Homes on the Move:
Caravan Dwelling in Twenty-first Century Britain
Rosie Clarke
BA Hons History of Design, Culture and Society
2015
Word Count: 9762
1
Synopsis
This dissertation explores the experience of living in a caravan in twenty-first
century Britain. Many different types of people use caravans as their
permanent homes, but this area has hardly been covered by design historians.
Through several interviews and observations across a range of different sites,
this study attempts to find commonalities running across the daily
experiences of the caravan home and site life. The inherently mobile nature of
a caravan means that a sense of home must be practiced on the move,
through the processes of packing down and setting up the home for travelling.
Using a material culture approach, the status of objects in the home can be
revealed, and the home itself can be seen as a designed object which
embodies certain intentions. Even for caravan dwellers who do not move on a
regular basis, the materiality of portable architecture can still have agency
over its inhabitants. The home cannot be considered without relation to the
wider world, as the material culture of the home extends out into the social
and physical spaces of caravan sites. Such sites can be an embodiment of the
complex social relationships that occur internally between site communities,
and externally with the wider community. The spatial formations of caravan
sites can be understood using theories of space, place, and power. Such
conceptual frameworks can analyse the ways in which site spaces are
fundamental to matters of identity, and can represent wider social structures
of power. This reflects the underlying theme that this study explores: the
complex relationship between home, mobility, and caravan dwelling in twentyfirst century Britain.
2
Table of Contents
Introduction
4
Methodology
10
Chapter One
16
Chapter Two
33
Conclusion
48
Bibliography
50
Acknowledgements
60
Appendix One: Interview with Evelyn
61
Appendix Two: Interview with Terry
83
Appendix Three: Interview with Polly
106
Appendix Four: Interview with Philip and Lisa
147
Appendix Five: Interview with Ella and Simon
164
Appendix Six: Unpublished Interview Transcripts
198
3
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 (Page 20) Interior of Evelyn’s caravan. Photograph by the author, August 2014.
Figure 1 (Page 21) Gollmar Bros. Circus Four-Mirror Bandwagon, Baraboo Museum, Wisconsin.
[n.d.] Web. 20 March 2015. www.circusworldbaraboo.org.
Figure 2 (Page 23) Exterior of Bella's caravan. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015
Figure 3 (Page 23) Interior of Bella's caravan. Surrey. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
Figure 4 (Page 25) Interior of Cosmin’s caravan. Photograph by the author, 2 November 2014.
Figure 5 (Page 27) Interior of Evelyn's caravan. Photograph by the author, August 2014.
Figure 6 (Page 29) Interior of Bella's caravan. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
Figure 7 (Page 36) Bridlington Corporation Caravan Site developments. Photo by Aero Pictorial.
Reproduced from Caravans and the English Landscape by William Meredith
Whiteman (London: Council for the Preservation of Rural England, 1958) 8-9.
Figure 8 (Page 39) Aerial view of Brook Cottage site in Surrey. Photograph reproduced from Google
Maps. [n.d.] Web. 18 January 2015. http://maps.google.co.uk.
Figure 9 (Page 40) Brook Cottage site, Surrey. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
Figure 11 (Page 41) Aerial view of Patcham Court Farm site, Brighton. Photograph reproduced from
Google Maps. [n.d.] Web. 22 January 2015. http://maps.google.co.uk
Figure 12 (Page 41) June, Rosa and Sonic’s site, Brighton. Photograph by the author, 20 January
2015.
Figure 13 (Page 45) Cotswold circus site perimeter. Photograph by the author, July 2014.
Figure 16 (Page 45) Cotswold circus site backstage. Photograph by the author, September 2013.
4
Introduction
Mobility and movement are concepts which have attracted increasing attention in
recent years, particularly in relation to the “new mobilities paradigm” presented by
cultural geographers and taken up by other disciplines.1 Instead of seeing stasis as
“the natural order of things”, and movement as merely “incidental,” theorists
increasingly sought to understand mobility as a defining characteristic of the modern
experience.2 However, these studies remain focussed on the moving subject –
people in motion – as opposed to the mobility of the material world. What happens if
the home itself is on the move? The home plays a fundamental role in human
relationships and is a key indicator of social structures and cultural values, and much
can be revealed about the wider world by looking close to home. However, whilst
traditional housing has been extensively covered by design historians, “caravan life
is invisible, in scholarly terms.”3 This dissertation explores the how experience of
living in a caravan in twenty-first century Britain is defined by mobility. Through
interviews and observations I have documented the material culture of the caravan
and the spaces of site communities from a selection of present-day case studies,
contextualised with an understanding of the history of caravan dwelling, in order to
assess how permanence and instability are negotiated by caravan dwellers. The
‘caravan home’ does not refer to caravans which are used for holidays or for short
term use, but instead means any caravan that is lived in full time and which
constitutes the inhabitant’s primary residence. I will be asking what is it like to live in
1
Cresswell and Merriman (eds.) Geographies of Mobilities: Practices, Spaces, Subjects (Surrey:
Ashgate, 2011) 1
2 Cresswell, On the Move: Mobility in the Western World (Oxon: Routledge, 2006) 14
3 Beilharz and Supski, “A Sociology of Caravans,” The Australian Sociological Association Annual
Conference, (Canberra: December 2009) Quoted in Newton, “Reversing housing and health
pathways? Evidence from Victorian caravan parks,” Health Sociological Review 20:1 (March 2011)
5
a caravan, and to what extent is this experience defined by mobility? How is a sense
of permanence created through personal belongings, and how are home-making
practices affected by living on the move? To what extent do caravan dwellers
undermine dominant ideas of space and place? And how does the inherent mobility
of the caravan produce new spatial and social structures? These are questions
which this study will attempt to answer.
Firstly, it is necessary to define the term ‘caravan’. In its most basic form,
independent of style, materials, and construction, the caravan is a mobile dwelling
unit. This is illustrated by the UK government’s legal definition of a caravan:
"... any structure designed or adapted for human habitation which is
capable of being moved from one place to another (whether by being
towed, or by being transported on a motor vehicle or trailer) and any motor
vehicle so designed or adapted but does not include: a) Any railway rolling
stock which is for the time being on rails forming part of a railway system,
or b) Any tent."4
This definition underlines some basic points about the nature of caravans; first, that
they are designed to be lived in and second, that they must remain mobile. For the
peripatetic caravan, movement is “the natural order of things,”5 and pauses are
incidental. There are two different types of caravan; firstly, the touring caravan is the
smallest and most common type; at a maximum of seven metres in length it is
designed to be within the legal towing limit for cars.6 Touring caravans are mass
manufactured, affordable, lightweight, and compact, and commonly contain facilities
4
Section 29 (1), Part 1, Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 (London: HMSO, 1960)
Cresswell, On the Move, 14
6 Baxter (ed), Camping and Caravanning (Hampton: Key Note Ltd, 2000) 9
5
6
for sleeping, eating, cooking, washing, and sanitation. Depending on the chosen
model and price range they may include water, gas, and electric facilities. Secondly,
any caravan that is longer than seven metres must be transported by crane or lorry.7
These larger mobile homes (known as static caravans) are entirely factory-built
(furniture and fittings included) and assembled on site, and are still defined as
caravans if they are no more than two units with maximum floor dimensions of 20m x
6.8m when assembled.8 Static caravans are usually found on dedicated sites
(holiday parks or residential estates) with individual pitches, managed infrastructure,
and mains utilities, and therefore are more akin to bungalows. 9 For the purposes of
this study I will be focussing only on touring caravans, not static caravans. Mobility is
the central theme of this investigation, and the towing restrictions on static caravans
means their residents have much less autonomy of movement compared to those
using touring caravans. So even though the initial distinction is important, from now
on I will be using the term ‘caravan’ in relation to the touring caravan. Similarly, some
consideration must be made for vans, trucks, lorries, and so on which have been
converted as living vehicles (but which are not towed, therefore not caravans). These
converted vehicles are often used as nomadic homes, yet they occupy an entirely
different symbolic status to the caravan. Where these vehicles tend to be defined by
their eclecticism, in contrast, the caravan is more inclined to uniformity and
standardization. In addition, caravans have a separation between living area and
motor vehicle, so they depend on another vehicle to tow them. This creates an
ambiguous relationship with mobility that I would like to explore, somewhere in
between permanence and transience, where the caravan lacks both propulsion and
7
Baxter (ed), Camping and Caravanning, 9
“Rent Officer Handbook – Caravan Definition,” Valuation Office Agency, HMSO 2012
9 Constable, Factory Built Houses: A Shelter Report on the present and future use of caravans,
mobile homes and prefabricated houses (London: Shelter, 1975) 5
8
7
foundation. Therefore the subject of this dissertation is not so much the moving
subject, but the inherent instability of the moving home which must be negotiated by
its inhabitants.
Caravans are important expressions of identity for their inhabitants, and can reveal
different ways of dealing with mobility. This will be explored in depth in Chapter One,
where I will look at the ways in which caravan dwellers negotiate the factory-built
interiors and standardized provisions of a caravan to create personalised homes
adapted for travelling. Using Judy Attfield’s understanding of material culture I will
explore the status of objects in the caravan home, and how everyday design can be
interpreted in different ways by different users. In addition, I will use Joanne Hollow’s
theories to investigate how homes are constructed through daily practices, and
interpret the ways in which a sense of permanence is created through familiar
surroundings. Finally, I will discuss Kathy Burrell’s ideas about the materiality of the
home, and whether this can be challenged by the inherent mobility of caravan
dwelling.
Any enquiry into caravans as nomadic homes must involve an understanding of sites
and stopping places. Chapter Two will deal with caravan sites, and the ways in which
space and place are experienced and produced by caravan dwellers. Concepts of
space, place, and power by Henri Lefebvre, Doreen Massey, and David Sibley are
assessed in regards to caravans and sites. Using Henri Lefebvre’s concept that
space is “produced,”10 I will explore the extent to which nomadic communities
produce space differently to settled communities, and how this can be seen in site
formation. Following Charlie Hailey’s theory that camp is both a spatial and a
10
Lefebvre, The Production of Space, Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford: Blackwell, [1974]
1991) 15
8
temporal practice,11 this chapter will ask how permanence is experienced within the
spaces of a travelling lifestyle.
These two chapters follow a theme that runs throughout this dissertation; that the
caravan home has a complex relationship with mobility which must be negotiated or
challenged by inhabitants. Whether this can be seen in the constant rearrangement
of objects or surroundings in home-making practices, or in the shifting camps and
spaces around the caravan, this study hopes to offer a critical understanding of how
mobility, instability, permanence, and transience are fundamental experiences of
caravan life in twenty-first century Britain.
11
Hailey, Camps: A Guide to 21st-Century Space (London: MIT Press, 2009) 3
9
Methodology
The caravan home is closely associated with nomadic culture, and therefore we
must begin by clarifying the terms ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Traveller,’ ‘New Traveller,’ and
‘Showmen.’ ‘Gypsy’ refers to an English sector of the Roma people. Roma originated
in Pakistan many centuries ago and travelled across Europe; those who remained in
Europe are known as Roma, whilst the few who travelled into Britain became known
as ‘Gypsies’ (now called Romani Gypsies) by people who thought their darker skin
looked Egyptian.12 Roma and Romani Gypsies have their own language, culture and
customs. Not all Gypsies live in caravans; around 80% of Roma are sedentary.13 The
term Gypsy is often wrongly applied to Irish Travellers, who are another nomadic
community living in Britain who have no shared ethnic heritage with the Roma (they
originate in Ireland, and speak a Gaelic dialect).14 Romani Gypsies and Irish
Travellers are recognised respectively in the Race Relations Act.15 Problematically,
the Race Relations definition contradicts the meaning used in Planning Law,
whereby a person can lose their status as a (lower case) gypsy or traveller if they
cease travelling.16 New (Age) Travellers do not have a defined ethnic status,17 and
although their history can be traced back to the Hippy subculture of the 1970s, and
the Punk/squatting scene of the 1980s, they remain an eclectic group.18 In addition,
“Moving On,” Dir. By Joe Hepworth (Web: Community Channel TV, 27 June 2013)
Le Bas, “Back to the Future: Anti-Traveller Racism in 2015,” Traveller’s Times Online, 17 March
2015
14 “Moving On,”
15 “Gypsy Pride and Prejudice,” pres. By Elinor Goodman (Web: BBC Radio 4, 30 Dec 2013)
16 Coxhead, The Last Bastion of Racism? Gypsies, Travellers and Policing (Stoke on Trent: Trentham
Books, 2007) 62
17 In recent years New Travellers have slowly achieved more recognition of ethnic status on a parallel
with Gypsies and Irish Travellers, particularly through local campaign groups such as Friends Families
and Travellers based in Brighton
18 Hetherington, New Age Travellers: Vanloads of Uproarious Humanity (London: Cassell, 2000) 1-8
12
13
10
itinerant fairground or circus workers, referred to as ‘Showmen’ in Planning Law
(officially represented by the Showmen’s Guild19) have a long history of using
caravans for travelling accommodation.20
As well as these distinct social groups, many other people live in caravans for a
variety of reasons, such as economic, political, or as a lifestyle choice. A common
misconception about travelling communities is that their customs, values, and
aspirations are shared. Yet this is far from true. As can be seen from this brief
overview, caravan dwellers vary widely and must be recognised for their different
cultural identities. Despite this heterogeneity, I hope to uncover some of the
practices which are shared across multiple communities and discern some common
threads of experience of caravan life, whilst also recognizing points of contention and
celebrating difference, in order to gain insight into the wider picture of caravan
dwelling in Britain today.
To contextualise my own research, I have gathered information from a wide range of
academic books, journals, newspaper and magazine articles, documentary films,
radio programmes, exhibitions, photos and images, Acts of Parliament, and reports
by government bodies and charities. During initial research it became apparent that
contemporary caravan dwelling was an under-investigated field within design history.
Sociologist Kevin Hetherington has studied New Age Traveller culture and media
representation in depth,21 but fails to consider the importance of design. Similarly,
David Thornburg’s enlightening history of American “Trailerites” in the mid twentieth
“History,” The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain [n.d.]
“Planning policy for traveller sites: Equality impact assessment,” (London: Department for
Communities and Local Government, March 2012)
21 Hetherington, New Age Travellers
19
20
11
century,22 and Helen Stoddart’s work on circus wagons and travelling infrastructure23
have both been useful but lack a contemporary viewpoint. Photographers Donovan
Wylie24 and Iain McKell25 have also documented nomadic lifestyles, yet lack in-depth
critical scrutiny.
To answer my research questions I wanted to speak to people who had experienced
caravan dwelling. Unfortunately I was unable to speak directly to any members of the
Gypsy or Irish Traveller communities during my research. Gypsies and Irish
Travellers have a long history of being misrepresented,26 and although this is slowly
being challenged by recent excellent self-authored works,27 I do not wish to speak on
their behalf. Despite this, I feel it is important to recognise their longstanding
connection to caravan dwelling, which is mentioned intermittently throughout this
study. However, I was still able to meet many knowledgeable people willing to share
their stories. As part of my primary research I conducted eight interviews with
caravan dwellers across four sites. Interviews are rich sources of information about
everyday living practices, and through their subjectivity they can reveal the social
meaning of objects and express an individual’s experience of the designed world.
22
Thornburg, Galloping Bungalows: The Rise and demise of the American House Trailer
(Connecticut: Archon Books, 1991)
23 Stoddart, Rings of Desire: Circus History and Representation (Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 2000)
24 Wylie, Losing Ground (London: Fourth Estate Limited, 1998)
25 McKell, The New Gypsies (London: Prestel Verlag, 2011)
26 See Pip, “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Ruined my Life: An Open Letter to Channel 4,” 31 March
2015; Okely, “Recycled (mis)representations: Gypsies, Travellers or Roma treated as objects, rarely
subjects.” People, Place and Policy 8:1 (April 2014); and “A Big Public Debate: Gypsies, Roma and
Irish Travellers in the media.” Irish Traveller Movement in Britain: Summary of the ITMB seminar
hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Roma and Irish Travellers. 20 June 2012.
Web. 31 March 2015.
27 See Clarke et al (eds) Gypsies and Travellers in their Own Words: Words and Pictures of Travelling
Life (Leeds: Leeds Travellers Education Service, 2000); “Gypsy Pride and Prejudice,” Pres. By Elinor
Goodman (BBC Radio 4, 30 Dec 2013); Le Bas, “Back to the Future: Anti-Traveller Racism in 2015,”
Traveller’s Times Online (17 March 2015); “Local Name: Unknown... Gypsies?” Exhibition by Delaine
LeBas at Phoenix Gallery (Brighton, 26 April – 15 June 2014); “Moving On,” Prod. by Joe Hepworth
(Community Channel TV. 27 June 2013); “Sites and Rights: Accommodation for Gypsies and
Travellers,” Home, Horse and History (Community Channel TV, 27 Nov 2012)
12
Kathy Burrell has claimed that whilst interviews do not deal directly with material
culture, they can still “access the interactions” between people and things. 28
Following Burrell’s advice that interviews can be enriched when they take place
within the home because it provides visual cues for conversation,29 I conducted indepth interviews with people in their caravans. Each interview took around two
hours, and completed transcripts were then verified by the interviewee (all names
have been changed). I compiled a list of questions which reflected my research aims
to find out how caravan dwelling is affected by mobility, and allowed the interviewee
to develop conversation into wider debates about caravans and sites. Overall, I
found interviews to be highly rewarding and useful methods of research.
