Our New Edwards Caravan.

[Richard]

Its funny how things turn out. We decided not to go to the Cessnock swap meet as I have had a few jobs to do around the house and we thought this weekend was a good weekend to make a start.

That was till Friday afternoon, when I had a call from Robert who lives down the coast near Nowra, who had an old ply wood caravan that he needed to get rid off. I was told that the caravan was in very good original condition and had only recently been removed from its undercover storage. Aparently part of the house had to be demolished and a Tilt a door had to be removed to get it out, but Robert was detirmined to get it out unscathed as he thought it was too got to demolish.

So Linda and I headed off on Sunday morning with a car trailer in tow ( which took 45 minutes to hire as the hire terminal was down ) to have a look at Robert's van.

So this is what we found as we pulled up. The van had been draged out of its hiding place and had been under a cover for a couple of weeks, we dragged the cover off and found a really unusual caravan.
It is a fairly big caravan at 14' 6" long and 7' wide, inside is a fairly standard layout but the outside has a hint of English design. So a deal was struck with Robert, who kindly then prepared the van to load on to the car trailer.

It was a simple job to load, with the van pulled up to the trailer ramps then using the winch on the trailer it was winched up, tied down and ready to go all in about 15 minutes, too easy.

We had morning tea then headed for home, with a short stop at Berry to have a walk around the shops and a chat to a few people that wanted to know about the van.

Photo of the van ready to put into storage.
Ill post more photos soon.

Cheers.
Richard

[Richard]

The unusual thing about our Edwards Caravan it the peak at the front and back of the roof above the windows.

The front and back peak actually house a roll down canvas blind. The back one was taken off in 1979 to clad the front and rear of the van in aluminium and was never put back on.

A photo of the original numberplate that was on the van.

[Richard]

A few photos of the interior of the Edwards Caravan.

The van interior is in very good original condition, with the only thing that looks dagey is the "shag pile" carpet on the floor. But luckily there is a very good vinyl tile floor underneath.

The stainless steel sink with the unusual hand pump.

The van came with the original annex, poles, ropes and pegs etc.

[jennison]

Good pickup Richard, where did you find the "edwards" logo or makers plate on it. Do you think it was sth aust made?
jeff

[Richard]

Hi Jeff.
It doesnt have a logo or id plate, but it did come with some of the original paperwork from 1957 with an order list of materials which were ordered for Edwards Caravans of Edwardstown in South Australia. I have had a look through all of my old books from that period but cannot find any reference to them, but it may just mean that they were only a small manufacturer or even a "back yard" concern. There is also details of when the aluminium cladding was put on to the front and back of the van in 1979 ( from memory )

Cheers.
Richard.

[jennison]

looks a bit like that arrow VV for sale on the VV site with that overhang over the window.
regards