Old van chronicles - The Second Year - Scotland!

After the first year in Wales it was decided to take a trip north of the border and head on into Scotland. You have to remember that in 1958 there were no motorways and my father tells me caravans were restricted to 30mph! This was from our home at the time in the Midlands - Sutton Coldfield.

From this trip I have three photos, the first one showing the poor little A30 car rather weighed down at the rear with the rather large looking caravan hitched on the back! This was taken while crossing Rannock Moor on 15th June 1958.

For anyone wondering about the 85% rule I don't think it existed then, so everything was fine! :)  Seriously though, my father bought the caravan at least partly because it was supposedly one of the lightest vans for its size at the time. The 'plate weight' showed just 10cwt (or about 500kgs). I am not sure how accurate that actually was at the time, although it probably wasn't too far from the truth (however it is somewhat more now! - see further stories .... coming soon!)

The second photo shows it with Ben Law in the background, on a different day.

The third photo shows us - that's me standing there, at the tender age of two at the time - parked in a farm field gateway (permission had been asked for and granted!) and in my father's words:

"The date was 28 June, 8.45 am, at Naburn Grange Farm. We had arrived from Crawford, in Scotland, 171 miles, at 7.40 the previous evening. On the morning of 28th we went into York, had lunch there, and returned to the caravan. Left at 3.10 pm, arrived home (Sutton C.), 119 miles, at 9.03 pm. Enough details?! That's all I have! (Not quite - we stopped for tea at a layby near Nottingham at 5.30)."

As I said in the previous story, he kept very meticulous records!