I combined interviews with field notes and observations taken during visits to each
site. Joanne Hollows argues that ethnographers are limited in their methods when
they are studying people’s relationship with home, because short of moving in, they
cannot observe closely enough.30 However, I have first-hand experience of one of
my case studies; a travelling Cotswold circus. In 2012 and 2013 I worked and lived
with the circus for two summer seasons, collecting field notes and photographs for
this study. The circus uses second-hand touring caravans (in addition to larger selfbuilt wagons known as ‘bunks’) as accommodation for artists and crew. The show
tours idyllic rural villages on a strict schedule of weekly or fortnightly moves over a
five month season. The site is separated into public and back-stage areas. Site
locations are arranged in advance and welcomed by local communities. Caravans
are single occupancy unless requested otherwise by couples and families, and are
Burrell, “Spilling over from the street: Contextualising space in an Inner-City Neighbourhood.” Home
Cultures 11:2 (July 2014): 151
29 Burrell, “Spilling over from the street,” 151
30 Hollows, Domestic Cultures (Berkshire: Open University Press, 2008) 83
28
13
almost always provided by the circus, except for a few artists who bring their own. In
addition to my own observations, I also conducted five interviews with the following
people at the circus: Evelyn; Cosmin; Polly; Terry; Philip and Lisa. Evelyn and
Cosmin are both in their twenties and have worked for the circus for around three
years. Even though the circus only tours in summer, they both stay at the circus
owner’s farm during winter. Polly is a dancer and has worked in circuses for several
years, staying in caravans for the duration of each season with her acrobat husband.
Terry is in his seventies and has completed several tours at the circus. He brings his
own small caravan, and has also recently bought a larger static caravan on a site
where he lives the rest of the year. Finally, Philip and Lisa (with their three small
children and a dog) live in their own caravan whilst on tour. Philip comes from three
generations of circus Showmen family and has a lifetime of experience in touring
shows.
I have compared my circus research with other case studies, of which I had no prior
experience. I contacted local groups such as Friends Families and Travellers in
Brighton, who put me in touch with further interviewees. This formed my second
case study, which centres around a community of New Travellers on the outskirts of
Brighton. Here I interviewed June, her teenage daughter Rosa, and Rosa’s friend
Sonic (a young mum). The community consists of around thirty people who live in a
combination of vehicles and trailers, and who have no legal stopping place in the
local area. As a result, each site is occupied for around six weeks until the
inhabitants are evicted by the council and the camp is moved on.
The third case study relates to a family who also live in Brighton. I interviewed Ella
and Simon, a couple who had lived in vans around Brighton for several years before
they decided to move into a caravan (on a legal site) for winter. Whilst living in a van
14
they had moved daily, whereas now they stay permanently on their pitch. The site is
privately owned by a cooperative so Ella pays rent for the pitch and utilities.
The final case study is located in Surrey, near to a busy A-road but in an otherwise
rural location. For the last decade or so the site (which covers about ten acres) has
been occupied without legal approval by a community of caravan dwellers whilst the
official land-owners await planning permission for development. Currently there are
around seventeen residents, and a padlocked gate prevents any unexpected
arrivals. Here I interviewed Bella, who lives with her husband Mike and young son
Archie. Bella and her family have lived on the site for nearly two years, although they
hope to travel more widely in the future.
These four case studies form the basis of this study. Sometimes respondents are
referred to individually, and sometimes conclusions are drawn from the case study
as a whole, where appropriate. Whilst recognising that there is no single framework
for caravan dwelling or site life, I hope to find commonalities running across these
varied experiences, in order to gain insight into the experience of caravan dwelling in
twenty-first century Britain, and the nature of the relationship between mobility and
the caravan home.
15
Chapter One
The tropes of modernity (exile, transgression, movement) are often “constructed
against home,” rendering it inert.31 Yet the caravan home is uprooted, without
foundations, and therefore is always liable to move. So how is this instability
negotiated by caravan dwellers? This chapter will argue that a material culture
approach can reveal the unique home-making practices produced by caravan
dwelling, and assess the extent to which these practices are a result of the inherent
mobility of the caravan. As design theorist Judy Attfield stated in her influential 2000
work Wild Things, material culture is the “social meaning of the physical world of
things”.32 Originating in anthropology and archaeology, a material culture approach
analyses the material attributes of objects and tries to understand how they are
experienced by people. As such, this approach prioritises consumption over
production as a way of making meaning, and therefore the value of an object
depends upon how it is received by the user just as much as the intentions of its
designer.33 This relationship is not static, but requires actively engaging with our
surroundings. Therefore Irene Cieraad describes it as an enquiry into the
“relationship between meaning and practice,” (my italics) highlighting the importance
of processes of behaviour actively reworked and performed.34 Since Wild Things
many design theorists have taken up Attfield’s ideas, particularly in regards to the
31
Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 6-7
Attfield, Wild Things: the material culture of everyday life (Oxford: Berg, 2000) 15
33 Attfield, Wild Things, 28, 39
34 Cieraad, “Introduction,” At Home: An Anthropology of Domestic Space (New York: Syracuse, 1999)
3
32
16
domestic environment. As scholar Joanne Hollows has argued, houses themselves
are a form of material culture.35 Hollows emphasises processes of “home-making”,
following Iris Marion Young’s theory that home-making “consists in the activities of
endowing things with living meaning, arranging them in space in order to facilitate
the life activities of those to whom they belong, and preserving them, along with their
meaning.”36 In this way, home-making is seen as a process which must be
performed through our material environment.
Firstly, a sense of home is created through one of the fundamental routines
performed by those living in a caravan, which is known as ‘packing down’ or ‘tatting
down’. This is the process of preparing the caravan for travelling, for example
securing windows and doors, disconnecting gas and water, and packing away
anything that could be damaged during travel. Packing down continually protects and
preserves not only people’s belongings, but also the order in which those items are
arranged within their home. For those who live a nomadic lifestyle with regular
moves this is a repetitive process that is perfected over time, and means that the act
of travelling is intrinsically linked to the processes of home-making. When asked
about packing down, seventy-one year old circus employee Terry replied “once you
get used to it, because you get a routine, you know exactly where it’s going to go.”37
Terry took great care to stow his television between the sofa cushions where it
wouldn’t break, showing how packing down rituals reveal which items are most
precious. Fellow circus employees Polly and her husband Viktor split the tasks
between them on a move day, in what Polly refers to as “our ritual thing.” 38 Viktor
35
Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 90
Young (1997: 151) quoted in Joanne Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 74
37 Terry, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 22 December 2014
38 Polly, personal interview with the author, Skype, 23 November 2014
36
17
folded up the caravan legs and disconnected the gas bottle, whilst Polly took
responsibility for packing away all of her porcelain cat figurines, because “if
something broke it would be my fault and I couldn’t get upset at no one else.”39
Often, the most sentimental items were delicate or valuable, and therefore required
careful packing-down to prevent them from breaking on the move.
Sixteen-year-old Rosa also liked to put out ornaments in her own trailer. Rosa lives
in a community of New Travellers around Brighton, and because they do not have
access to a legal site they are moved by the council every six weeks. The home can
be disrupted by the instability of forced travel. Rosa was able to pack everything
away at short notice but because of the uncertainty of being immediately moved on
from the new site, setting up was often delayed. Ella and Simon had experienced
similar problems with moving at short notice; parking up in Brighton and tatting down
daily had forced them to think carefully about how much stuff they used and how
easy it was to access, therefore limiting day-to-day processes of home-making.
Despite the inconveniences, being surrounded by personal belongings was preferred
even if this meant compromising on a longer pack down. Arguably, this is because
being surrounded by personal possessions actually helped to combat the instability
of the home as it moved. This confirms Iris Marion Young’s definition that homemaking “consists in the activities of endowing things with living meaning,” 40 whereby
the process of displacing and replacing objects offered familiarity. This familiarity is
critically important in a travelling life, where daily life is punctuated by change and
therefore the ritual of packing down and setting up creates a sense of permanence
on the move.
39
40
Polly, personal interview with the author, Skype, 23 November 2014
Young (1997: 151) quoted in Joanne Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 74
18
Even within the small circus community I observed very different attitudes to packing
down; Polly described herself as “a heavy pack-downer, compared to some other
people I know,” preferring to use designated storage areas to stow items away
safely.41 In contrast, Polly’s colleague Evelyn adopted a more relaxed attitude,
explaining how she would lay all her mirrors, picture frames, and glasses inside her
bed and replace the duvet, hoping everything would survive the drive to the next
circus ground (referred to as ‘pulling through’). In trying to justify this approach,
Evelyn raised an interesting point;
“If you’re worried about an object breaking when you move, but it survives,
that worry quickly goes away. You view the object very differently. Like,
with my laptop, before I lived in a caravan that moves, I would have kept
my laptop on my desk and it would have been pristine. But once it’s been
in the caravan and it’s pulled through a couple of times, I handle it so
much more roughly than I would have before.”42
This illustrates how Evelyn’s relationship to her belongings was altered when she
began living in a home which moved on a regular basis. It also confirms Attfield’s
claim that the meaning of objects arises from an active engagement with the user.
Evelyn’s relationship to her belongings was now defined by how well they responded
to travelling.
Some items were particularly vulnerable to regular moves. During my time at the
circus I noticed how much care was given when packing down mirrors. Many people
had highly decorative or sentimental glass mirrors which replaced the flimsy plastic
41
42
Polly, personal interview with the author, Skype, 23 November 2014
Evelyn, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 3 November 2014
19
ones normally built-in to modern caravans. More care was needed to safely pack
down these mirrors.
20
Figure 10 Evelyn’s pierrot mirror takes pride of place on her makeshift notice-board, where a
window has been boarded up. Note the DIY chest of drawers painted gold. Photograph by the
author, August 2014.
21
Evelyn had an “irreplaceable” mirror with a picture of a pierrot on it, which she used
daily to get ready for shows (see Figure 1). Mirrors have a long history of use within
circuses; as well as mirrors backstage in wardrobe, there was also the Hall of Mirrors
used to dazzle and unnerve circus-goers, and the European “Spiegeltent,” a
performance tent lined with mirrors.43 The earliest caravans originated from
nineteenth century Showmen’s wagons that travelled from town to town with
ornamental gilt carvings and mirror inlays intended to draw attention to the spectacle
and attract bigger crowds (see Figure 2).44 Mirrors were expensive and were
intended to display the wealth and success of the Showmen, whilst also being a fully
transportable financial investment.
Figure 11 Gollmar Bros. Circus Four-Mirror Bandwagon, built in 1903 for Gollmar Bros. of
Baraboo Wisconsin. Baraboo Museum, Wisconsin. Circus World Baraboo. [n.d.] Web. 20
March 2015. www.circusworldbaraboo.org.
43
44
“History,” The Famous Spiegeltent, 13 July 2010
Stoddart, Rings of Desire, 22
22
By the late nineteenth century Gypsies (who had previously lived in tents) started
using their own versions of painted and carved wagons.45 Horse-drawn Gypsy
caravans were known as Vardos,46 and were custom made by professional
craftsmen who fashioned unique individually-finished interiors specifically designed
for a travelling lifestyle.47 Stylistically, it has been suggested that nineteenth century
Gypsy Vardos took inspiration from wealthy Victorian manors; therefore, “an
abundance of mirrors, sequins, lace, fringes, tassels, and button upholstery”
characterised the Gypsy interior.48 Alison Ravetz argues that this tradition has
continued into modern caravans aimed at the Traveller market, featuring gleaming
surfaces and polished interiors, and embossed streamlining on the outside of
caravans (see Figure 3).49
As with any form of material culture, the mirror is an object which must be
experienced in person to understand how it operates. I visited Bella, who lives with
her young family on a site in Surrey in a caravan that she purchased second-hand
from a Gypsy site in Orpington. The interior is styled in the traditional Gypsy manner
with every surface covered in cut glass mirrors (see Figure 4). The hand-carved
decoration would have been very expensive to produce and was probably custommade.
45
Whiteman, The History of the Caravan (London: Blandford Press, 1973) 14-16
Horsedrawn Gypsy Vardos have a rich and unique history of their own which is unfortunately
outside the scope of the current study. For further reading see Timothy Lemke, The New Gypsy
Caravan (USA: Lulu.com, 2006); C.H Ward-Jackson and Denis E. Harvey, The English Gypsy
Caravan: Its Origins, Builders, Technology and Conservation (Devon: Newton and Charles Ltd, 1972);
and Gordon Thorburn and John Baxter, Travelling Art: Gypsy Caravans and Canal Barges
(Gloucestershire: The History Press, [2010] 2014)
47 Lemke, The New Gypsy Caravan (USA: Lulu.com, 2006) 14
48 Ravetz, The Place of Home: English Domestic Environments, 1914-2006 (London: Taylor &
Francis, [1995] 2006) 99
49 Ravetz, The Place of Home, 100
46
23
Figure 12 Exterior of Bella's caravan with polished chrome streamlining and stylised wheel
arch. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
Figure 13 Interior of Bella's caravan in the traditional Gypsy style with hand-carved cut glass
mirrors. Surrey. Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
24
However, Bella saw the mirrors in more practical terms. “You can light this part of the
caravan with only a couple of candles. And because of the reflection in the bedroom,
I just have little night-lights.”50 Walking around, I could see that her mirrored walls
had been cleverly arranged so the light bounced off and increased the feeling of
space, rather than feeling trapped like in a Hall of Mirrors. Many caravan dwellers use
candles in conjunction with mirrors to increase light when power is unavailable.
However, as another respondent noted, “it does feel a bit like living in a display
cabinet!”51 These increasingly rare and upmarket trailers echo the original intentions
of the Showmen’s mirrored wagons – to demonstrate wealth and status in moveable
architecture, demonstrating how certain styles came about due to the needs of
nomadic communities.
In contrast, the modern mass-produced caravan interior (see Figure 5) is
characterised by practicality rather than extravagance, which came about due to
changes in mobility. Gypsy caravans had been designed to create highly
personalised lifelong homes, but modern caravan design has changed very little
since the mid-twentieth century (after the introduction of the motorcar) when
manufactured caravans were marketed specifically for the growing number of postwar holiday-makers.52 Even today, modern caravans are designed to sleep large
families and provide cooking and washing facilities for short stays away from home,
and are characterised under the “leisure” industry, rarely intended as long-term
dwellings.53 As a result, emphasis has shifted from individual craftsmanship to
cheaper materials, basic decoration, and a limited colour palette.
50
Bella, personal interview with the author, Surrey, 18 January 2015
June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
52 Jenkison, Caravans – The Illustrated History, 1919-1959 (Dorchester: Velcoe, 2003) 34-36
53 Baxter (ed), Camping and Caravanning (Hampton: Key Note Ltd, 2000) 2
51
25
Figure 14 The modern standardised interior of Cosmin’s caravan. Photograph by the author, 2
November 2014.
Evelyn spoke disparagingly about the overwhelming use of “beige fabric” in modern
caravans.54 Evelyn’s co-worker, twenty-four year old Cosmin, was the only
interviewee who did not refer to his caravan as his permanent home. He reflected “it
is horrible for me. Other people, they like their caravans, but it’s not for me.” 55 As a
migrant worker, he thought of Romania as his true home, and perhaps this is why his
caravan (see Figure 5) had retained its original features with very few personal
effects.
54
55
Evelyn, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 3 November 2014
Cosmin, personal interview with the author, 2 November 2014
26
Standardised interiors offer little opportunity for the level of personalisation expected
of conventional housing, which reflects Hollow’s assertion that domestic architecture
can “exert an influence on the kinds of home that people can make,” and therefore
has “agency” of its own.56 Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger claims that nomadic
furnishings are characterised by “mobility, flexibility, functionality, and
transformability,” 57 but this overlooks the essential need for individuality and
creativity within the home. For many respondents, personalisation was a higher
priority than practicality. Several interviewees had sacrificed the standardised
caravan interior (designed to keep belongings safe whilst travelling) in favour of a
less practical but more individualised home. For instance, Simon and Ella explained
how they liked to have items hanging up on display; “It might make more sense to
have it stacked away in a cupboard but it’s nicer to have it hanging out.”58 Evelyn had
altered her caravan almost beyond recognition. One reason for this, she claimed,
was the need to “freshen it up” after it had been occupied by several other people
before her.59 As Hollows argues, the remnants of previous occupants are one of the
ways homes have “agency.” 60 Evelyn combated this by painting the floor and walls,
recovering the seat cushions, changing the shower cubicle into a full-length
wardrobe, putting in a chest of drawers, hanging silk scarves instead of curtains, and
boarding up some of the windows (see Figures 1 and 6). As a result her caravan is a
unique reflection of her own style and reinforces Attfield’s claim that material culture
has a “direct involvement [...] with matters of identity.”61 Evelyn’s modified caravan
56
Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 90-91
Seiler-Baldinger, “Mobility with Tradition,” Living in Motion: Design and architecture for flexible
dwellings, Schwarz-Clauss (ed) (Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design, 2002) 175
58 Simon, personal interview with the author, Brighton, 26 February 2015
59 Evelyn, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 3 November 2014
60 Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 90
61 Attfield, Wild Things, 3
57
27
took much longer to pack down and set up after she had removed some of the built-in
storage space. Like Polly and Rosa who replaced their ornaments after every
journey, Evelyn also displayed her prized possessions including a skull from her
Masters in Archaeology (see Figure 6) and the broken head of a tent stake from her
first tour at the circus, even though these items were vulnerable on the weekly move
to the new circus ground.
