Our 1951 Silver Knight 15.

[Richard]

Well it all started about 2 and half months ago now, when I had a call from George Chrystie from Chrysties Museum in Tocumwal. Click Here For Chrysties Museum Info He had rung to tell me that a bloke down near Melbourne had dropped into the Museum and said that he had a 1930’s aluminium caravan and that he would like to sell it as he was selling all of his “toys”.

Well two things got me interested, one was that it was aluminium, which isn’t that big of a deal but when it is combined with 1930, that would make it a caravan that I would be very interested in. It turned out that George was travelling down that way in a couple of weeks and he offered to stop in and have a look at the van and take a few photos. A long couple of weeks went by and George finally emailed a photo of the van, which was a bit blurry but it looked like an aluminium square box or the pantech off a truck.

I was a bit disappointed with the look of the caravan, but George did say that I would be impressed once I saw the van. I rang Phil, the owner, and had a bit of a chat to him about the van. I had half decided that I wasn’t interested when he mentioned that he thought it was built in England at the Birmingham ammunitions factory. If it was an English caravan that would explain the boxy look of the van. I was interested again as it would be a rare caravan being imported from England. The Ballarat swap meet was only about 3 weeks away, so I organised with Phil to come down to have a look at the van and if it was OK we would load it onto my car trailer and then head to the swap meet.

We had another long 3 weeks to wait, then we finally headed South on the Tuesday before the swap meet, with a stop at Holbrook for the night where Trevor and Sharon looked after us at the caravan park. Holbrook Motor Village

We then headed to Somerville and arrived on the Wednesday. We organised to have a look at the van that afternoon, so that we could have a look around the antique shops at Tyabb the next day before heading to the swap meet.

As Phil was in New Zealand dodging earthquakes, we had arranged to meet his daughter Tracy to let us into the property, and this is what we found.

I just love the door on this caravan, it is a barn type door as the top half opens independently to the bottom half, and it kind of reminds me of an aircraft door.

I was very impressed with the caravan and especially the construction,so a deal was struck and we started to load the van onto the trailer. With some dramas getting the van up the ramps, I finally looked back at the rear of my ute to see the back wheels nearly off the ground. I then decided that the van was just too heavy to tow the 1100 kms back home. (I later found out that the van weighs about 1.7 t.) So feeling a little dejected we waved goodbye to Tracy as we drove away from the van.

After offering the contact details for the van to a few people that I knew at the swap meet, no one seeming that interested in it, I was even more determined to bring the van home. So I made a few phone calls to caravan carriers, with all of them declining. Most new vans are built around Melbourne with the trucks heading North fully loaded. If I wanted to go South it wouldn’t be a problem. I finally got hold of Alistair Mackie, and after explaining my predicament with a Historic Caravan that I needed to get back to my museum. He put me in contact with Colin from Nomad Transport who was happy to pick up the van and deliver it for what I thought was quiet a reasonable fee and very helpful.
It would take Colin 3 days before he could get down to Somerville so he could pick the van up, and 2 days later he arrived with the van on the back of his trailer. Colin was even very interested in looking around at the caravans and memorabilia in my workshop/museum after he dropped the van off.

That is just the start of the story to this van. Phil had said the van was built by the ammunitions factory in Birmingham, but after we had been down and I had armed myself with lots of photos I had discovered that this was a Coventry Knight caravan. To tell the truth it wasn’t that hard to work out as the brand name is embossed onto the light bracket. So I did a Google search and found a contact for the Coventry Knight owners on Facebook. I also got in contact with the Historic Caravan Club in the UK. Both of the contacts said that there were 18 known Coventry Knight caravans in the UK (with Charlie from the Facebook group owning 5) and that this is the first Silver Knight 15 model that any of them have seen.

[Richard]

OK OK. I have had a few emails from people wanting to see more photos. So I have whiped up a slide show on youtube .

[Richard]

I must admit that its not the prettiest caravan that I have ever seen, but it has grown on me.
The van has an unusual draw bar with 2, 4" C sections running parallel back to the front of the van. From there they spread out to the front of the tyres.

The extruded aluminium sections for the walls are about 4" wide and have a 1" air gap in between the inside and outside, which gives the walls tremendous strength considering there is no frame. I can actually push on the walls as hard as I can and the wall panels do not even deflect.

