RAF Cosford exhibit explains how caravans helped during the Battle of Britain

by Damien Sharkov
Patriotic spirits seem to be running higher than usual, as the summer of 2013 saunters off in an unexpectedly sunny demeanour.
With the momentous anniversary of the battle of Britain approaching, caravan enthusiasts taken in by this second coming of ‘Cool Britannia’, are in for a treat, as the RAF museum in Cosford is marking the date of one of old Blighty’s finest hours with a display of wartime caravans.
“Caravans were used extensively throughout the war as accommodation for people whose homes had been destroyed and by military personnel, industrial and farm workers, including the Women’s Land Army,” Michelle Morgans tells CaravanTimes.
Other than the caravan show, the weekend of 14-15 September will see the museum commemorating the historic event with activities for the whole family.
This will include real-life demonstrations of the workings of a Griffon engine, as well as a chance to see how a WWII RAF Ops Room operated during the Battle of Britain era, brought to life by re-enactors.
Variety entertainers and re-enactors will provide some comic relief on the eve of one of the RAF’s crowning achievements, but Michelle admits the caravan show is one of the most popular elements of this annual commemoration.
“Year on year the event is getting bigger and better” says Michelle and she agrees that nostalgic events seem to be gaining momentum, even when looking back to more solemn and austere times like the 1940s.
Lest we forget
“I think people want to keep a piece of the past,” adds caravan and nostalgia aficionado Karen Poole, who has turned her caravan into a 1940s themed museum, complete with authentic items ranging from tea sets to gas masks.
It is a melange of the fanciful vision today’s youth seems to have of the war years, with the gaining momentum of the vintage movement, and the harsh realities of rationing and hardship.
“We do it for the people who died and the people who survived,” says Karen, surrounded by a caravan load full of quaint mementos which seem to grow in magnitude with each tick of the clock. “We do it so people don’t forget.”
But the event itself is an added bonus for the caravan enthusiast as up until the 1930s, caravanning was still “a middle class hobby”, so few caravans were in production, explains caravan historian, Andrew Jenkinson.
With more pressing commodities in need of production during the war years, the newly dedicated caravan factories of the 1940s were shut and manufacture once again remained low, he adds.
It begins to seem almost amazing that even a few of the four wheeled homes of the 1940s remain to this day, let alone enough to create a show around, as the RAF do annually at Cosford.
Andrew himself has exercised his connoisseur taste to compile a calendar of his own favourite retro caravans for the upcoming year.
This is no easy task, as most of the vehicles from the period were actively destroyed during the 1970s. “Smashed up” is his term.
It fits perfectly, once you appreciate the luxury these caravans represented in their own time and the historical relevance they have to ours.
Andrew sees this as testament of the all too prevalent ability to desecrate history, then “start crying when it’s gone”.
But we are of course reminded that the caravan has been reincarnated into today’s world, even if some of its ancestors have not survived.
“We invented it,” smiles Andrew. “Caravanning was seen as an eccentric thing to do outside Britain.”
Nostalgia for British history goes hand in hand with the story of the caravan. “It is all about looking back to when life was more leisurely,” he adds.
The caravan getaway is one of the last bastions to enjoy such simple pleasures and going by what Andrew says, Britain ought to feel lucky and proud to have such a heritage.
Perhaps this is what the RAF museum at Cosford is getting at, by lining up its old Winchesters, side by side with the iconically British Spitfires, suggesting we should feel proud of both of them.
The RAF museum’s Battle of Britain weekend will be held in Cosford between 14 -15 September. For more information visit rafmuseum.org.uk. For more information about Andrew Jenkinson’s work visit jenkinsonscaravanworld.co.uk.