In January 2017 I did a very long trip from Cornwall to East of Ipswich to rescue a Willerby “home”. A 22 feet Caravan made in 1950, the largest road going caravan Willerby made, just as much used as a static in its day. When told about the old girl and having chatted to the owner, I thought it was 50/50 wither or not it was saveable. But after seeing some photos, decided it was worth a try. Otherwise it was going to the scrapyard. So my son and I set off on a cold Friday morning at 6am and arrived at the spot where the “Home” had been placed for forty years. Well, we were amazed at how good a condition it was in! The chassis and tow bar were like new, but then it was 1/4 inch thick steel! There was a slight bit of rot in a piece of the frame under one window and two of the wooden window frames showed signs of rot. The interior was amazing, all the original flooring lino was still there and the furniture was stunning. Not a leak in sight on the roof . Plus it was filled with a lot of original goodies, like gas fires, brushes and dust pans, 1960's Fairy liquid and other kitchen stuff, as well as a mint KepKold evaporative cold box and stand as new!!
So we decided to bit the bullet and tow it back that weekend. We refurbished the braking system, which only needed a good oiling on the linkage and freeing in the drums. The tow hitch was a bit tight, but with some light oil and a small hammer freed up and was fully working in no time. We oiled up the four corner steadies and they all just wound up like they had been wound down a week ago not forty years. We had brought a pair of new tyres and tubes to fit onto her and a friendly tyre fitter did the work for us. So with that, we towed her off the patch she was sat on for all though years, onto a better hard standing track and gave her a good wash off with a stiff broom and detergent. By then it was 9pm and minus six degrees. We spent the night in the caravan snuggled up in arctic sleeping bags with a gas fire on and really it was nice and cosy. We had decided to get a really early start the next day, to avoid all the traffic around the M25 and London, so started off home at 3am, we got back, without any problems at all, to Cornwall at 11.30am. She towed faultlessly all the way.