FOUNDING FATHER

Angela Willis, Curator of the Club’s Collection, introduces a new exhibition that tells the story of Winchester Caravans

This summer, the Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Collection will be celebrating one of the most prestigious British caravan builders of the 20th Century. Hampshire Archives and Local Studies is hosting ‘Homes on Wheels – The Story of Winchester Caravans’, an exhibition about the life and work of Bertram Hutchings. Hutchings founded Winchester Caravans, which operated from 1911 until 1958, seeing out two World Wars.

On display will be photographs, ephemera and journals from the Hutchings archive, which is kept in the Club’s Collection at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. Here we take a closer look at the remarkable story of Bertram Hutchings, and the fascinating artefacts we’ll be showing at the exhibition.

Bertram Hutchings was born in Winchester in 1886, a year after Dr William Gordon Stables took to the road in the world’s first, purpose-built leisure touring caravan, The

Wanderer. This new vogue for caravanning, which captured the imagination of many wealthy Victorians and Edwardians, was to shape the young Bertram’s later life. By early adulthood, Bertram had developed a passion for outdoor activities, including cycling and camping, which he coupled with an interest in food reform. In 1910, at the age of 24, this young entrepreneur left his apprenticeship at a Winchester printmaker’s and opened ‘The Healtheries’, a health-food shop promoting a natural fruit-and-nut-based diet. The pursuit of a healthy lifestyle led Hutchings to commission his first caravan from his then-prospective father-in-law, who was a ‘Cart, Van and Carriage Builder’. Once married, Hutchings and his wife, Grace Ings, spent several months living in the caravan. Bertram refined the vehicle’s design, the result being a second, much lighter van. This ‘Maisonette’ model heralded Hutchings’ new business venture and several vans quickly followed, designed to be hired to a rapidly growing number of caravanners.

One enthusiastic client was the founder of the then Caravan Club, J Harris Stone, who borrowed a Hutchings caravan for a Club event in 1914, and Bertram Hutchings was among the select group of Caravan Club members in the pioneering horse-drawn days.

A Career Highlight

In 2015, I was contacted by one of Hutchings’ descendants, offering a collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and other items relating to the caravan business. The family was in the process of sorting a vast quantity of records housed in their loft, and what followed was certainly my career highlight as Curator of the Club’s Collection.

The family donated the most incredible collection comprising over 1,100 photographs spanning the company’s history, along with an array of news cuttings, advertising material, illustrations and handwritten journals. What made the archive even more remarkable was the sheer quality of the pictures. Hutchings was a talented photographer and member of the Royal Photographic Society. He had created a stunning visual history of his business from the offset, and even more remarkable was that it had survived – so many similar archives are lost.

Bertram Hutchings’ marketing skills were a vital part of his success, many of the original photos in the archive having been used in adverts and publications. Some real highlights date from before the First World War, such as a photographic record of New Forest holidays taken by the family, coupled with beautifully produced advertising booklets.

The collection charts the transition from the pre-war enthusiasm for horse-drawn caravans to Hutchings’ first trailer caravan designs. It also shows the arrival of motorhome models in the 1920s, a short-lived venture after changes to taxation saw their running cost rise exponentially to equal that of commercial vehicles.

In the early 1930s a beautiful array of photos and brochures introduced Hutchings’ first streamlined model trailer caravan, ‘The Winchester’, hailing the heyday of the family business. Later that decade comes a stunning album charting Hutchings’ 1938 tour of Bavaria in a Winchester Royal, which provides an incredible snapshot of rural German life immediately before the outbreak of war.

Fashions Change

After the Second World War, there is a clear transition from the streamlined caravan fashion towards more utilitarian designs. A rare colourised picture from 1958 shows

Bertram’s son, Lionel, now himself pivotal in the business, claiming victory in the Caravan Club British Caravan Road Rally Concours d’Elegance with a Winchester Pipit. This was during the company’s final year of trading.

A team of volunteers at the National Motor Museum catalogued, digitised and improved the storage of this vast collection. After initial work had been completed, further detailed research began. Volunteer Nick Hargreaves took a closer look at the stories held in the photographs, painstakingly cross-referencing pictures with factory production records, historic articles and handwritten journals by Bertram Hutchings himself.

The discoveries have been endless, uncovering the people, places, cars and caravans pictured in the photographs. The stories which have emerged include details of the vans’ special features, past owners and, in some cases, the exact colour that their exteriors were painted on the day that they left the Winchester works. What has been created is a visual record of the Hutchings business from its beginnings in the Edwardian era through to the mid-century caravanning boom.

Left: Bertram Hutchings in his office in the 1940s Below: newly married Grace Hutchings peers from the window of the couple’s first caravan (1911)

By the 1950s, however, the caravan industry had changed significantly. Bertram Hutchings had entered a market focused on wealthy caravan enthusiasts, willing to pay a high price for luxury. After the Second World War, the industry was awash with new manufacturers competing to produce the cheapest caravans for the mass market. Winchester Caravans did not attempt to compromise on price, or lower its build quality. The business closed in 1958, leaving its reputation as ‘The Rolls Royce of Caravans’ fully intact. The legacy lives on, preserved in this most unique of collections and the stories that it holds.

Info

ou can see the e hibition omes on heels he tory of inchester Caravans at ampshire Archives and Local tudies, usse treet, inchester . Free entry no ticket re uired. he e hibition is generously supported by ampshire Archives rust.

Open: uly to August . am pm uesdays, ednesdays and hursdays

Stay: inchester Club Campsite

Contact: hants.gov.uk

Karen P.

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