28
Figure 15 Interior of Evelyn's caravan, packed down on the morning of a move. Photograph by
the author, August 2014.
29
In Surrey, Bella also took out furniture and fixtures such as a set of heavy “gaudy”
mirrored doors that would have led to the bedroom (see Figure 4) and removed a
sofa to make a place for her son Archie’s cot (see Figure 7).62
In addition, Bella replaced the old gas heater fitted in her caravan and installed a
wood burning stove (see Figure 7). Caravans often come with fitted with gas heaters
to supply safe, clean and fast heating without a mains supply, even though they are
far more expensive to run than wood-burners – for some, it costs more to heat one
trailer for a year than a four-bedroom house.63 Bottled gas (intended for travelling) is
also around double the price of mains gas.64 Therefore for many caravan dwellers
wood burners are an essential part of home. If Young argues that home-making
“consists in the activities of endowing things with living meaning, arranging them in
space in order to facilitate the life activities of those to whom they belong,” 65 then
wood burners were endowed both high-status and deeply practical meanings. Some
respondents had a most intimate relationship with them; Bella and Ella both named
their burners as their most prized possession. Routines developed of chopping
wood, lighting a fire, keeping it stoked, feeding the flame, letting it burn slowly
overnight, and relighting it again in the morning. If home is created through rituals,
then the burner was an integral part of home life, especially for Bella who had no
other method of heating and relied on the burner to keep her family warm and
comfortable. Light and heat sources have long been focal points in nomadic
homes.66 Many interviewees used candles to light their homes because a steady
electricity supply is often unavailable. Again, this reflects that fact that many
62
Bella, personal interview with the author, Surrey, 18 January 2015
June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
64 Leech, “Keeping Warm on Site.” Travellers’ Times. 6 March 2015
65 Young (1997: 151) quoted in Joanne Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 74
66 Seiler-Baldinger, “Mobility with Tradition,” 190-191
63
30
manufactured caravans (which restrict the use of naked flames) are not suited to the
unpredictable reality of a nomadic life, where access to mains utilities can be limited
on the move. Even for those who do not travel, a basic water and gas supply is often
unavailable. Bella lived on an illegal site in Surrey and the council had turned their
only water tap off to discourage residents from staying. She now travels a mile to a
local church to collect water in portable butts. In Brighton, Sonic also had no mains
water and found it difficult to arrange transport to visit garages and supermarkets to
find a water tap, particularly with a new baby. Modern caravan design (fitted with
water pumps, electricity outlets and gas heating) can overlook the reality of
contemporary caravan dwelling, which is often unstable and impermanent. Access to
utilities supports Hollow’s idea that the home is not “bounded” but actually
interdependent with its surroundings.67
67
Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 2
31
Figure 16 The new burner and Archie's cot in Bella's caravan. Photograph by the author, 18
January 2015.
As Hollows says, houses themselves are a form of material culture.68 Due to its
methods of construction the caravan offers a different materiality compared to
houses. Materials are designed to be light, flexible, and strong, to withstand
travelling at speed. The boundaries of the caravan home are more blurred; sounds
penetrate the lightweight materials more easily, and multiple windows increase
visibility from both interior and exterior. A recent documentary about Gypsies and
Travellers found that caravan residents felt safer and happier living in a caravan
because they could see out of the trailer in all directions, and conversely houses
made them feel “isolated.”69 This was echoed in my own case studies. June had
spent her life on the road but had recently accepted a council house for family
68
Hollows, Domestic Cultures, 90
“Sites and Rights: Accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers,” Home, Horse and History
(Community Channel TV, 27 Nov 2012)
69
32
reasons. However, June still owned a caravan and often went to stay on site to visit
daughter Rosa, adamant that she did not want to give up travelling. Speaking from
her trailer, June said “I’d rather be here – living in something that’s twenty foot long,
than in my four-bedroom house. It feels more homely.”70 Evelyn and Polly both
referred to the social interactions that took place through opened windows backstage
at the circus. Evelyn described how “when you’re sort of in amongst the caravans,
you’re on that level, you can all see into each other’s caravans, when you’re walking
past, you can talk to one another through all the walls, because they’re so thin.”71 For
Polly, an open caravan window was “an invitation” for visitors to lean in, and a closed
blind was an explicit sign that she wanted privacy.72 Kathy Burrell has argued that
any home has “porous sites of tension” where unwanted noise and intrusions can
penetrate the home at the thresholds.73 Bella explained how peace and quiet could
sometimes be elusive, saying “you just have to learn how to turn your ears off” to
voices from nearby caravans penetrating the thin walls.74 Burrell’s viewpoint is fairly
demoralising; she argues that houses have “limited power” to resist outside forces,
and total privacy within the home “can never be fully realised.”75 I found that
caravans are able to contradict this to a certain extent due to their autonomy of
movement. Sonic referred to the fact that house dwellers are trapped with their
neighbours, whereas “I prefer living in a trailer because if I don’t like my neighbour, I
can just hitch up my trailer and move to the other end of site.”76 Movement is
70
June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
Evelyn, personal interview with the author, Skype, 3 November 2014
72 Polly, personal interview with the author, Skype, 23 November 2014
73 Burrell, “Spilling over from the street,” 152
74 Bella, personal interview with the author, Surrey, 18 January 2015
75 Burrell, “Spilling over from the street,” 162
76 Sonic, personal interview with the author, Brighton, 20 January 2015
71
33
therefore a crucial element of control within some site communities where people
can enjoy the sociability of porous homes, but also limit unwanted intrusions.
Throughout this chapter, it has been shown how the experience of living in a caravan
is always dependent on the instability of moving. This instability can threaten to
undermine the balance of home if precious objects are broken, and travelling can be
a burden when access to utilities is limited. Modern caravans are standardised for
short-term living and therefore can have “agency” over inhabitants who must
negotiate a balance between practicality and personalisation. Lightweight caravan
construction is perfect for travelling, but results in a different materiality where the
boundaries of the home are compromised. However, mobility can also be a positive
experience. Packing down and setting up creates a sense of permanence on the
move. The act of moving becomes entwined with the daily experience of the home,
and personal belongings perform a visual and physical familiarity to counter the
disruption of travelling. As one interviewee put it, “your home never changes, just the
site.”77 Even for those who don’t move their caravans on a regular basis, the home is
still practiced around an underlying contingency and a predisposition to change, for
example for Bella (who has lived on the same site for two years) home is still affected
by the transition of neighbours, the uncertainty of being moved on, and the
aspirations to move to new places. The home must always be considered in relation
to wider social and physical spaces in which it exists. The next chapter will discuss
how space, place and power are fundamental in the experience of the caravan home,
and that mobility can affect the spatial practices and boundaries of caravan sites.
77
Sonic, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
34
Chapter Two
As discussed, caravan dwellers are able to create a sense of home on the move. Yet
the home is not confined to the limits of the caravan, but also extends out into wider
society. The nature of the caravan as a mobile dwelling is intrinsically without
stability, uprooted, and “capable of being moved from one place to another.”78 This
chapter will argue that this inherent mobility fundamentally alters caravan dweller’s
concepts of space and place. It will be shown that caravan dwelling does not fit into
dominant ideas about the use of space (which are based upon stability, permanence,
78
Section 29 (1), Part 1, Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, HMSO [n.d.]
35
and fixed spatial boundaries) and therefore offers the possibility of an alternative way
of producing space based on contingency, temporality, and instability. As well as
challenging the way space is produced in settled communities, social relationships
are also formed through the invisible boundaries and spatial practices of camp
places.
All spaces can be regarded as a reflection of the societies that create them. Henri
Lefebrve has argued that “social (space) is a (social) product.”79 Writing in 1974 in
The Production of Space, Lefebvre claimed that space itself is a physical
embodiment of the hegemonic values that it “serves,” and is a way of maintaining
power.80 This is a useful way to think about space because it reveals how different
values are inscribed within social spaces, and also that space is a reflection of the
power relations within communities. Lefebvre’s concept of “producing space” is
useful for understanding the differences between settled and nomadic spatial
formations.81 Settled societies “produce” space around the values of permanence
and growth, with clearly defined public and private spaces, and dwellings that
incorporate “feelings of stability and physical security.”82 In a settled society, houses
are architecturally permanent and geographically fixed, often passed on through
generations and outlasting the inhabitants. During the development of a settled
society in Britain, the built environment and residential housing spread, and other
types of home (such as the tent, boat, and cart) were excluded from the popular
concept of dwelling.83 This illustrates how concepts of home, community, and nation
have come to reflect the hegemonic system of thought in Britain, thereby “producing”
79
Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 26
Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 10-11
81 Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 15
82 Rammler, “A Mighty Fortress? On the Sociology of Flexible Dwelling,” Living in Motion, 198
83 Schwartz-Clauss (ed), Living in Motion, 12
80
36
fixed and demarcated spaces. In contrast, nomadic communities depend upon
mobility, open access, and freedom of movement. Travelling communities “produce”
space differently according to the values of flexibility and impermanence. David
Thornburg suggests that “rootedness” is one of the fundamental “taboos” broken by
those who live in caravans, demonstrating that travelling lifestyles contradict
mainstream ideas about neighbourhood and regionalism.84 In addition, David Sibley
argues that hegemonic societies create “implicit rules of inclusion and exclusion.”85
For Sibley, every society has “exclusionary practices” that alienate certain groups
from social spaces and reflect the needs of those in power.86 In Britain, a settled
society can exclude travelling lifestyles. This is particularly relevant for caravans and
sites; as one interviewee reflected, “there’s a pre-conceived idea that you shouldn’t
be here anyway. We’re always seen as a problem.”87
Settled and nomadic ways of life have a long and complex relationship in Britain.
During the early days of horse-drawn caravan dwelling in the nineteenth century,
Gypsies and Travellers used common land and roadside stopping places to rest in
between journeys.88 The settled community tolerated Gypsies if they were selfsufficient and moved on fairly quickly. Deborah Nord has suggested that this way of
life means that Gypsies and Travellers were inevitably always positioned as the
outsider, and therefore have been imagined as “not in the midst but on the
periphery... present but separate, often within view but almost never absorbed,
encountered but seldom intimately known.”89 This corroborates Sibley’s
84
Thornburg, Galloping Bungalows, 62-70
Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion (London: Routledge, 1995) xi
86
Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion, xiv
87 June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
88 Ravetz, “Self-Help and Alternative Housing,” 100
89 Nord, Gypsies and the British Imagination, 1807-1930 (New York: Columbia University Press,
2006) 4
85
37
“geographies of exclusion,” where Travellers were prevented from staying too long in
the demarcated spaces of the settled community.
The first official legislation directed at caravan dwellers emerged during the midtwentieth century, and aimed to control a proliferation of unregulated sites which
sprang up to cater to holiday-makers during the 1930s (see Figure 8).90 By 1960 the
Caravan Sites Control of Development Act was introduced and defined the stationing
of one caravan on a piece of land for one day equal to “development” of a site.91 By
introducing this legislation, the government sought to control the spread of
illegitimate caravans and sites used by holiday makers, reinforcing Lefebvre’s idea
that space can be “a means of control.”92 Yet the laws also inadvertently affected the
nomadic travelling patterns of Gypsies and Travellers, as local authorities were
empowered to evict roadside encampments. To counter this, the Caravan Sites Act
was amended in 1968 to ensure that local authorities provided adequate sites for
Gypsies, Travellers, and people of nomadic ways of life.93 In contrast to the casual
and temporary nature of roadside stopping places, caravan sites now had to be
planned, authorised and operated according to certain rules, which echoes Sibley’s
claim that dominant social spaces have an “intolerance of ambiguity.”94 Local
authority sites were seen as “the future” for long-term caravan dwellers,95 intended to
include permanent pitches for long-term residents and transit pitches for short stays.
This was an attempt to reconcile the order and stability of the settled community with
the rights of the nomadic minority to continue travelling.
90
Public Health Act 1936, The National Archives, Crown Copyright, www.legislation.gov.uk
Whiteman, The History of the Caravan, 193
92Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 26
93 “Caravan Sites Act 1968: 1968 Chapter 52,” (London: HMSO, 1968)
94 Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion, xiii
95 Sandford, Gypsies (London: Sphere Book Ltd, 1975) 14
91
38
Figure 17 Unofficial caravan sites began to spring up during the 1930s in popular holiday
destinations. Bridlington Corporation Caravan Site (top) was built to conform to the new
planning regulations, in comparison to the earlier uncontrolled development on the adjacent
plot. Photo by Aero Pictorial. Reproduced from Caravans and the English Landscape by
William Meredith Whiteman (London: Council for the Preservation of Rural England, 1958) 8-9.
However, with the emergence of the New Age Traveller movement in the 1980s, the
situation changed again as the number of non-Gypsy caravan dwellers increased
rapidly. In response to large illegal encampments of caravans and living vehicles by
New Age Travellers on sites such as Stonehenge, stricter rules were brought in to
evict camps and repossess vehicles.96 The 1986 and 1994 Criminal Justice and
Public Order Acts improved police powers to remove caravans from land onto which
they had trespassed, and made it a criminal offence to remain after an eviction had
96
Ravetz, The Place of Home, 100 - 101
39
been ordered.97 In addition, the Public Order Acts also removed the responsibility of
local authorities to provide sites for Gypsies and Travellers, whom were instead
encouraged to buy land and apply for planning permission.98 These regulations are
still in use today, and have left a complex legacy and taxonomy of different site
conventions for twenty-first century caravan dwellers. Conflict between settled and
nomadic communities have created socially entrenched boundaries of what is
acceptable and what is not. This reinforces June’s feeling that “there’s a preconceived idea that you shouldn’t be here,” as caravan sites are increasingly
marginalised and legislation is tightened.99
The problem arises in the current legal definition of a caravan site; “land on which a
caravan is stationed for the purposes of human habitation.”100 For anyone who does
not have another home and who lives permanently in their caravan, this definition
means that any ground underneath their caravan is technically a site. Such
definitions have been criticised in recent years as they fail to recognise the temporal
nature of camps and sites. Architectural theorist Charlie Hailey has argued that
“defining the camp is a central problem of our contemporary moment.”101 Hailey
emphasises the “conditional” nature of sites, which operate “between the temporary
and permanent,” and are “understood as having a limited, although sometimes
indeterminate, duration.”102 This represents an alternative way of producing space
which is not based on permanence and growth, and instead allows for the
97
Section 62, Part V, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994 (London: HMSO, [1986] 1994)
“The Big Gypsy Eviction,” BBC 1 Scotland, 21 July 2011
99 June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
100 Section 1 (4), Part 1, Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, HMSO [n.d.]
101 Hailey, Camps, 1
102 Hailey, Camps, 4
98
40
ambiguous transience of sites. Planning permission operates on the assumption that
developments are permanent fixtures, yet for camps, this is not always true.
For instance, Bella and her family live on a site in Surrey without planning permission
(see Figure 9). For the last ten years the land (known as Brook Cottage) has been
earmarked for house building, but so far no development has started. As such,
caravan dwellers have squatted the land for nearly a decade, and have been allowed
to remain until further notice. This represents a compromise over the use of space,
as developers are unwilling to surrender control of the land in case they lose future
development plans, and the squatters regard their stay as temporary. However, site
dwellers experience a perpetual uncertainty. Bella explained "we don't really know
what's going on with the land - we've been looked on a few times, but nothing's
changed... that's the thing with living on a site, it's unpredictable."103 As can be seen
from the aerial view of Bella’s site, the indeterminate future of the site has created
spatial patterns which are continually reused and altered. Old paths have been
abandoned and there is no overall unity to the spatial structure.
103
Bella, personal interview with the author, Surrey, 18 January 2015
41
Figure 18 Aerial view of Brook Cottage site in Surrey. Photograph reproduced from Google
Maps. [n.d.] Web. 18 January 2015. http://maps.google.co.uk.
These spaces are a result of what Hailey calls the “conditional” nature of sites.104 As
Lefebvre argues, spaces are physical embodiments of the people who produce
them, and Bella’s site reflects the fact that it is temporarily occupied, albeit for
several years, and by definition a long-term plan is not being implemented. The
residents at Brook Cottage react to events as they occur, for instance, bad weather
during last winter forced many of the caravans to move out of the mud and nearer to
the entrance (see Figure 10). During the ten years that this site had been occupied,
there were few material changes to the land. A few piles of scrap metal and tyres
were mounting up, a compost toilet had recently been installed, and several trees
had been cut down for firewood, but as Bella explained, “as soon as the developers
start work, we’ll go. And try and leave it as unaffected as possible.”