That door.

The step well even has a drain outlet and flap for those wet english days.

Typical English design with roof down pipes, except these down pipes act as bars for man handling the van around. All of Clifford Dawtreys caravan use alot of perspex, from the moulded windows down to the kitchen cupboard doors and shelves.

Clifford Dawtrey used Brochhouse chassis and couplings on all of his vans.

[griffin]

Hi Richard

What a great find It does have looks that only a mother could love though, reminds me a bit of an old red rattler suburban train
I guess at 1.7 tonne it won't be going far behind the FJ
Didn't see a chimney so guess it doesn't have a nice coal fired stove to ward off the English cold.

Well done. Amazing what's around and what you manage to find

George

[Richard]

Hi George.
Sadly it doesnt have a coal fired heater, but it did have some type of heater as there are 3 gold annodived aluminium pipes in the bedroom that have been cut off.

Perspex sink, cupboard slidind doors as well as the shelves in the cupboards.

Dining table with a very unique method to the folding down action.

The rear lounge that folds down to a double bed.

The very ornate light bracket.

[Richard]

A 1950 photo of a Silver Knight. It looks to be a front kitchen model as well as it looks as though plates can be seen in the top window.

[DC3TD]

Hello Richard. Fantastic aquisition.But you know what they say - once a king always a king.Once a (k)night that`s enough!. cheers

[Richard]

A brief history of Clifford Dawtrey.
Part One..Pre War.

Clifford Dawtrey started building caravans under the name of Airlite Trailers of Coventry in 1935 and in many ways was a pioneer of caravan design. The Airlite caravans were built on an angled steel chassis with independent suspension, the body was very much art deco with sweeping lines and colourful side flashes. By 1937 Dawtrey was producing 3 Airlite models and at this time had become involved in a new building material, plastic, which he used on the corners of later models to to give them a smooth streamelined appearance.

By the late 1930’s, although the Airlite models were selling well the company went into liquidation.

Clifford Dawtrey knew he was onto something with his designs so after recovering from the Airlite collapse, he started another company "Coventry Steel Caravans",

where he produced two new models. Both of the new models were constructed in a car like manner with steel frame and exterior cladding, the Silent Knight was constructed with a steel outer shell which then had felt stretched over it and a final finish of leathercloth which improved the caravans insulation. The Phantom Knight was finished in a high gloss paint finish and was the de-lux version of the two models featuring a shower and central heating.

[griffin]

Boy that Phantom Knight is a beauty, where der yer git it

George

[Richard]

A brief history of Clifford Dawtrey.
Part Two..During and Post War.

During the War Clifford Dawtrey kept the Coventry Steel factory running by carrying out work for the war effort. He and a few other pre-war caravan builders were contracted to build trailer ambulances and he could not resist adding a few of his own innovations such as electric lighting, oil heater and gravity fed water tank with sink.

Sadly the Coventry Steel Caravan factory was bombed in 1943, later that year the factory was moved to Leek Wooton near Kenilworth, where Dawtrey set up the new factory in a field, using the prototype of the new Coventry Steel Caravan as an office.

After the war Clifford Dawtrey started construction of the New Coventry Steel Caravan, which ironically was constructed using aluminium. During the war he had experimented with different finishes to aluminium, and he found that anodising the aluminium gave it a long lasting finish. The Knight 48 was constructed using extruded aluminium panel strips that were bolted together to form the outer walls. The next inner layer was of expanded synthetic rubber faced with an oak veneer, making the total wall thickness about an inch thick. Electrics, central heating and shower bath were all part of the high specification, which made the Knight 48 the most expensive model on the market for that year at $1850.

The Knight was also easily adapted to commercial purposes such as banks, mobile clinics and laboratories, which , after the war, is where most of the work came from for Coventry Steel caravans.

The very lavish Falstaff Knight which featured three levels, three separate bedrooms and three carpeted staircases.

The 1950 Silver Knight 15.

By the late 1950’s Clifford Dawtrey had left Coventry Steel Caravans and had set up a new company, Silver Knight Caravans, where he built the Silver Knight 17 which was typical of Clifford Dawtreys designs and had many advanced features.

Sadly by 1958 with the business struggling from poor sales Clifford Dawtrey took his own life.
The British caravan industry had lost a very inquisitive mind and top designer.