The National Motor Museum Trust is celebrating the award of £97,200 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will allow it to proceed with a new project to coincide with the centenary of the First World War.
'Caravans and Charabancs – Leisure Motoring After the First World War', is a two-year project for the Bealieu museum which aims to demonstrate the revolution in motoring habits which followed the conflict.
The First World War, like most major conflicts in history, accelerated both the development of new technology and sociological changes in the country, and in a series of events the National Motor Museum aims to use previously unseen material from their Designated Photographic Collection and the Caravan Club Collection to demonstrate these effects to the public.
The National Motor Museum has ear-marked some of the lottery money to buy and preserve a rare private collection of over 400 photographs and postcards depicting charabancs, the ancestor of today’s long distance which allowed affordable day trips for a war weary British public to enjoy their new found peace.
“As the war ended, those that returned home often did so with new ambitions and a bonus in their back pocket. Many were introduced to motor vehicles on the battlefield, and some were inspired to put their new-found skills to good use in peacetime”, explains Curator of The Caravan Club Collection, Angela Willis. “Ex-war vehicles and surplus parts were sold off by the government at knock-down prices. These became the building blocks of charabancs and trailer caravans, fulfilling the demand for leisure journeys into the next decade.”
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