104
Hailey, Camps, 4
42
Figure 19 Caravans and personal belongings are scattered across Brook Cottage site, Surrey.
Photograph by the author, 18 January 2015.
Many of the interviewees in this study spoke about the lack of authorised sites to live
on in their caravan. A recent study estimated there were four thousand families living
in caravans in England and Wales with no legitimate stopping place.105 This basic
need is something which is hardly a consideration for those who live in houses,
where the land beneath the house comes as part of a tenancy or lease. But the
uprooted nature of the caravan means that finding a place to rest is paramount,
particularly with the strict laws regarded unauthorised stopping places. After several
105
“Sites and Rights: Accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers,”
43
years of parking up in residential areas, Ella and Simon now live on a permanent
legal site (see Figure 11).
Figure 11 Aerial view of Patcham Court Farm site, Brighton. Photograph reproduced from
Google Maps. [n.d.] Web. 22 January 2015. http://maps.google.co.uk
Whilst this automatically provided a safe and secure place to live in their caravan,
they also saw it as a sacrifice of the freedom they had experienced on the road.
Simon thought of site life as repetitive and stagnant; “coming back to the same solid
place and it’s still going to be here tomorrow.”106 Their site was run by a private cooperative and new residents had to be voted in to obtain a pitch. In this way, the
community retained autonomy over who came to live on site. Ella explained
“because it is a small community, you’ve got to be quite sure about who lives here
and who doesn’t.”107 Similarly, Bella’s community at Brook Cottage maintained a
106
107
Simon, personal interview with the author, Brighton, 20 February 2015
Ella, personal interview with the author, Brighton, 20 February 2015
44
sense of security by keeping a padlock on the perimeter fence to prevent any
strangers pulling on to the site.
There are marked differences in the spatial patterns that have emerged between the
official site in Patcham and the unregulated Brook Cottage site. Patcham Court Farm
has more defined parking areas and green spaces, compared to the scattered
vehicles on the squatted site. However, both sites are similar in that they have clear
geographical boundaries that have limited the spread of the site, and the inhabitants
have remained for several years.
In contrast, other interviewees moved site on a regular basis. One of the sites used
by June, Rosa and Sonic is situated on a narrow strip of land on outskirts of
Brighton, adjoining a busy road on the way to Devil’s Dyke and the South Downs
(see Figure 12). The rural location is popular with walkers. As a result, the sporadic
arrival of caravans can create tensions for local people who use the area regularly,
because the caravans represent a transgression of established social space (the
footpath). Conversely, for the caravan dwellers, the safety and security of familiar
site life is punctured by regular intrusions into the space, as the footpath runs directly
through the caravans, and walkers regularly entered the boundary of the site. June
and Rosa experienced regular disturbances, such as being woken up during the
night by abusive language and missiles from passing cars. Referred to as “being
vigi’d,” these vigilante attacks disrupt the safety of home, even in the close-knit
site.108 Intrusions made the site feel “vulnerable,” which demonstrates how tensions
within sites can be symptomatic of tensions felt in the wider communities. Before
living on a permanent site, Ella and Simon had also experienced animosity when
108
June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
45
they parked up in residential areas. Ella’s side mirrors had been smashed and graffiti
scrawled on her van. Unfortunately, animosity, prejudice, and even “vigilante attacks”
can be a part of daily life for caravan dwellers, particularly in cases where the sites
are occupying a public space.109
Figure 12 June, Rosa and Sonic’s site on the outskirts of Brighton. Photograph by the author,
20 January 2015.
Charlie Hailey argues that for travelling communities camps are “necessary sites of
identity [...] and autonomy.”110 Sites are not just physical spaces, but are socially
significant places, full of meaning and recognised social relations. Geographer
Doreen Massey conceptualises place (in contrast to space) as somewhere with
“shared undergirding assumptions [...] closed, coherent, integrated.”111 Massey is
referring to places which are geographically fixed, such as towns or buildings,
however, places can also be practised on the move. The interiority of a site is a
place which is protected by boundaries between the inner community and the
109
Ella, personal interview with the author, Brighton, 20 February 2015
Hailey, Camps, 393
111 Massey, For Space (London: Sage, 2005) 6
110
46
outside world. For example, the boundaries between inside and outside the
Cotswold circus site were clearly demarcated by a perimeter of parked vehicles (see
Figure 13). Helen Stoddart has argued that the circus is both a physical and a
symbolic space, which is full of its own mythology. Stoddart claims that circuses are
defined by a “frisson of roguishness” and that their appeal lay in a self-sustaining
myth of danger, eroticism, excitement, and mystery.112 The separation between
public and closed spaces reflects a distinct boundary between the spectacle of the
show and the impenetrable mysteries of backstage. Regardless of location, the
backstage area remained a place of privacy and safety, where people felt
comfortable leaving their caravans unlocked and strangers were prohibited. As
circus worker Terry explained, “we keep an eye on each other. If we see someone
strange about, we ask, or we know.”113 But as the site gradually dematerialised on
the day of a move, unattended vehicles were left “exposed” as the protection of other
vehicles disappeared.114
Each time the circus moved to a new ground the site was replicated, but in a slightly
different arrangement according to the size and space available. As a result, sites
were navigated by the general elastic patterns of organisation, such as the position of
the toilets in relation to the tent, or the arrangement of caravans at various angles to
the perimeter. This illustrates how space is produced differently to settled
communities, and a sense of permanence can be maintained on the move. Patterns
of movement influence the way we regard space, or, as geographers Tim Cresswell
and Peter Merriman state, “our mobilities create spaces and stories – spatial
112
Stoddart, Rings of Desire, 73
Terry, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 22 December 2014
114 Evelyn, personal interview with the author, Gloucestershire, 3 November 2014
113
47
stories.”115 Even in darkness, circus workers knew where to avoid stakes and which
ropes to duck under (see Figure 14) even though the layout altered slightly each
week.
Figure 13 Company vehicles create a clear boundary between public and backstage areas of
the circus. Photograph by the author, July 2014.
115
Cresswell and Merriman (eds.) Geographies of Mobilities, 5
48
Figure 16 Tent stakes and ropes are familiar obstacles in backstage areas of the circus.
Photograph by the author, September 2013.
The interiority of site life was important for many interviewees. June, Rosa and Sonic
spoke about the strong sense of community and solidarity in their small group of
Travellers. Site life was an extended “family,” built around the “idea of social living,
everyone sticking together, and always looking out for each other.” This reinforces
Massey’s understanding of place as “closed, coherent [and] integrated,” by social
boundaries as well as physical thresholds.116 For sixteen-year-old Rosa living on site
in her own trailer was secure as long as she had familiar neighbours. “It feels quite
safe – but I wouldn’t want to pull up on my own, that could be quite scary.”117 This
demonstrates how the familiar place of the site is contingent on the contested
spaces that surround it. Unlike the controlled boundaries of the circus that deterred
116
117
Massey, For Space, 6
Rosa, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
49
curious strangers, Rosa and her neighbours could not prevent intrusions into their
site, because they did not have authority over the use of the land. Their unofficial
encampment exemplifies Massey’s concept of space as “always under construction”
by different social groups with different agendas, which can challenge the interiority
and familiarity of place.118
June’s community regularly occupied public land because there were no spaces on
nearby authorised sites. There are currently 10 official traveller sites in West Sussex,
with a long waiting list for the 110 plots available.119 According to the Criminal Justice
and Public Order laws, unauthorised encampments can only be forcibly evicted if
there are pitches available on official sites in the local area, and as Brighton’s only
official site is full, the council must first issue a court hearing which takes around six
weeks.120 June refers to this process as a “cat and mouse game,” as they are
habitually moved on by council evictions.121 June explained, “There’s a lot of sites we
use, and they know we’re quite self-sufficient. So they just keep moving us.” Despite
obvious demand, authorised site planning applications are often rejected on grounds
of their intrusions into the landscape. For instance, Brighton’s only legal site in
Horsdean was specifically designed to be shielded from view, and “minimise the
visual appearance” of its caravan pitches. This reflects the longstanding exclusion of
such sites in settled society, which frequently regards caravans as “haphazard [...]
trailer-slums.”122 William Whiteman summed up the problematic history of caravans,
when in 1958, he stated “the caravan problem is not primarily an amenity problem
118
Massey, For Space, 9
Sawer, “How the Siege of Nepcote Green turned the tables on the travellers,” The Telegraph, 28
June 2014
120 “Travellers,” Housing, Brighton and Hove City Council. [n.d.]
121 June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
122 Thornburg, Galloping Bungalows, 53
119
50
but a social problem.”123 Whiteman acknowledged that many people saw caravans
as “visually deplorable and [...] restless in the landscape,” yet he argued that this
view was entrenched in ideological assumptions about caravan dwellers
themselves.124 This reflects how the real physical spaces of sites are dependent
upon entrenched social ideas about the use of space and place. As Sibley argues,
these spatial “exclusionary practices” are a direct result of social relations.125
Unfortunately, this attitude persists into the twenty-first century, as caravan dwellers
continue to negotiate the lack of permanent sites and balance the instability of a
home on the move.
Conclusion
Throughout this study it has been established that caravan dwelling in Britain today
should be recognised for its heterogeneity, and celebrated for the multiple
communities, sites, situations, styles of living, attitudes to home life, and cultural
identities of those who choose to live in caravans. However, between these
experiences it is possible to establish certain commonalities which characterise the
experience of caravan dwelling in twenty-first century Britain. Firstly, that the caravan
home is defined by mobility, and inhabitants must find ways to negotiate the
instability of a life on the move. The material culture of site communities is critically
important in maintaining a sense of familiarity. Caravans can also be unpredictable
123
Whiteman, Caravans and the English Landscape (London: Council for the Preservation of Rural
England, 1958) 2
124 Whiteman, Caravans and the English Landscape, 12
125
Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion, xiv
51
places of residence due to the restrictions surrounding their settlement and formation
into site communities. The inherent mobility of the caravan can produce new ways of
thinking about space and place, and challenge dominant social structures through
the temporal nature of sites. Yet whilst travelling communities continue to produce
“necessary sites of identity” in their homes and camp spaces,126 and are able to
challenge the hardships of a life on the move, there are still many problems
encountered. A lack of understanding of travelling cultures can lead to prejudice and
social exclusion, and damage relations between caravan dwellers and other
communities. As one interviewee reflected, “those questions like ‘where do you go to
the toilet’ or ‘was it your lot that left the rubbish,’ is partly why people hide it.”127 The
caravan itself has a particular symbolic status which can act as a powerful
embodiment of the conflicts of different communities. As recent as 2003, an effigy of
a Gypsy caravan was burnt during a parade in Firle, Sussex, stirring fierce debates
over racial stereotyping.128 Many caravan dwellers resonate with the view that
“there’s something about being in a trailer, specifically, that makes people feel
almost like we’re property, if you like, property of the country, and society has a right
to abuse us.”129 There are many aspects of caravan dwelling which remain outside
the scope of this current study, such as the way in which caravans and sites are
represented in the media, and the impact this has on legislation and cultural attitudes
to travellers. This is undoubtedly related to the transience of travelling communities,
which Deborah Nord suggests have been repeatedly imagined as “not in the midst
but on the periphery... present but separate, often within view but almost never
126
Hailey, Camps, 393
June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
128 Carter, “Arrests for burning of ‘Gypsy caravan,’” UK News, The Guardian, 12 November 2003
129 June, personal interview with the author, Sussex, 20 January 2015
127
52
absorbed, encountered but seldom intimately known.”130 This study aims to
reposition caravan dwelling in contemporary culture, not on the periphery, but
recognised as an important part of twenty-first century concepts of home, space, and
place, and relevant to people regardless of whether they live in a caravan.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank everyone who gave their time, effort, and energy into helping me
produce this dissertation, in particular, Brian Morgan and Rowena Becker at the
Caravan Club, and also Emma Nuttall and colleagues at Friends Families and
Travellers in Brighton.
63
Special thanks must be given to those who agreed to be interviewed, and who
opened up their homes and hearts to me, and without whom I could not have
produced this study. To each of you, thank you for your generosity and support.
Appendix One: Interview with Evelyn
3 November 2014, Gloucestershire
Interviewed by Rosie Clarke (RC)
64
RC
Please could you start by telling me how long you’ve lived in a caravan?
Evelyn I lived in a caravan for two and a half years? Actually no, I didn’t, because I
lived in the bunk in 2012 – So I moved into the caravan in April 2013 and
left, like, last week.
RC
So just to make clear, you have left now, so this is in hindsight
Evelyn Completely.
RC
Whose caravan was it?
Evelyn My boss’s caravan. It came part and parcel with the job.
RC
Describe what the caravan was like.
Evelyn So, my caravan was amazing! My caravan was a 1970s... probably, like,
one of those Sprites – it was painted so you couldn’t tell exactly what model
it was – but it was definitely a 1970s caravan and me and my mate watched
a programme on caravans, and it said how Sprite went into massive
production of this one particular model, so it was probably one of those.
The layout’s incredible and it’s probably a bit better than the newer
caravans. It’s got a bed that you don’t have to fold away at the far end of
the door, which is quite unusual, as lots of beds are usually the ones that
sleep four, they’ll always have the table at the far end away from the door,
and the bed near the door, which I think is really stupid. Yeah so it’s got a
hanging rail, wardrobe, chest of drawers, and a really small crap kitchen
unit, and it’s got loads of windows and loads of plugs. But it’s also falling
apart, it’s got a gap under the door, the windows don’t shut, the fridge door
comes off... other stuff...
65
RC
And you’ve fixed it a lot of times?
Evelyn Yeah, it’s fixed like every couple of move days.
RC
So you have the table AND the bed, whereas normally you have to make
one or the other?
Evelyn Yeah exactly, which I’m far too lazy to do. Everyone always takes the piss
out of my caravan saying it’s shit, but, in actual fact, for one person it’s
really good.
RC
Would any of those things been made as an addition, after initial
manufacture?
Evelyn Yeah, I think. It’s weird, because where the chest of drawers is, it looks
like... Well I’ve actually fixed a board to the wall (using it as a notice board)
but behind that board, there’s a small frosted window. So I think that the
hanging wardrobe and the chest of drawers (which are next to each other)
used to be a bathroom. So I think at some point someone has done it –
loads of people have lived in that caravan before me, it was the Strong
Man’s, it was a Ramp Boy’s, and the guy who did the horses. And every
single one of us has done something different to it – mainly painting it.
That’s the other thing, is you can paint the walls, whereas in normal
caravans it’s all that weird textured feel to the walls, whereas this one you
could just whack paint on. And it’s not carpeted as well. So, because it was
such a mish-mash of people that went before me, I just picked dark, dark
blue paint that just went over the top of all of it, and I painted the chest of
drawers gold. And then, a later addition, after I’d lived in it a year (and it did
66
have a white floor, which just looked disgusting, it got dirty so often) I
painted the floor black.... Controversial!
RC
And can you describe the decorations you had up?
Evelyn Yeah...So it didn’t have any curtains; or the curtains were just disgusting
when I moved in. So I bought loads of... you know those silk scarves that
old ladies buy when they go to different places, like Gibraltar, Australia
(because everyone always has relatives who live in Australia) all these like
weird souvenir silk scarves, well if you go into charity shops you can usually
buy shit loads of them and they’re only 50p. So I bought loads of them and I
hang them all up in my windows, and put up nets so you couldn’t see in,
and then just hung loads of pictures and mirrors and that sort of thing.
Which made packing-down to move – well, people thought it made packingdown to move, quite a task. But really, how long does it take to take
something down off the wall? And put it on a bed?
RC
What did you have to take down?
Evelyn So, every move day, I would have to pull back my bed cover, and in it, I’d
put...two mirrors, probably like three pictures that I’d hung on the walls, my
glass candle holder, mugs that were hanging on hooks, and then shove the
quilt back over the top and all the blankets (and I think my laptop was in
there as well) and then put the pillows on top of the quilt so they’re not
going to slide out. That was literally all I did for pack-down. Oh and there
was all my stuff on the side, which I just shoved on the floor. Like my lamp,
and my make-up.
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RC
And did you take your books down? Or did you leave them up on the shelf
above your table?
Evelyn No, no. I took the books down but I put them on the floor. So I had a big
long-running bookshelf on one end of the caravan (the door-end, away from
the bed, above the table) and I used to have all my books on it, so I used to
shove them on the floor. I don’t think I always did it, but they would just fall
on the floor, so it’s easier to do it first.
RC
You just mentioned mirrors; what mirrors did you have?
