Our little caravan of love at Shelton Lock

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Problems getting on the property ladder are nothing new - young people 40 years ago also struggled. Here Sylvioa Webb tells how she and her husband Brian set up their first home in a caravan.

Brian Webb at the caravan with Scampi the rabbit - dogs were not allowed

As the years roll by and our 43rd wedding anniversary approaches, my mind goes back to the first five years of our marriage, when we lived in a caravan.

Most couples getting married in the 1960s couldn’t afford to buy their own homes so had to be satisfied with council accommodation but because there was such a big demand for council houses back then, couples would have to wait anything up to five years. So until your names came up on the waiting list it meant either living with parents or finding a flat.

Quite a few years before our wedding, my sister-in-law and husband had started married life living in a caravan, so with this in mind we thought of following the family tradition.

After looking into all the details we went along to Spondon Caravans to order our new home, which was 26ft long. It then had to be transported to the site in Shelton Lock.

We knew this would be a different way of life but at least it was going to be a place of our own.

My mam wasn’t too impressed at the thought of us living in a caravan but soon changed her mind after seeing our little abode.

In the weeks leading up to our wedding in July 1965, we filled the caravan with all the bottom drawer items which we had collected over the previous 18 months. We worked on our little garden, planting rose bushes and we had a small tool shed because Brian, my husband-to-be, was DIY-minded. He made a garden seat out of tree branches from the nearby woodland.

By heck, it was a grand little set-up, so all we wanted then was to get married and start our new life.

The big occasion came and we soon settled into our new abode, which had a living room, a kitchen and an end bedroom. Although we had electricity, we didn’t have gas or water laid on so our water had to be fetched from the site water supply – we soon learned not to be wasteful with water.

We didn’t have a bathroom so we had to rely on kind relations for a bath each week – today’s young people would freak out at the thought of living the way we did but because young people of the 60s were very disciplined, we just did what we had to do.

Our cooking was done on Calor gas but little did we know that the gas would freeze in the harsh winters we had in those days. As the summer months turned to winter, sure enough the gas froze, but Brian quickly leapt into action with his DIY skills and came up with the idea of placing the gas bottle in an insulated, heated tin trunk – this certainly worked and prevented any further freezing.

We could buy a refill of gas from the site warden, whose caravan was at the entrance of the site. The ground rent each week was the grand sum of £1. A small grocery shop on site was run by an elderly couple who lived in a house nearby. There were toilets and a small launderette.

The site was very respectable and we all kept our gardens looking nice.

Brian and I both love animals and could never imagine life without any pets, but because dogs weren’t allowed on the site we thought the next best pet would be a rabbit, whom we called Scampi.

We had many visitors, friends and family and all thought our little home to be grand.

Brian and Sylvia Webb 40 years on with their touring caravan and Ross the border collie

Towards the end of 1970 we heard from the council as our name had come up on the housing list. Although we were happy to hear this news, we were sad at the thought of parting with our much-loved caravan.

We moved into the house in November 1970. After a few years, we decided to buy the house and 38 years later we still live there today.

The caravan way of life was always going to be in our blood so in 1979 we bought a tiny two-berth tourer and gradually worked our way up to a bigger touring caravan.

The caravan site, which was owned by Spondon Caravans, was later closed down to make way for a housing estate.

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