The Touring Caravan

From the original horse-drawn caravan to the sophisticated and well-appointed luxury leisure vehicle we know today, this book follows the dynamic evolution of the touring caravan over the last century. Using a selection of images from his archive, expert Andrew Jenkinson reveals how technical advances as well as interior design revolutionised the touring caravan in the United Kingdom, and how caravanning became a culture and a lifestyle choice. Covering well-known brands such as Eccles, Sprite, Swift and Bailey, this lively and informative book will appeal to caravan enthusiasts and social historians alike, and rekindle happy memories for anyone who has holidayed in a touring caravan.

Over a century of the modern touring caravan

Today, touring with a caravan is a leisuretime activity enjoyed by millions; the hobby and the industry it supports having grown explosively since the early 1960s. The modern trailer caravan is a true ‘home from home’ offering every amenity and truly comfortable living accommodation - a far cry from the ‘vans of the 1960s and before. This book traces the evolution of the trailer caravan by describing and picturing milestone models and telling the stories of their manufacturers. Every caravan enthusiast will find something of interest in this book, and its images and text will bring back happy memories of holidays in caravans long ago traded-in for newer models.

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.

Resources and Planning focuses on the trends, approaches, techniques, and emergence of new concepts in geography, as well as the use of models in planning endeavors. The selection first offers information on planning education and practice, including systems models and inner cities dilemma. The book also examines planning processes and mathematical modeling in land use planning. Topics include general assessment and development of urban modeling; extensions and developments of the gravity model; essential dualism of knowledge and action; science and design as problem-solving processes; and planning processes as social learning. The manuscript ponders on zone definition in spatial modeling and patterns of information use in planning, including problems and alternative approaches to zone system design. The text also concentrates on maps as source materials; quantitative developments in geography and planning in a practical reasoning framework; human's impact on climate with particular reference to energy balance changes; and climate and town planning. The book is a fine reference for readers interested in geography, particularly the trends, techniques, and approaches used in this discipline.

A detailed account of how the British caravan industry developed in its first 30 years, and of the caravans - from Alcock to Winchester - it produced. The designs in this period ran the full gamut from weird to wonderful, but all contributed to the caravan’s evolution. This book provides a nostalgic trip back to the past for caravan enthusiasts; it also serves as a record of the industry’s fledgling years and as a useful work of reference.

In Caravans, Hege Høyer Leivestad opens the caravan door to understand how daily life is organised among Britons and Swedes who have relocated, either seasonally or permanently, to mobile homes. Leivestad investigates how the caravan and campsite come to fit and challenge conventional domestic ideals, and how the static mobile caravan can nurture ideas of freedom even when it is standing still. With sensitivity and an awareness of the humour and pathos of the lives of her subjects, Leivestad closely examines the shaping of the European camping phenomenon and its day-to-day pleasures and pains, ranging from friendships ties to conflictive bingo nights, from nosy and noisy neighbours to fake fireplaces and rotten awning floors. As the first ethnographic study of caravan life in Europe, Caravans offers a refreshing take on contemporary mobility debates, showing how movement can best be understood by taking a detailed look at certain specific mundanities in material culture. This rich and topical ethnography is a must-read for students of anthropology, human geography and architecture, and for those with an interest in the possibilities and perils of a life on wheels.