Evelyn I had.... well, the first year I was at the circus (this was 2012) this was when
I was in my bunk, I went to one of the first grounds I went to a really big car
boot sale, and I wanted to get a Venetian mirror, with like a frosted pattern
on the outside. But then, saw this insanely good mirror for the circus
instead – it had...I don’t know, what are they called? Pi...pierrot? I always
want to say pirouette but it’s not, it’s like those sort of white clowns with,
yeah, I don’t think they speak, I think they sort of mime more than anything
else.... Anyway it had a picture of one of those on it, you know the sort of
eighties...the craze during maybe the seventies or eighties...? Like pictures
on a mirror, so you got to look through them – you see them in pubs all the
time. I got one of those. So I hung that on that big notice-board I was telling
you about, which is above the chest of drawers. Yeah. And then I found this
other mirror that looked a bit like a...port-hole? And it was convex, the
mirror-part of it, you know people put them up by drive-ways if they’re trying
to reverse and they can’t see, kind of like that.
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RC
So did you use your mirrors quite a lot, are they something you couldn’t do
without?
Evelyn Definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah. Having to do make-up and stuff like that every
day, it was so nice to have your own little space rather than use the
costume wag. And I did have a full-length one, actually, inside my wardrobe
door, which quite a lot of people don’t have in caravans. Actually maybe
that’s not true, maybe it’s a lot of people don’t have them in bunks... can’t
even think about other people’s caravans and their mirrors.... yeah, they did
– most people have some sort of full mirror I think.
RC
Talking about the mirror has reminded me; you were worried one day,
whether or not you had packed down your favourite mirror (the one with the
pierrot on it). And you got back to your caravan after the little girls had set it
up, and it was okay. What happened?
Evelyn Yeah, and they knew! They love it as well (the mirror). I got back and it was
still on the wall. But I still don’t know, whether... I didn’t ever get to the end
of it – I don’t know whether it pulled through, on the wall, and it was just
okay – or, if the girls went in before I got there, and put it up for me.
RC
So they don’t help you pack down your caravan, but they help you put it
up?
Evelyn Yeah. So, the two little girls at the circus... Because they don’t do pull
down, they’re always on the new site before us, while we’re still left behind.
They spend so much time in my caravan, they know exactly how I like it –
as young children go, they are (I think it’s because they’ve always lived in a
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caravan) they know how people like things, and they know how to keep
things tidy, and they know the logical places to put things. It’s really odd.
And they sort of, take notice of all this. So basically, before I got to a new
site, my caravan would always already be there – and so would they. So
they would pack it up for me. Make it all nice. They literally knew where
everything goes. Even I like, how my books go, they would know.
RC
So before you lived in a caravan, what did you think about-
Evelyn About people that lived in caravans?! Well I’ve had two very different
relationships with caravans. One being, my grandparents, like keen
caravanners, part of the caravan club and that sort of thing, and I think
quite a lot of that generation is – or was. So I’ve got such fond memories....
they always used to have a new caravan, maybe every two or three years.
They’d go to the Forest of Dean, or all over the South West, but they’d
always go to the Forest of Dean around my birthday time so I’d always go
and visit them then. It was always immaculate, we’d play cards, and you
know it was very much.... Yeah, very much a holiday, and I’ve got such
fond memories of that. So that’s what my initial thoughts about caravans
were. And then... obviously I got a little bit older, and you learn about the
Gypsy culture...and well....okay so not that, more the Traveller culture. Not
the Gypsy culture. Meaning, not the bow-top wagons, but like, the white
caravan types...There were loads round near where I lived. But again, I
always remember thinking, how horrible it must be – and cold. And how...
unsettled? And how horrible it would be, not to have, like that.... completely
secure, reliable water and electricity. I always remember that, just being like
– what a pain in the ass! I think the weird thing was, imagine in the winter
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(so in the summer, not so much) but in the winter, going from being very
much outside, to only stepping in, through a very small door, and there
would be really thin walls, it would just feel like you’re still outside to me.
That’s what I thought. That it wasn’t like...snuggly, or solid. I just couldn’t
imagine it. Um, and then I lived in Bristol, I became sort of more familiar
with that culture of....well, Trustafarians, living in...
RC
Do you mean new hippy culture Travellers, that sort of thing?
Evelyn Yeah, yeah, and I lived like five floors up, and my bedroom overlooked their
biggest city site. And that looked awful. It just looked... they were all, you
know, cooking outside, and probably never took their coats off because it
was freezing... And again, I don’t know what they did for power. They had
to be completely (in this city site) behind these massive, massive gates, like
padlocked, and on a busy road, and it just looked...
RC
Is that on a dedicated site?
Evelyn I don’t know, you know that massive....building that’s missing half of it.....
Okay, you know on my old street, you know the gates opposite our gates?
Behind there is a huge New Age Traveller site. You could’ve seen it all from
my window.
RC
So, you thought it wasn’t an ideal way to live?
Evelyn Not in the slightest – yeah, really hard, really uncomfortable, I mean in
winter, you’d never feel warm. You’d come in with dirty clothes on and there
would be nowhere to put them, but.... [starts laughing] This sounds familiar!
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But, yeah! It was a way of life that you’d really have to adapt to. Like,
struggle to adapt to. And probably not enjoy it.
RC
So in hindsight, you might say all of that is true, but do you think you have
adapted to it, and just managed?
Evelyn Okay, so yeah, some of it is true. It is.... a particular way to live. And maybe
with my particular caravan, I’d quite often just not be in it at weekends. I’d
be in Bristol, London, or somewhere else just visiting people. So, I think it
would be a lot harder if I was there full time. And my caravan is (like I
described it earlier) ....shit! It is shit. But I was only there for one thing, to
work, and I never used the kitchen so I never had cooking or dirty stuff... it
was literally just a place to sleep. In the winter it was a place for me to
sleep. But, I don’t know... you do sort of make it your own. Make it warm,
make it comfortable. And it just made me think that people are so much
more adaptable than anyone really knows; to go from my opinions on
people who live like that, to just... living like that. Happily. And it didn’t take
much at all.
RC
And enjoying it?
Evelyn Yeah. It doesn’t take much at all.
RC
So what would you say are the hardest things?
Evelyn Well obviously, in the summer, it’s amazing. There’s no issue there at all.
But I suppose I’ve got a very different summer than I do winter. Like in
summer, we’re on tour with the circus, everyone’s in caravans, it’s really
good fun... the caravan itself, it’s warm... you know, you could sleep with
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the door open and its....well, I’ve had to! I’ve had to, because of it not
shutting! It’s not cold or anything like that, it’s nice. Oh that’s the other thing
I’ve noticed, on site, we have bunks and caravans... Okay, for an example,
one of the jugglers, Bena, the noted party-person on tour, really, really
social. Every single year on tour it would always be Bena’s caravan as the
party caravan. Always, always, always. And everyone was just passing and
sticking their head in, and going on in – because they’re really low, down to
the ground, and you’re... when you’re sort of in amongst the caravans,
you’re on that level, you can all see into each other’s caravans, when
you’re walking past, you can talk to one another through all the walls,
because they’re so thin! The bunks, which are probably a much nicer
vehicle to live in, are quite high, you have a flight of steps to get up to them
– and Bena went from being in a caravan to being in a bunk, and notably,
he didn’t change at all, but, people wouldn’t go over to his as much. Unless
it was a specified party happening you wouldn’t just drop in.
RC
Well he ended up hanging out on his balcony quite a lot, so that people
would pass.
Evelyn Yeah exactly, so they would come in. So in that respect, it’s more sociable
being in a caravan than a bunk, even though you share the bunks. I think
your closest friends will come over to your bunk if you’re in a bunk; but in a
caravan anyone feels comfortable to knock, or lean in – because, you
know, you can lean in through the windows when you’re stood outside. And
then that’s when you say “oh come on in,” but hanging around a bunk steps
waiting to be invited into a tiny space..... So yeah, it’s more sociable, during
the summer, being in a caravan.
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RC
Maybe we could talk about privacy then... How is it possible to have privacy
in a caravan? When you’re on tour, surrounded by people, could you do
that or did you have to adapt at all?
Evelyn Exactly. There’s no privacy. Like, there really isn’t. We always joke, going
back to all the different forms of accommodation – that bunks and
caravans, you.... okay, in a bunk, everyone can hear what you’re doing,
because there’s other people in that same bunk. In a caravan, you’ve
usually got it on your own so people can’t really hear unless they’re walking
right past, but they can always see in – as there’s windows everywhere!
RC
Describe the oldest object you own, in your caravan.
Evelyn A fossil! [laughs]
RC
So you were kind of working from your caravan too, trying to do your PHD
in Archaeology?
Evelyn Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah! From a 1970’s burgundy sprite!
RC
With only a box on your caravan table, with all your specimens in it!
Evelyn Yeah! Well obviously, I’ve got older stuff in there, from work. But, the oldest
thing is probably the caravan itself to be fair. And then, you know me, I
always pick up older stuff – I have that 1920s kimono, oh that was nice.
That was hanging up.
RC
Keeping safe?
Evelyn Yeah, and that’s the thing, you will find, even though the caravan moves
every single week, I was happy to have precious things in there. The door
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didn’t lock, it moved every week – but I was still happy to have my most
prized possessions, like my 1920s kimono.... that mirror, even though I
bought it for the circus, it quickly became the thing that I valued the most.
RC
Yeah. That time that it got left behind in Cheltenham, because there weren’t
enough vehicles one time, to pull your caravan through – you were worried.
To leave just one vehicle on its own.
Evelyn Oh my caravan, yeah, oh my god it was horrible, it was just stranded on its
own in the middle of a park in Cheltenham town. And I genuinely was just...
I’ve never felt it before, it was just so... exposed! And I thought “shit, what
about my caravan – no one’s staying behind with it, literally anyone could
walk through the door and take any of my crap.” And all of it, it’s not
valuable....
RC
So your prized possessions, what did you take out?
Evelyn Oh I don’t know I was pretty hung-over! A CD case, because that would be
so annoying if I lost it. Erm... I think then my iPad. My laptop out. Stuff of
monetary value, I don’t really have a lot of! The two things that are worth
anything (well, the iPad, I don’t think I had the laptop in there at that point)
and the thing next down the list was this wallet full of CDs! Most of them not
even shop-bought, just made! So I took that out, like I said there’s nothing
of any real value in there, however there are loads of possessions that are
sentimental to me, or which I hold dear...
RC
Name something that would be used every day.
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Evelyn Mirror. Bed. Well actually, not necessarily! [laughs] Umm... candle-holder,
well I stopped using that so much. Make-up...
RC
Do you think of the candle holder as purely decorative, or did it have a
useful function as well, for providing light?
Evelyn Yeah. But even if power didn’t go off at twelve, I’d still have that candle
holder. Decorative stuff... God I had loads, didn’t I?! So obviously there’s all
my pictures, and collages and stuff like that on the wall. Mirror (has a use).
Err, framed pictures on the walls... I had that skull, just because I liked it. I
had that little magic lamp, never once ever used that, although it could be
used. And I had a parrot’s feather which I’d brought home from Central
America, hanging up. I had the Native American wall-hanging thing. All
those silk scarves... Posters, pictures, all that kind of thing...
RC
How about the postcards you had from all the places you’d been, and from
other people?
Evelyn Yeah, yeah, yeah. All my postcards. And all the drawings that the girls
made me, they’d always draw me something. And then make me buy it off
them, for a pound!
RC
Describe an object (if any) that you had to adapt to make it suitable for a life
moving around quite a lot?
Evelyn Let me think....erm... I can’t think of anything I’ve adapted... but I can think
of, sort of on the same subject... Okay well, if you’re worried about an
object breaking when you move, but it survives – that worry quickly goes
away. But, then you also view the object very differently. Like, with my
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laptop, before I lived in a caravan that moves, I would have kept my laptop
on my desk and it would have been pristine. But once it’s been in the
caravan and it’s pulled through a couple of times, I like handle it, so much
more roughly than I would have before.
RC
Ah okay, so once you’ve had it a while, you start to push things, because
you realise you don’t necessarily have to be so careful?
Evelyn Yeah, you think “ah fuck it, this has pulled through thousands of times” and
you do do a few things slightly differently. And if something breaks, like I
had this really nice glass jug that my sister got me –
RC
Oh did that break!?
Evelyn Yes. So it was on my table and Jenevive fell on it and collapsed the entire
table and everything fell on the floor...like everything... and that happened
to smash, that really nice glass jug. But it’s almost like “oh fuck it, it
probably would have broken on the next move or something anyway...” It
probably wouldn’t have, you just say that to yourself. You start to.... I find it
really strange, usually I find it really difficult to let go of objects, I’m such a
hoarder, but I was just able to say “oh no it’s fine.” But there are certain
other things that would really upset me if something happened to them.
Yeah. My mirror, my kimono... yeah. Irreplaceable stuff, I suppose. That
kimono in particular – I’ve always wanted one, I found it, and it was cheap
and... It’s amazing, it’s perfect, I’ve never seen one like it before. And the
mirror, it holds so much sentimental value because I’ve looked in it every
day for however long (three years) and it will always remind me of this
period of my life.
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RC
So, does that mean, you will always see living in a caravan as a temporary
thing?
Evelyn Um... [pause]
RC
Or, how temporary? When you first moved in did you think you were going
to be there for the next two and a half years?
Evelyn No – I definitely did not. Um, no, no, no. And it has completely changed my
way of thinking. I now, cannot rent anywhere. Like, I would be so unhappy.
I couldn’t physically do it. It would literally feel like the biggest waste of
money. It’s not like I wouldn’t or couldn’t be able to rent, I just... the whole
thing would just piss me off so much. It has completely changed that... you
know, you sort of view yourself.... you know you always have a loose sort
of, plan? Or way of thinking, in your mind? Like “at some point I would like
to buy a house” etc, etc, etc. Most people would go round it the normal
route, like, you’d rent you’d rent you’d rent, you’d save you’d save you’d
save, to buy. I think a lot of people do want that, they want their own
personal space that they own. But, it’s completely changed my own way of
thinking. And ever since I was really little I’ve always wanted to build my
own house, or adapt an old building etc, etc ... so I’ve just though now
about going around it, by building my own wagon to live in, buying some
land, and going from there – rather than... I think that would take a shorter
amount of time, than it would to go get a job in a city, live, rent, and try and
save.
RC
So you’d find the saving option harder?
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Evelyn I’d hate it, yeah. And I could never do it again.
RC
Rather than having your own thing to make, with land that you own, and
that option?
Evelyn Exactly. And I just think that, that was always the goal, something that I
always would’ve wanted – but I’ve just had my eyes opened to a very
different way of getting there.
RC
Do you have any places that you store excess possessions?
Evelyn Yes! Have you seen upstairs?! [Laughs] Go and have a look if you want,
like I’m not joking, it’s awful! See this is it – you know how I never have any
time, in the past....seven years, when have I had any time to physically sort
out all of my crap? So it’s just here. This is the problem. That’s what I was
meant to be doing in these two weeks, before I move again (because I’m
moving to another caravan, aren’t I?) before then, this was the goal – it had
to be done. But because it was last March since I was properly in the
country able to see people, all of a sudden, two weeks has just...gone. I’ve
got so much to do, barely any time, and then I move – again! It would take
a week I reckon. Just to really sift through everything. Everything I’ve ever
owned really.
RC
Describe one item you don’t currently possess that you’d like to own.
Evelyn Oh yeah. I’ll have a good long think about that. Err, my own caravan!
[laughs] A double axel chassis that I could build a showman’s wagon on.
That would be nice to own. But other than that, nothing.
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RC
Explain, depending on the object, whether you’d prefer to fix something up
or buy a new one.
Evelyn Yeah difficult one that. I think I’d say that most of my possessions are...
older, unique, or antique or whatever, or really hold some sort of value to
me because they remind me of a really good day or whatever – then I’d
really try to just hang on to them, or not break them in the first place. And
even electrical stuff I do actually try and keep it going as long as possible. I
don’t really like replacing stuff. And there’s the shopping, getting stuff. But
there are other things, like that sheepskin rug. If I have something, and it’s
just a rug or whatever, and I haven’t become attached to it, I’ll just throw it
away and get a new one.
RC
Describe your personal taste. And, how important is it for you home to be
fashionable, or showing your style?
Evelyn I think that it’s really important for the inside of a caravan – having been
describing the hardships that there are whilst living in a caravan – I think it’s
really important that the inside space is a happy place for you, and one of
the easiest ways to do that, I find, is to visually make it nice. So I think
my.... the important factor for me when decorating a caravan, isn’t
necessarily that it would look good for visitors or other people, it’s that it
would make me happy. But then, through doing that, people instantly
recognise your style, because you’ve put so much stuff on the walls, and so
on.
RC
How would you consider your taste to be, in relation to other people who
live on site in other caravans – how would you compare your own to those?
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Evelyn I think it was quite different. But then, everyone else on site would only be
in there for six months of the year, so they would come with, you know, a
suitcase, and literally unpack. So it would be like no one was living in there
except for a few dirty bits and bobs here there and everywhere. But the
only other people that live in their particular caravan all year round would
be the Romanians, and they’ve got very different taste. There’ll be like,
electrical gadgets everywhere. It’ll be spotless. Yeah. It would just be very...
Romanian.
RC
So yours is very different to that? You have different priorities?
Evelyn Yes. I do have different priorities.
RC
How important is it for your home to be tidy, clean? And just tell me a bit
about how you tidy your caravan – because I know you spend a lot of time
doing it!
