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A pioneering UK motorised caravan maker was Eccles of Birmingham.
In 1913, William ‘Bill’ Riley built a caravan-like body on the chassis of his 1909 Talbot car. But his progress was halted by the onset of war.
After the First World War, his son Bill Jr returned from service in the Royal Flying Corps. He had been inspired by the use of trailers on the front line, and so the pair built a touring caravan.
In 1919 they took over Eccles, a failing Birmingham haulage business, and put their ideas into practice.
Horse-drawn caravans had been produced for many years before the war. Like today, they were homes to the Romany people.
A picture of a family group posing alongside their 1925 Eccles caravan
The first recreational caravan was that made for the Scottish doctor and adventure author Dr Gordon Stables, whose 18ft horse-drawn Land Yacht Wanderer came complete with a sofa bed, cooking range, washing facilities, a bookcase, china cabinet and even several musical instruments.
Built by the Bristol Wagon company, a maker of railway carriages, it was used by Stables for a much-publicised tour of Britain.
In terms of motor vehicles, there were early experiments with RV-style vehicles in the U.S.
Back in Britain, the first person to buy one of the Eccles caravans was the Dowager Countess Rhonda, and 50 caravans were first produced.
Brochures entitled ‘the holiday problem solved’ were printed, and Bill Jr set out across the country in his 1910 Rover to form a nationwide network of dealers.
It proved a success and Eccles moved to a four-acre site in Stirchley, Birmingham, where a modern, purpose-built single-storey factory was created.
This was the first of its kind in the world. It was here that ‘overrun brake systems’ were developed, and these are still fitted on caravans produced today.
In 1932 the Rileys showed off an Eccles caravan to the Monte Carlo Rally. Eccles Caravans celebrated its 100th birthday in 2019. A 1926 example can be found in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, in Hampshire.
Alan Roberts, Weymouth, Dorset
QUESTION: In the 1960s, when we saw an ambulance we had to hold our collars until we saw a dog. My husband and I still do this today. Does anyone else do this? And why?
Holding one’s collar on seeing an ambulance goes much farther back than the 1960s.
My earliest memory of this was in north London during the summer of 1949. Until then, most ambulances — which had been in use in the war — were well past their best. But in 1949 a Daimler ambulance was introduced in London and, on seeing a new one in its cream-and-black livery, I thought it was the most beautiful vehicle I had ever seen!
However, my playmates cried out that it was a ‘fever ambulance’, though I remember that ‘fever ambulances’ back then were painted grey. In spite of this, we all held our collars while saying, ‘Hold your collar, never swallow, never catch the fever.’ We held on until we spotted a four-legged creature. Horses were common back then, pulling milk floats, coal wagons, etc, but cats and dogs counted too. Ten years later I joined the ambulance service. The last time I saw any child do this was in the early 1970s.
Mark (Bill) Bailey, Luton, Beds
Folklore historians Iona and Peter Opie traced this superstition back.
A common rhyme was: ‘Touch collar/ never swaller/ never get the fever/ touch your nose/ touch your toes/ never go in one of those.’ Variant elements included spitting, crossing fingers and touching wood.
Holding your breath (‘never swaller’) was probably seen as a way of avoiding infections. Seeing or touching a four-legged animal might be a way of passing the illness on.
A similar superstition was in place when one came across a funeral procession: ‘If you see a funeral, cross your fingers until you see a four-legged animal.’
Simon Davies, Watford, Herts
QUESTION: What became of Rolleiflex cameras? What other forgotten makes are there?
Further to the earlier answer, twin-lens reflex cameras by Rollei and Yashica were once the go-to brands for many professional and Press photographers.
They were also recommended to those starting a photography course, as I did in 1963. They gave a two-and-a-quarter-inch square image on negative film.
Mixing chemicals to develop film, printing enlargements and manually shading them to enhance the end result arguably made photography back then more of an art form than it is in the digital age.
Alan Sharpe, Melton Mowbray, Leics
