Cromer 1990

Tags

1990s, Caravan Club, Cromer, Lunar Meteorite, Norfolk, Peugeot 309

With a trip to Norfolk coming up in the next couple of weeks I thought I’d have a look in my archives for any photographs I may have taken during my last visit to the area twenty-five years ago. Although there are two pages in my negative files with two 35mm films-worth of pictures, the majority seem to be of railway locomotives from the various preserved or miniature lines in the area. There are also a few taken of my car and caravan at the Caravan Club site at Cromer.

The caravan is a Lunar Meteorite and was my third van in a five-year period. My first caravan was a diminutive Thomson Mini-Glen, at just 8ft long it was too small for more than one person to use but it was useful for sleeping in when I took my vintage machinery to steam rallies and shows. It was quite elderly and I only had it for a season before I saw a 14ft four-berth Safari advertised quite cheaply and subsequently purchased it. After the Thomson the Safari was real luxury but brought with it a number of problems, mostly associated with leaking windows. It was also an atrocious tower, anything over 50mph and it snaked badly however it was loaded. It looked really good when towed behind my distinctive Volvo 262C, both from the same period they turned heads, well the car did, it was an unusual body style.

The Peugeot 309 seen here was a company car, it was a perk of the elderly persons home business we ran and it was new in September 1989. It was however too small to tow the Safari so I looked around for a lighter van and this Lunar Meteorite fitted the bill nicely. At only 10ft long the layout was much better than the Safari and the configuration made the interior feel much roomier. Although it was only a two berth it was long enough for longitudinal single beds instead of a transverse double as in the Safari. The layout worked well and the caravan towed like a dream, I hardly knew it was behind the car.

In 1994 the business was wound up and as part of the redundancy package the car became mine and went on to serve me for a number of years before it was sold. As my future at the time was unsure many of my assets were sold off, the caravan and much of my stationary engine collection were disposed of one by one as funds were needed just to survive. I panicked needlessly though as by 1996 I was firmly established in the job that would see me through to retirement. According to the DVLA the car was last taxed in 2007.