Evelyn Yeah, for a tiny caravan, just to go to sleep!
RC
I’d ask “what are you doing later Rosie?” and the reply would so often be
“tidying my caravan”!
Evelyn Absolutely! I’ve got so much crap in there, that’s what makes it difficult, and
I’m not a tidy person, well I like things to be tidy, but tidying really makes
me angry. All it takes – I could tidy it immaculately and you could come in
and be like “this looks amazing” – and then half an hour later it would be a
shit-tip again. Wouldn’t it?! [laughs] it’s so difficult to keep it... Especially
with people coming over and visiting, etc, etc. If you imagine that you invite
people over, they all brought a bit of food, drink, or something – instantly,
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that’s the table and the sides covered. And the floor, food everywhere....!
And because I’d keep stuff on the sofa just for space, and then I’d have to
drag it all off and put it in the bed, then I’d get drunk and I’d have to sleep in
it all...yeah.
RC
You always said, for you to relax and sleep, and make it a comfortable
place to go back to after work, it was nice to have it clean and tidy?
Evelyn It was, yeah. It’s so nice to... It’s weird, if it was all clean and tidy and the
bed was fresh and that sort of thing (I’d try really hard to wash my sheets
and that sort of thing in a proper laundrette, not use the site washing
machine, either go an use a laundrette or someone’s house to go and wash
it and tumble dry it) it would just make such a difference. If it was all tidy, it
would make me want to – that evening – light some candles and put a film
on, that sort of thing, and just enjoy it being tidy, because it’s not going to
stay like that more than.... a day.
RC
Could you just explain quickly about toilet, kitchen, and shower facilities?
When you use them, what you do...
Evelyn So my kitchen in my caravan doesn’t work, it’s an old one. I just didn’t want
to connect any gas because I didn’t know what it would do. And I don’t
really cook anything much. That’s the other thing – the reason I don’t like
other people’s caravans is because they cook in them. And I hate the
thought of all that (because you only have hobs, you have to fry everything)
and I just imagine all that oily crap, that smell, getting stuck on all of the
beige fabric.... [Disgust in voice] But imagine if I’d cooked bacon in my
caravan, how disgusting that would be. I just didn’t use it. There was two
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hobs, a sink (the counter tops are folded down over the sink, so I think I
looked at the sink like twice in the three years I was living there, I’m not
joking) I had a fridge which didn’t work, so I didn’t use for the first year and I
just used to put my food under my caravan, to keep it cold at night. I don’t
really know...what do we eat?! Sandwiches? Crisps maybe? Who knows? I
actually can’t really remember. And there’s a shower block and facilities on
site all the time.
RC
And in the winter it’s different as well?
Evelyn No. It was still only a toilet and a shower. It’s just separate and a different
toilet and shower.
RC
Would you ever want to have a toilet or a shower in your caravan, and
why?
Evelyn Erm, not in a caravan, no. But in a wagon, yes. I just think that I appreciate
a nice shower. And a nice toilet. It’s just, trying to go to toilet and having a
shower would be sub-standard in a caravan. It would be a trickle of water
and a plastic toilet that’s like, not even a child would fit on. And you’d have
that weird pump thing – and it doesn’t flush away either, that’s the other
thing – absolutely not.
RC
So you wouldn’t want to empty your own waste?
Evelyn No. The “champagne run” that’s what people called it!
RC
When you saw other people doing it what did you think?
Evelyn Idiots! [laughs] Or I’d think, go outside, when it’s dark.
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RC
Now you’re in a house, what would you say is the difference?
Evelyn It’s weird.... there’s just so much space. And the electricity. It’s amazing.
That’s the other thing – I would always put off going to the toilet or having a
shower, because it was so much effort – but here I keep reminding myself
that it’s so easy to do. Rather than, not dread it, but it be a chore – it’s sort
of starts to become like you don’t have to think about it, just going to the
toilet or having a shower. But on site, I used to think “oh for fuck’s sake” or,
“oh, I’ll just do it tomorrow.” Or when you’re in your bed, “I don’t want to go
outside in the cold, I could just hold it,” but you won’t have a very
comfortable night’s sleep. People who sleep in houses have those thoughts
as well, but it’s so much more extreme. Whereas here, it’s just a toilet.
RC
Are there any objects in your caravan that you’d rather you didn’t own, or
that have negative connotations?
Evelyn
[Long pause] Yeah, well, I dunno really.... not really. Because it wouldn’t
be in there. I’m trying to think of stuff that was fixed. I wish the seat covers
were different; but I could have changed that and I just didn’t. They were
red.
RC
I liked them – I actually thought you’d done them yourself.
Evelyn Did you? No, I’ve always hated them. But I’ve just never got round to
sorting them out myself. Weirdly, it’s because when I moved into that
caravan (because it’s so old and I knew how many people had lived there)
like, the stables guy had lived there (who did the horses) and it just stank –
that’s why, it felt like my own, by painting it – because I was just freshening
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it up. And the curtains were disgusting, I took them out, replaced them, so it
was just almost everything – I put a mattress-topper on the bed – almost
everything was just, fresh. I even painted the floor eventually. But the one
thing I didn’t change was the seat covers, and even sitting on them now,
even though I’d been there two years, it still felt like other people’s grime
were in them. It’s the one thing that I didn’t change.
RC
And the fact that everyone else had lived in there, despite that, it always felt
like your own, because you had changed things?
Evelyn Yeah, because I just painted everything and re-did it all.
RC
And finally, I just want to talk about scrapping, and how sad you might be –
now that you’re not in it anymore?
Evelyn I know, I can’t even think about it! It’s horrible... it’s my caravan! I think it’s
also because I had to defend it so much, I just feel like I’ve abandoned it
right now, to the scrappers. It genuinely will be no more.
RC
Last year, you had the option to live in another wagon – and yet you were
quite happy, to remain in the caravan?
Evelyn Yeah, I was like no... I love my caravan. But, you know, it went to caravan
heaven...
RC
Would you say it had reached the end of its life?
Evelyn Yeah. It was a pain in the ass, like the door wouldn’t shut... But even now, I
feel bad slagging it off! It’s quite sad. But, you know, we had some good
times in there. But it can’t live forever, that caravan... and it was the oldest
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one, the only original from when the circus started fourteen years ago – the
only original caravan left in the circus.
RC
And also, no-one’s going to have it after you.
Evelyn I know that’s nice, isn’t it? Oh my god, that’s so right, Ohhh I’d rather it be
scrapped than someone else move in.....Yeah.
RC
Anything else you want to say?
Evelyn Yes, something I thought of earlier....oh, yeah I can’t even remember who it
was that said it, but someone said that the inside of my caravan is what
they’d imagine the inside of my head to look like. That’s a quote!
RC
What I do need is your permission to use this in my dissertation. So, some
of it might be quoted, and printed, published in my dissertation and final
year exhibition.
Evelyn Yes you have my full permission to do whatever you want with the material
you have gathered today!
RC
And I took some photos of you, so it includes those.
Evelyn Yeah of course that’s fine.
RC
Thank you!
Appendix Two: Interview with Terry
22 December 2014, Gloucestershire
Interviewed by Rosie Clarke (RC)
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RC
Please could you start by telling me roughly what your connection with
caravans is... about whether you live in one permanently, or just for work?
Terry Both. I’ve had a touring caravan for years, and I’ve recently bought a mobile
home caravan. Which is a static caravan. Like a house.
RC
So how long have you had your touring caravan for?
Terry I suppose I’ve been touring... for... forty years.
RC
So that’s before the circus?
Terry Oh blimey, long before. I’ve had...er...I think I was one of the first...it’s going
back to the ‘L’ registration, so it was quite a long time ago. I had a Bedford
caravanette. And I hooked a caravan on the back, painted it the same colour.
And I took it to Cornwall. And I never ever saw a combination like that; had it
for about three or four years. Then sort of five years after I’d finished with
mine, they started coming. And now, you quite often see caravanette with a
caravan on the back.
RC
So is a caravanette like a camper-van?
Terry It is a camper-van, yeah. It’s exactly the same inside as a caravan. It has your
beds, it has fridge, cooker, sink, fridge... all the same as a caravan. Then,
obviously, beds... but it’s got a van in front of it, or a van under it. Where in a
caravan, obviously you’ve got to pull it.
RC
What did you need the extra space for, or what made you go for a caravanette
and a caravan?
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Terry Because we had two boys and two girls, and us. So the caravanette was a
two-berth, so that meant it slept two, and then the caravan slept four. So the
two boys were in the caravanette, the two girls and me and the wife, were in
the caravan.
RC
Is this for holidays?
Terry Yeah.
RC
So that’s when you would say, it all started?
Terry Yeah! A long time ago.
RC
What was the first caravan you lived in for a longer time?
Terry It was this one.
RC
The static caravan that you’ve got now?
Terry Yeah. I’ve had a couple of holidays where we’ve had mobile homes, but just
staying there for a week or a fortnight, different locations. But this is the first
time that I’ve bought my own. Two bedrooms. Of course in a mobile home, it
comes with everything. You’ve got a three-piece suite, I’ve got the latest
microwave, which also cooks! I’ve got the latest cooker, fridge-freezer, shower
– but no bath, in this one. But if you buy a bigger one (what they call a Twin)
then you get the shower and the bath. Because obviously then, you’ve got
that much more space. But for me, it’s all I need.
RC
So you have two bedrooms... bathroom... and then an open-plan kitchen and
living area?
Terry Yep.
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RC
And there is access to gas and electric?
Terry Oh yes, well it’s all on a brand new site. The site was only opened… er... it
had been a touring site prior to it. But it was made into a static site.... about
two years ago. So about 2006, no, no, no, 2012. Since then, we’ve now got,
probably fifty caravans in total. And they’re all brand new.
RC
What are your neighbours like?
Terry Very nice. They’re all, everybody’s friendly, they all put their hand up, speak,
very good. One or two of them, or probably half of them I’d say, not one or two
– use their vans for holidays. So they obviously live somewhere else and then
they come down and spend weekends, weeks, in their caravans, on the site.
RC
Is that a minority or majority, would you say?
Terry It’s a bit hard to tell. Because people come and go. I would say...the minority.
Probably not quite half. Yes. Definitely over a quarter.
RC
Explain briefly what home means to you, and where it is.
Terry Home is where I am. Home is my mobile, I mean, it’s easy to keep clean, and
it’s in the country...
RC
So what would you say is the difference between your mobile home at the
moment, and the caravan you usually live in whilst your working at the circus?
Terry Well, at the moment, not a lot really! The caravan, the one that we take on
tour with us, that we tour, there’s not a lot of difference. It’s a two-berth, it’s got
a double bed, it’s got a freezer, well – it’s got a very small freezer. Hot and
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cold water, double glazing, shower, toilet, cooker, full length cooker...
wardrobes, not a lot of difference.
RC
In regards to the double bed, is it one that you’ve got to put out daily?
Terry Yes. You have to put that out.
RC
Do you do it every day?
Terry Yes, so during the day, it is settees. And at night, you pull it out and make it
into a double bed. Or you can (which I do) just sleep on either one or the
other, because they’re big enough to be single beds.
RC
You don’t personally make the bed every night then, you prefer to sleep along
the side benches?
Terry Yeah, you sleep on just one side.
RC
At what point of the day does your caravan feel most comfortable and homely,
and why?
Terry At night. Because, probably... you’ve done your days things. It’s time to relax,
so, if it’s a nice summer’s night you probably would have the awning up, and
so you can sit out with your drinks, that sort of thing. Or, if it’s later on in the
season, then you’ll have the fire on, because of course they are central
heated. And you’ll have the fire on, and sit and watch television or whatever.
So I think that’s about the most... the rest of the time, you’ll probably get up in
the morning, sometimes you might have breakfast, sometimes not. There
again I suppose, come night-time sometimes you might have a meal in the
caravan and sometimes you might have a meal out. The thing is, night times
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is when you’re back, and during the day is when you’re out. Except, when
we’re on tour. I mean we’re still out and about during the day, working, and
then at night it’s nice to get back to your van and just chill out.
RC
So speaking of awnings, do you have one?
Terry Yeah. On the touring van, not on the static.
RC
And do you put the awning up whilst we are on tour?
Terry Sometimes, a couple of times. I’m actually too lazy for that! [laughs] I don’t
really need it, on my own. It’s extra space.... it is extra space, so you can put a
table and chairs out there, and that sort of thing. Really and truly when I’m on
my own, I don’t need it. A family would. For a family it would be great. That
makes extra bedrooms, and all sorts of things you can put out there.
RC
Okay. Describe anything which you have had to change or adapt to make it
suitable for living in a caravan, in contrast to in a house.
Terry Nothing really. Erm... possibly, the only thing, which you might do would be a
television aerial. Because... well, there’s several different types. You can
actually use a house aerial on a pole. Or now, they’re actually fitted to the top
of caravans. So that would be the only thing that you would really alter. The
electric is two hundred and forty volt, same as in a house. Some of the lights
are electric, but they will also run off a twelve volt battery, so they’re battery
operated as well. An ordinary car battery. That would be done by the
manufacturers, you wouldn’t alter that. The only thing you might alter (if it
wasn’t done by the manufacturers) would be the aerial, I think. Possibly put a
radio in it, if you wanted, if you never had a radio.
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RC
You have already said a little bit just then, but please think for a moment
about where, when, and who manufactured your caravan. What are your
thoughts?
Terry Well, it’s now down to only a few caravan-makers. There was once lots and
lots and lots of different makers, different designs, different all sorts of things.
But over time they’ve all amalgamated, a lot of them have amalgamated, and
there are now only a few decent makers. The changes in making caravans
has gone from wood, to an aluminium side, which is like a ply-board type of
thing, to plastic, or moulded plastic. So, they made them an awful lot lighter.
The old caravans were heavy. Very, very heavy. You needed a really good
car to pull them. But today most cars will pull them. I mean obviously, you
don’t put on something ridiculous – a mini towing a fifteen-foot caravan! But,
saying that, it would do it, probably. Because they’re not that heavy, you can
move them quite easily. And a lot of them today have got on them, what you
call ‘movers.’ These are battery operated, or remote control, and it will move
your caravan for you. So if you can’t reverse into a place, you un-hitch it from
the car, then you get your little control out, and you can back in your caravan,
or turn it to put it on the drive, do what you like with it. It would do it for you.
You’ve probably got to wind it up and take it off the tow bar, but once it’s free,
you just get your control and you can back it up, turn it, left, right, wherever!
RC
That’s very clever! Would you want one of them?
Terry I would like one, yeah, but I haven’t got one. No, I always still do it by hand.
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RC
Do you have anywhere else that you store belongings or does everything you
own fit into your caravan (or your mobile home, whichever you prefer to
answer for)?
Terry Most caravans have got storage. Well, they’ve all got storage. Underneath the
seats, where the beds are, that sort of thing. But... erm... there are things obviously if you carry a microwave, which... I mean my microwave in my
caravan is separate. So I will whip that out, put it onto the floor, the deck
chairs, things like that, will be put into the caravan. But that’s not extra stuff. It
is, but...it’s things which you can’t pack away. Or you wouldn’t pack away.
Pack down, like we do.
RC
So do you want to explain packing-down?
Terry Yep. Packing-down is anything, when you’re on the move... anything that is on
a flat surface or up high can fall down onto the floor. So when you pack down,
you pack down on the floor, so that it can’t fall anywhere. And you make sure
that nothing can fall onto... Obviously, if you’ve got something like a pan with
fat in it, obviously you wouldn’t leave that on the stove. You would pack it
down, or you would put it into the oven or whatever, so that it would be safe.
The same with the television, the microwave, or anything like that. You pack it
all on the floor, and then probably put cushions over the top. Most of the
lockers are lockable, as in, I don’t mean a lock and clasp, I mean they shut
and they will stay shut. So you can hold an awful lot of things in there. They
won’t fly over, and obviously if you turn it on its side or something like that, the
extra something over the top, then they will open – but basically, normally they
won’t. The thing is, you always make sure that your windows are shut. Plus
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the sky-lighting. Because when you’re travelling along, the sky-lighting is only
held in place on two sides, so it can blow off, which would be extra damage –
and obviously if it rains you’ve got a hole in the roof! Yeah and the same with
the windows, they can tear off. So they’re some of the things you’ve really got
to be careful of. The other thing, of course, is if you’ve got a television aerial in
the roof, some of them rise up to give you better reception. So when you’re
travelling always make sure that they’re secure – they’re down, down. Yeah,
that’s about it really. Same with the bathroom, make sure there’s no shampoo
or anything like that – anything that can do any harm, it’s best to put it on the
floor. And then when you park up, put it all back up again.
RC
Does that take you very long?
Terry No, no, once you get used to doing it, then you... when we’re on tour, I can
give myself thirty minutes. From starting, to moving away. Once you get used
to it, because you get a routine, you know exactly what’s going to go where,
and how you pack it on the floor or between the beds or whatever, where you
pack the television. See, that sort of thing like your television, with a screen
and everything else, needs packing between pillows. That would stay on the
bed, underneath. Because you’ve got – well, I have, and a lot of caravans
have – a set of chest of drawers between the two beds at the front of your
van. So the pillows would actually be behind that, between the wall and the
cabinet. So that is one of the good places to put it – to put the television facedown onto the bed, put your pillows over the top, then the two (or the three)
walls. So that’s the sort of thing. It’s basically just sense. Use your common
sense to put everything.
