravan sites in Devon and Ayrshire. The gaslights and of course the best ever smell - of bacon frying in the morning! We lived in a tiny flat, mum and dad and me, so the freedom to just run outside to freedom was wonderful. At the site near Girvan in Ayrshire, (Jeanscroft?), there was a long drive up a private farm road, so dad let me sit in his lap to “drive” our Morris Oxford to the site entrance. Excited doesn’t cover it as an 8year old! And of course it was always sunny.....ahem.
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Very first caravan holiday was when my Dad hired a Sprite Alpine for the week and we went from Sheffield to Modbury in south Devon - quite an adventure in itself! Our arrival down the single track lane to the site coincided with high tide and as a consequence, everyone was leaving the beach and coming towards us. I just have visions of miles of traffic having to back up into a farmer’s field to let us through! Happy days😀
I also remember the tent my brother and I had to sleep in because of the limited space in the van - one of those dark brown, heavy canvas, ex-army ridge tents with string guy ropes and wooden tent pegs. It just makes me smile thinking how far we have come since then.
The first van I owned was a brand new Swift Pirouette, probably in the early 80s. Now that was the height of luxury. However, at just over 1 year old ( and out of warranty), it developed serious damp in the bathroom but Swift were very good and I took it back to the factory ( about 5 miles away from home) and they repaired it with no quibble whatsoever - and no charge. I doubt I would get that response today!
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