94
RC
So who normally moves your caravan? Do you do it?
Terry Erm, yeah. Normally I will move it, but not from ground to ground. I hitch it all
up, get it ready for the road, draw it to the gate, and then of course Rickey
takes it. It’s always Rickey. I won’t allow anyone else to do it. Because the
thing is, that if you get somebody who’s mad, drives a bit quick, is going
across a field or something like that, the caravan will bounce, which is extra –
it will throw things about. Then, possibly, you open the caravan door and the
cupboards at the top are open, and some of the things have fell out.
RC
Has that happened to you?
Terry Yeah. But it wasn’t bad, I was lucky. A few tins fell down, but they landed on
the deck chairs, things like that. There again you see, you’ve got to prepare
for it. But if you’re moving it yourself, you’re gonna take it easy – you know
what’s going to matter.
RC
We have talked about your T.V. a little bit, what other kinds of technology do
you have in your caravan? Do you have internet access at all?
Terry You can do, yep. I’ve got a gong. A...what d’you call the little ones?
RC
A dongle?
Terry A dongle. So you can have a dongle, and then obviously you can use the
internet, because you’ve got your computer and your two hundred and forty
volt (if you’re plugged up to two hundred and forty volt, which almost every
caravan has got).
RC
So two hundred and forty volt is the normal supply you would get in a house?
95
Terry Yep, exactly.
RC
Okay. Do you have any mirrors in your caravan at all? What do you use them
for, and how do you keep them safe?
Terry Yes. They’re um, they’re...strapped...screwed to the wall.
RC
Did they come with the caravan?
Terry Some did, some you put your own in. Mine come with mirrors in it. I’ve got
obviously a mirror in the bathroom, for shaving and that sort of thing. In mine,
I’ve actually got, just outside the shower room I’ve got a place where you can
shut the door – shut it off. The other side is a wardrobe, but in the middle, I
have got a make-up table. Where it’s an ordinary flat table, or flat piece of
wood to look at it, but you can lift it up. And then underneath it is a mirror. And
then you pull it out, and it stands like an A-frame. So you can just have a little
chair in there and put your make-up on.
RC
And would you do that?
Terry Put me make-up on? [laughs] Sometimes! Do me hair! Yeah, but, that is just
one of the features of that sort of caravan. It’s not a feature in every van, that’s
just in my van. So I can come out of the shower, I can dry myself, and dress,
and then I can go out into my caravan. Open the door and go out into my
caravan. So if visitors come, visitors are there and I want to shut the door, I
can. It’s also of course, the toilet in there, so anyone who wants to use the
toilet can shut that door. Or, they can shut the actual toilet. It’s entirely up to
them, how they would like to do it. But there’s plenty of room either way.
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RC
Do you think it’s quite unusual having those dividers, the walls, in the
caravan?
Terry Well most of them...no, no, no. They’ve nearly all got them now. The latest
touring caravans of course you’ve got static beds. You’ve got a double bed;
it’s down all the time. You can lift it up, and then underneath there’s a storage
area.
RC
So that’s a permanent bed. Would you have a sofa as well?
Terry Yes, that is at the other end. So you’ve still got all your things, still got all your
benches and your places to sit in the front, to have your meals, things like
that. You’ve still got your microwave, still got your cooker, still got your
washing facilities, you’ve still got everything – and it also gives you an en-suite
toilet. Because obviously the bed is one side, the shower and the toilet are the
other. Which actually makes it then, en-suite! Because they’re right next to
each other! [laughs]
RC
So please could you tell me a bit more about the toilet and shower. Do you
use your caravan facilities, or do you use the ones on site? Some people have
different ways of doing it.
Terry Yeah. Obviously, the toilets flush, but they go back into the container. Now,
obviously the more you use it, then the more often you’ve got to empty it.
Because you’ve got to go find what they call an Elsan tip. And this is normally
on the side of a block of toilets, and it... Elsan is the stuff that you actually use
to put in – so that any solids or any paper or anything like that, go down to
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water. So when you actually tip it you’re only tipping water. It actually all
dissolves, actually in your tank.
RC
So that’s why it’s called a chemical toilet?
Terry Yes, yes, yes, yes. But you’ve got to be very careful of what you use because
of the environment and all that, so it’s got to be contained. But for all intents
and purposes, that’s what you do; there is a place to put it, you pour it all
down into there, run the water (normally there’s either a flush or whatever to
help it go down), by the side of it there will be a tap, there’s always a tap with
water, so you just wash it all out, tip all that back down, go back to your
caravan and put in so much water – just a little bit of water in the bottom –
because it’s not good to put the Elsan straight in, it’s too strong. It could burn
a hole. So what you do, you put so much water in, a little bit of water, and then
you put your Elsan back in. Just push it back in. As soon as you push it back
in your toilet is then working again. Then, you also use another chemical,
which is more of a perfume one. And you put that into the flush. So the flush
itself has actually got a container – that itself is mixed with water, but you’ll
see, it’s much, much more water. You would probably use....probably a
cupful... They come in liquid form. No powders.
RC
So that means you’ve got to keep one of those in your caravan at all times,
keep it topped up and carry it with you?
Terry You carry it with you. See what you haven’t asked about yet, is new and
second hand. A brand new caravan is very expensive. You can be talking...
ten thousand? That sort of price. Ten, twelve...
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RC
Ten thousand pounds for a brand new caravan?
Terry Yes. Wherein, a second hand one, because they’re built quite well, you can
still buy a 1960s caravan. They’re still running, they’re still up and going. I
mean when you think about it, people some people only use their vans two
weeks a year. Yeah some of them use it a lot of weekends in the summer, but
in the winter they’re parked up all the time. Not like us! We use ours. A lot of
these vans are second hand, a second hand caravan is a very good buy.
RC
So keeping them parked up is better than using them all the time?
Terry Erm, no. Because it doesn’t do the tyres any good to be parked on the flat all
the time. Depends of course on where you’re parked, on green, or roadway,
or grass, or that sort of thing. But it doesn’t do the tyres any good. The brakes
and that tend to seize up because of the damp. The caravan itself gets damp.
Because it has no heat. The circulation, obviously it’s shut up because of the
winter. So, you know, it’s not good for it. A lot of them are built to cope with it,
but it is better really to use it. I mean, hey, get your money’s worth out of it!
You’re buying a second hand one can cost you anything from say a thousand
to... three thousand, five thousand... They are a good bargain. For an old one,
a really, really old one, which is basic... well the basic one never had a flush
toilet. Basic one had a kind of a bucket. It was called a cassette toilet. But
basically, it was a kind of a bucket, type thing. And once again you had to go
and empty it. The cassette toilet is once where you put the water in, you put
the stuff in the bottom, you use it as a toilet, you press the button and it
flushes exactly like one in the house. Just an ordinary toilet, it just works.
RC
So is that the same as a chemical toilet then?
99
Terry The chemical toilet is... there was three different sorts. Once again it’s one of
these things that has improved over the years. Now the original one, which is
a bucket with a toilet seat on the top, you put your liquid in the bottom, and
that was it. So you took your toilet seat off, you put a lid on it, and you went to
the Elsan place and tipped it. Right. Then as things improved, so they built
one that you could move about all over the place, but this one had a little tiny
tank on the top – you did exactly the same, you put your stuff in the bottom,
with your water, and it had like a flap on it, on the bottom. So when you want
to use the toilet you open the flap, you use the toilet as you want to, press the
button, the water washes the pan, and you shut the little thing up. And then
when you wanted to empty it you split it in half – so the top half, with the
water, would come off, and you were left with the container at the bottom, with
the flap shut, water-tight, so you could just pick it up like a suitcase, go across
and empty it. Right? So that was the differences over the years, what’s
happened.
RC
So how about showers – have you got a shower in your caravan?
Terry Both the showers are the same – the touring one and the static one. That’s
just an ordinary shower, because of course, the caravans can have hot now...
the old caravans only had cold water. The more modern ones, the more up to
date ones have got hot and cold water.
RC
So is that electric?
Terry Yes, it’s electric heated. So in the touring caravan you get the two taps. So
what you have to do is you turn the hot tap on, wait for the hot water to come
through (which would be very hot) then you turn the cold tap until you get the
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correct temperature to what you want. Then you take the shower. But, what
you’ve got t remember is, some touring caravans have got a tank underneath
that supply water. But, like, in mine, I have to carry the water to the caravan in
containers. So what you would do, is you would turn your shower on, wet
yourself, then you would soap yourself, with it off. And then you would turn it
back on again, to wash it all off.
RC
So you would save a bit of water by doing that?
Terry Yep. Because obviously if you run out, your boiler’s going to go dry. So you
couldn’t allow that. So if you’re going to take a shower, you make sure the
containers are full, that’s it. Now with the mobile, the one that’s my home, that
is connected to the mains.
RC
So there’s no danger of it running dry?
Terry Nope. But you still got your mixer taps, or exactly the same as in a house – lift
it up for the water to come down, you put it to the left or the right.
RC
Could you tell me a bit about cooking?
Terry Right. Cooking is done by gas. There’s two lots of gas – one red, and one
blue. One’s Butane..... That’s the blue one; I can’t think what the other one is.
But anyway. The blue one is okay for summer. The butane is fine. But it’s not
a lot of good in the winter; it freezes. So you use the red bottle. And the red is
a very much hotter, it will... it will heat things up hotter than what the blue one
will. So this is why a lot of people have just got the red one. Any static vans
that go on gas, on Calor gas, will have the red ones.
RC
So are they the orange-red Calor gas canisters that you often see?
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Terry That’s right. They’re the ones. I can’t think what it’s called...the blue one is
Butane... The red... Propane? That’s it! It’s Propane and Butane, yes. The red
one, the Propane, is the one that you can use all year round, it doesn’t freeze.
RC
And what are the costs like on them?
Terry Cost.... for a big red one, it’s £75 each. Getting that I’m not home very much,
mine’s now lasted me for five weeks. But then somebody who’s home all the
time, or had the central heating on all the time, very, very hot, and do cooking
and everything with it, it would probably last about a week. Oh yeah.
RC
So do you use the central heating that much?
Terry Well no, mine’s on timer – I have it on timer for when I get up in the morning,
and it comes on about half an hour before I come home from work. And that’s
gas. Well, gas and electric, it is. A bit mix.
RC
So where did we get to on cooking?
Terry Erm, cooking, nearly all vans (I think there are one or two now coming out) but
cooking is done by gas. So you’ve got a three- or a four-ring cooker, you’ve
got your grill underneath for doing your toast and whatever, and then some
have got a cooker – an oven – some haven’t. It depends on... sort of price of
the caravans. Cheaper ones won’t bother. And that’s the way that you do your
cooking. That’s it. Obviously you’re on electric so you don’t need to have a
hob. You can use a lot of things, there’s a George Foreman, things like that.
Wherein if you can use electric, and not your own gas.
RC
So would you get bills on your static site, how do you pay?
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Terry I only pay for what I use. Now on the mobile van, because we’re away for five
months of the year, I can sometimes get away with a blue bottle lasting me
almost the whole time we’re away. Now that would cost me about fourteen to
sixteen pounds. That’s five months. When we’re on tour. That’s because we
don’t... well, I might cook breakfast in the morning, but I won’t do a lot more
cooking.
RC
And the electric is free whilst on tour?
Terry Yes, off the Generator. Free of charge! That’s your gas, that’s your cooking,
that’s your living.
RC
So... What about safety and security? And privacy?
Terry Well, privacy you’ve got curtains all the way round, that’s entirely up to you.
You can lock the door from the inside, all the windows will lock. But if
somebody seriously wants to get in, there is really not a lot stopping them. It is
not as secure as a house. But, you just don’t leave any valuables in your
caravan.
RC
Is that on tour with the circus, or on the site where you live?
Terry Well, both. Because... you’ve got double glazing, but it’s plastic double
glazing, not glass double glazing. So even though when you shut the windows
they lock, if anybody really, really wanted to do it, they could just put
something in, pull it until it broke, and then you’re in. Some of the... some time
ago, there was caravans, but on the caravanettes, the Bedford’s, they had a
way where you higher the roof. And what happened was, you would unclip the
roof on the outside, and lift it up sideways, so one side had a hinge on it, and
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one side lifted up so you had like an apex roof. But it was canvas – so
anybody with a Stanley knife comes along! It happened quite an awful lot in
the South of France and Spain. They just cut it and went straight in. And there
was a few caravans that were low, to save fuel and that. And when you got
into site, you got in, and you lifted the roof up. And that was like a concertina
fashion. Same sort of thing – Stanley knife, whoop and they were in. So
security on that was minimal. Normal, well, you could do what you want. But if
they’re determined to go in there, then it’s a lot easier to get in than it is in a
house.
RC
Do you think that many people would target caravans and mobile homes, or
do you think they would be put off by the idea?
Terry If you get a lone caravan, yes. But normally caravans are on sites, with a lot
more caravans, and people tend to keep an eye open. If they see something
like somebody trying to break a window open, well why? Why don’t they go
through the door? So they might go and ask. Or, they would gather somebody
else, the site owners, and say look there’s two guys over there trying to break
a window, I don’t know what they’re up to.
RC
So it’s the community that keeps you safe?
Terry Yep that’s on tour and on a site. Like with us, we keep an eye on each other.
If we see anyone strange about, we ask or we... we know. Yeah.
RC
Please could you respond to the following statements? ‘My home is the only
place where I can express my real identity’.
Terry [pause] Yeah I agree with that. It’s my own space.
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RC
Ok. ‘A caravan makes a good place to raise a family, or spend time with
friends’ What do you think, and why?
Terry The latter. I don’t think it’s a good place to bring up a family, no. But for friends
coming round for parties, that sort of thing. Because it’s not....well... it’s a very
tiny environment, erm... I don’t think it’s the ideal space; they could get cold
during the night, erm.... I just don’t think it’s really... No. I know people do. The
Gypsies have done it for years. The children survive... they’ve done it. But I
don’t think it’s an ideal thing, no.
RC
‘In a caravan, there is less space, so less housework to do’.
Terry Agreed. [laughs] Yes, that’s why I’ve got what I’ve got!
RC
So what kind of things have you cut down on – I mean, is there anything in a
caravan that you would have to do less in a house, such as cleaning windows
or something?
Terry Well, no, it’s all less! It’s just less work to do. Less hovering, less polishing,
windows, well, they’re the same but much easier to get at because you
haven’t got stairs.
RC
How would you clean the outside of the caravan, if you were going to do it? Is
it something you can take to a carwash?
Terry Wash and sponge them down. If you’ve got a really dirty caravan that’s been
stood over winter then you use a concoction of washing up liquid, and, well
obviously you can buy proper stuff, but if you wanna do it on the cheap, if you
do a mixture of washing up liquid and washing soap.
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RC
A shower-gel sort of thing?
Terry No, no, no, like Daz. Washing powder. You only need a cup like, not a lot.
RC
And that will make it nice and white?
Terry It helps remove all the green. Because it’s abrasive. But it won’t mark your
caravan – it won’t mark the paintwork. But it is good stuff to get off, and then
so what you do is wash your caravan down, get a brush, soap, wash the
whole thing over, get your hose, wash it off, and then polish it. Or use a wax.
And then just wash it, with the wax shampoo, wash it off, chamois it, and it’ll
come up shine.
RC
‘I prefer to spend more time in my home than out of it.’
Terry Ah. Well. What home? If you’re calling home the static van, I would much
rather spend time in it.
RC
What about the touring one?
Terry Well no, because I take the touring one to places that I wanna see. So
obviously I wouldn’t want to stay in it, because I would go sight-seeing. That’s
why I’ve gone where I wanna go! What we use them for is a lot different, I
mean, being on circus, like! But you know, even so... the different places we
go, I mean look at Oxford University Parks, loads of places for us to go! And
there was Oxford itself, and Blenheim! Miles for us to go at Blenheim. So
wouldn’t want to stay in our caravans. We’d want to be out and about. See, I
mean that’s what it’s all about. Maybe if it was pouring down with rain, or a
really bad day, you might stay in, but no you’re on holiday basically aren’t you!
So you want to go.
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RC
How about ‘Packing down, moving, and setting up is something I look forward
to doing.’
Terry [long pause] Yeah. Yeah.
RC
You had to think about that for a minute! Why’s that?
Terry Well, I was thinking do I enjoy packing down? Really the answer is no. But,
then yeah! Because when I’m packing down I’m on the move! And I’m going
to a new place, a new exciting place somewhere... or I’m moving, you know.
Not so much after a fortnights’ holiday, because you’re going home then. It
depends. If you’re looking forward to going home, then yeah! Wow! We’re off
home! I have a fortnight’s holiday, I’ve had a good time, had enough of it, let’s
go home. Yeah so you would like packing down. Setting up? Yeah – because
all new things to see, in summer you’re gonna have a nice holiday, so yes.
RC
So you like the travelling aspect a lot, going round and seeing lots of new
places?
Terry Yeah. I mean, that’s what you’ve got a caravan for – to see places. You
wouldn’t have it otherwise.
RC
What are the worst parts of living in a caravan, and how do you deal with
these?
Terry Damp. Erm, and with heat – by putting the central heating and fire on. But
yeah, damp is the worst.
RC
Describe your personal taste in decoration.
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Terry I like it as plain as possible. It’s easy to match, you know, if it’s complicated
then... and I like it bright – not bright, as such, but not dark. Wherein, if you’ve
got it light, light furnishing, the caravan’s lighter.
RC
Before you lived in a caravan, what was your opinion of people who live in
caravans? And has this changed?
Terry I don’t really know because it was so long ago! So, so long ago, yeah. I used
to love the Gypsies – I remember when I was a child, I loved the Gypsies and
all their coloured caravans, and I used to think oh that’d be nice. But erm, I
don’t really know, because I can’t remember. You’re talking forty years ago...
maybe fifty, that I’ve been touring in caravans for... y’know...
RC
Okay. I think we’re done. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Terry No I think we’ve covered it all, haven’t we? We’ve covered the heating, we’ve
covered...what it is, what you do with it.... erm....
RC
And is there anything bad at all, that you want to add in?
Terry No... I like... I like caravans. And I like caravanning. I like moving... you know...
and where I am at the moment, on my own, I like that. I love it. Because I
haven’t got so much to clean! [laughs] Erm.... perhaps...perhaps... the only
thing.... yeah, I’ve just thought of one that might just... This is the clothes and
the washing. Obviously because of the space and that, you can’t carry around
a washing machine. Now my washing machine is outside the caravan, in a
box. In my home. Because if anything went wrong with it, I don’t want water all
over my caravan. So I put it outside. And my tumble dryer. Because of the
space, and also because of the damage it could do. But when you’re on tour,
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if you’ve got children, you’re there for a fortnight, that’s an awful lot of clothes
– so you have to go find the washerette. Sometimes on site they’ve got their
own. A lot of these big sites and that have got their own now. So especially for
children you would be looking at the turnover of clothes. But as I say, a lot of
the nice caravan sites, they’ve got ironing in there, you can go and wash, and
you can do what you like. They’ve got their own toilets, showers, heated
floors...
RC
I think we’re all done. I just need your permission – to use this interview in my
dissertation, all or any part of it, I might use it.
Terry Course you can! Use it for whatever you want!
RC
Thank you!
Appendix Three: Interview with Polly
23 November 2014, Skype (between Liverpool and Brighton)
Interviewed by Rosie Clarke (RC)
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RC
Please could you tell me a bit about yourself – you’ve worked in circuses, you
travel around a lot – just a bit about yourself really?
Polly Okay, I started when I was eighteen; I’m now thirty-one. I ran away with the
circus in Venezuela. I went there to do some choreography there with a friend,
fell in love with it, and so I thought, you know, stick with it. I came back to
England, danced at LIPA, and then I had some dance contracts, but the love
for the circus never went away so I went away and joined a circus in South
America again. I stayed there for... three years? And then ever since then I’ve
been doing all different circuses all around the world.
RC
So that’s the main reason you have been living in a caravan?
Polly Yes.
RC
Accommodation that comes with the job?
Polly It varies with different circuses around the world, they have different
accommodation but generally will give you some. Then you either have a
caravan that you can tour around in, or, like I had in Venezuela they gave us
hotels and apartments. It was a very, very big circus – it sat over two
thousand people inside the tent, so with it being so big like that, they couldn’t
always have so many caravans, so that sort of circus they put us in
apartments and hotels. Other circuses (smaller ones) you’ll go in convoy all
together in the caravans. But we found in South America that we travelled too
far for everyone to have a caravan, so we went in apartments.
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RC
So my focus is on caravans, and how even though they are mainly designed
for holiday use, many people end up living in them full term. What are your
immediate thoughts about that?
Polly Well over the years a lot of people I’ve worked with and colleagues have used
their caravans to travel around in whilst working, and found that living in a
caravan has become quite an easy way of life, so that they’ve made it their
home permanently. So they ground them and make them a permanent home,
like a mobile home – you can buy bigger ones. The American ones are a
more popular make, as they’re bigger – and they ground them and keep them,
and live in them!
RC
Do you think it’s a good idea?
Polly Yep – I think so. I wish that me and my husband had one – we’d really like to
have a caravan, and go around.
RC
One to keep as your own, so that you can travel with it?
Polly Yeah, because a lot of jobs, some of the circuses when we go, some of the
circuses ask us if we’ve got our own accommodation. Especially in Europe,
they often want us to have our own... Sometimes it’s handy to have one, and
then you’ve got it. I mean, there are different types of ones... We travelled in
one in Belgium that we drove ourselves – without towing it, all built in – a bit
like a Winnebago? But Winnebago’s are a little bit nicer. It was quite small.
That would be nice, but only nice if it was just us two – we had me and... Four
guys in it!! [laughs] It was a little bit too small for five of us! And they’re quite
big boys, aren’t they?
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RC
They are indeed! Four large burly acrobats.
Polly Yeah. That wasn’t very nice.
RC
So how many beds were in there? Was it split up?
Polly We had... a double bed that was at the top above the seats, you know, the
passenger seat... that you had to use a stepladder thing to get up to. The
table (the dining table) would come down and make a bed. And then there
were bunk beds at the back.
RC
Did you get the double bed?
Polly Yes. Of course! I don’t know if it was a good choice, because all the heat
rises, it was okay but with that many bodies in there I was just boiling the
whole time! I had to stick my head out of the window like a dog [laughs] but it
was alright you know, it was ok. Everything worked in there which is nice –
sometimes you’ll find when you get to a caravan something doesn’t work, it
feels like the end of the world. A horrible feeling when you can’t... when things
don’t work.
RC
Like what?
Polly Either the water, or the pumps don’t work, or the gas goes... it’s a nightmare.
RC
How was your most recent caravan, at the circus?
Polly Erm... it was okay after Viktor fixed it. There was a few little glitches, like the
piping wasn’t on... basically, because they have to be well kept over winter,
with the conditions, and the different weather. Because the pipes can freeze,
or you know, they leak and stuff... so when we turned our pump on, to pump
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the water in, it was actually pumping it all over the floor of the caravan. All of
the carpet got soaking wet, things like that... As long as you’re keeping an eye
on it, it’s alright, but we didn’t, and then I was like “woo-hoo! We’ve got a really
cool sink that’s working...!” And finished doing all the washing up and realised
that the whole of the caravan was wet.
RC
How did you manage to sort that out?
Polly We fixed it, it was working great... so it was fine. When you have power,
electric, then its fine, and most of them have gas as well, for heaters, but
personally, I don’t like to have a gas heater in a caravan. Because I’m just
like... nervous around them, like if I fall asleep I feel I might not wake up or
something... [laughs nervously] but that’s just a personal thing!
RC
I know what you mean.
Polly Whereas Ivan, you remember Ivan? When he worked here, he would have his
on all the time, and that just rinsed the gas as well – he went through bottles
and bottles of gas.
RC
Maybe when you’ve got the option of electric hook-up as well, it might be a bit
easier just to plug it in?
Polly Yeah. I mean, when we had the one in the Belgium, when we drove the car, it
was meant to charge the battery a bit – so you’d drive round and it would
charge the battery for when we’ve not got electric, to have our heating on or
electric lights, or hot water pump, which is quite cool. Don’t know whether it
was actually working, but that’s what they told us! When the motor was going
round it would charge up the battery to help us have electricity when we don’t
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have twenty-four hour. So that was quite good. That was a really nice caravan
actually, it had a nice bathroom that was really good... and I mean it was only
because we had too many people inside. Big grown men! For like a family or
something, to go on holiday with maybe...
RC
For just one or two of you?
Polly Yeah, but I don’t think you could live long term in that style. I would love to
have a camper van – that’d be my dream! A VW Campervan! Because there’s
everything in a small space but it doesn’t feel like a small space when you’re
inside them... like you can have your whole cooking area, your sitting area...
and you can have all different types of them – all different styles! The top can
extend, you can have an extension on the top, or extended outside with you
know, your tent bit?
RC
An awning?
Polly Yeah! The ceilings that pop up are really, really good. And also for travelling
around you’re not living in this massive heavy-weight truck thing, having to
drive around reversing it around - it’s like you’re driving a car... rather than an
actual big thing.
RC
So... when do you feel most at ease or relaxed in your caravan?
Polly Err... when do I feel most at ease... like, comfortable? When I know the bed’s
already made! And it’s... I don’t know, when it’s the end of the day? Normally
when you do feel most relaxed – because I think when you spend a lot of time
in a caravan, once you go inside it, and you take your shoes off and you get in
– it’s like you’re in a house. In your home. So I always feel pretty relaxed and
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comfortable in my caravan. I quite like it. But the worst feeling is like, when
you’ve come in and you’ve done shows, or you’ve done a hard day or
something like that, and you’re sat down for a bit on the sofa – but because
you have to make your bed, and you haven’t made it, that is the worst feeling,
knowing that you have to get up. And pull the slats out, and make the bed. It’s
like... eurgh, the worst! But I always feel actually that my favourite is when I’ve
been out (especially if I’ve done the show or something) and I’m late coming
into the caravan, but Viktor has already been in there, and I come in and I’m
thinking that I’ve got to make the bed... that’s the worst feeling, I’m like I can’t
be bothered... I can’t just click my fingers and it already be there. But I come
in and he’s already done it! It’s the best feeling to have the bed already made.
RC
So that’s one thing I see you always want to do – you always want the sofa in
the daytime, and then the bed would have to be done at night and put away in
the morning.
Polly A hundred percent. Yeah. I just feel that, it’s more welcoming to have people
round, if you’ve got that sofa there. And also you don’t feel that you’re living in
your bed! It’s like... you’ve got different parts of it, so in the daytime it’s a living
indoor caravan where you can sit down, and have your dinner as well – want
to be able to eat, I don’t want to sit on my bed and eat on my lap. And we had
a table, so that was good... and then in the night time it transforms into this
lovely bedroom!
RC
It is lovely!
Polly Aww, thank you! I love that caravan.
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RC
So in what other ways does your caravan change throughout the day? What
kind of things do you like to do, to make it feel like different spaces during the
day?
Polly What, in the caravan you mean? The first thing I do is put away the bed. So
then I know, it’s like, completely different. From sleeping arrangements, it then
becomes a living space. I like to put things out in my caravan to make it
different as well. So we have a little table, so if we put, you know... it’s silly
really, but how I will put little coasters down, you know, little things to make it
really homely, stuff like that. Cooking, I’ll often have different places or
different ways in the caravan, so sometimes I might put something on my
laptop to watch, so I can have it on that table there, and then prepare all the
food on the other side. So I move around a lot, I try not to sit in the same
place and get... stuck in it? I wish we had a tent, you know, what’s it called...?
RC
Like an awning?
Polly An awning yeah, yeah. I’d really love to have one of those, because that feels
like you’ve got another space.
RC
It doubles the size of some caravans, doesn’t it?
Polly It does yeah. Well my caravan that we had just now, at the circus, was really
spacious. It held so much stuff. I didn’t realise how much of my own stuff I had
in there, until I tried to pack it all down out of the caravan! I had car-loads!
Clothes, pots and pans, and all sorts of stuff... Because I like to have things in
there, you know. A lot of other people might have their caravans (if they’re in
there only for a few months) they’ll just have... well, they’re not bothered how
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it looks. But I’ll put things up on the wall, and make it look nice. I’ll put all my
own tea towels out, photos, and make it homely.
RC
If you’re spending a lot of time in there, and it is your home, do you feel you
have to make the effort?
Polly Yeah! I mean, people decorate their houses don’t they, they have things on
the walls, and their little ornaments and things. And I do the same with the
caravan, just do that.
RC
So you were talking about having photos up, is that one of the most important
things?
Polly Definitely. Photos up of my friends, family, they go up all over the cupboards
and the bits around the walls.
RC
Yeah, I know you like to have them - with the higher little cupboards at eyelevel, you have a photo in the middle of each cupboard, on the flap to open it.
Polly Yep. To make it nice and homely! I always have a calendar up on the wall
too... I don’t know why, I like to have a calendar up – and a clock, if possible.
RC
Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that those things aren’t
always readily available on site?
Polly Yep. I mean, not many people have calendars up in their caravan. Or... I don’t
know... I don’t know anyone who really bothers about that sort of thing. But I
think I quite like to know what... I think because of the type of job that I do,
every day could be possibly the same, so, I like to keep an eye on what day of
the week it could be. So, “Oh, it’s going to be Friday tomorrow!” Because
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when every day is the same, you know, when you don’t have a normal job
where a weekend is free (your Saturday and Sunday) because I’m always
busy on those days. And I like to have it where I can write things in too, like
people’s birthdays. So I don’t lose what’s going on in the world.
RC
That makes sense. So, one of the things I will be trying to look at during this
investigation is mirrors. They have come up quite a few times, and I think
there’s something about them that might be quite important. What are your
views on that?
Polly Well I definitely have a lot of mirrors up! Always have mirrors up. It makes the
space bigger for a start. So you feel like, well, inside is bigger than it is. I had
a big mirror by the doorway. I would have had another big mirror I think, if I
could put it up – I had little ones. And in the bathroom as well, all of the wall
was a mirror!
RC
So you had a full-length one?
Polly Yeah. Pretty much. Where the sink was, because it was a corner of the wall,
both sides of the wall had mirrors. They’re in the bathroom obviously so
they’re not that big, but having it on two walls (the corner wall) made the
space so much bigger.
RC
Would you say that full length mirrors are quite hard to come by at the circus,
so when you have one, it’s quite a luxury?
Polly Yep, totally. Mirrors don’t travel too well either, that’s something you have to
be careful of. I remember once I had a mirror that I forgot to take down on a
move-day. Seven years bad luck apparently. It broke, not immediately, but it
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cracked a then a piece came off. Yeah, but that was because I just stupidly
put it on the wall whereas most of them are built-in aren’t they, and mostly not
heavy glass – they’re that bendy stuff...
RC
That’s an issue that is really apparent in my research, the fact that even
though mirrors are so precious and most people enjoy having them around,
they don’t move very well at all – so you have to be very careful and look after
them. So what other things do you really take care of when you pack down
and move?
Polly My wine glass! Glasses, plates, that sort of thing, I literally pack them down
really well, close and lock the cupboard or door that they’re in. I used to use
my oven. It’s where we keep all the plates and things, because it would lock.
Make sure you lock the fridge as well – you never know, on these moves,
who’s driving you, and that!! [laughs] Or what’s going to be crashing about... I
had an incident with some soy sauce... horrendous! It was in the cupboard,
and the lid wasn’t on properly – and it came flying out of the cupboard above
the oven, and err.... just covered my caravan in soy sauce! It wasn’t this year,
it was the year before. I found out, though, that I’m not the only person to have
suffered the soy sauce disaster, Jenevive did too – three times! [laughs] I’ve
nearly had it twice; we never learn that soy sauce is evil! So that’s my advice:
If you’re ever travelling in a caravan, and you do enjoy soy sauce, make sure
you either take it with you in your bag or you make it really tight and locked
up. That’s important!
RC
Is that a smell that doesn’t go very easily?
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Polly Exactly. Luckily I like the smell, but you also have a hard time getting it off
your carpet. You really need to try and keep an eye on that! Another thing I
didn’t do well with is rice. It was closed but not really closed, so that went
everywhere. It’s a bit of a theme, the rice and soy sauce. It’s because I enjoy
sushi so much, that I always have a lot of rice and a lot of soy sauce. I do love
sushi.
RC
So what else do you do when you’re packing down?
Polly Erm, well I’m more of a.... heavy pack-downer, compared to some other
people I know. They might just put a few things on the bed, but I pack
everything down. Which is a lot, really, because I put so much out. So, with
Viktor, we make a pact. He’ll do the legs, so he gets up early on a move day
and he’ll get the legs down, and put the gas bottle away, and he’ll get the
water and bring that in. And my job is to pack all the things away – put all the
mugs away, any glasses, any knick-knacks and things that I’ve put out... that’s
my job to put it all away. So that would be our ritual thing. And normally we try
to (I’m a bit lazy) the night before get most things packed down, because
you’re not normally doing something that night, so I don’t want to have to
wake up any earlier just to pack down. Because it can take a bit of time, to do
it.
RC
And when do you like to put it back again?
Polly So basically, on Monday we’ll move over.... Oh this is another thing, I normally
put the bed away all the time, but on a move day I leave it (don’t put it down)
so that when we come back on that Monday night, we have our food don’t
we? And then we can go straight to the bed, and not have to bother getting it
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out, because we’re normally all dirty anyway. And then on the Tuesday, when
the build-up’s happening, after the build-up is when the bed will go away. After
build. And then I will put all the stuff back out. And Viktor, he’ll put all the gas
bottles out (on the Monday) do the legs (on the Monday) do the water (on the
Monday) and then we’ll clean and tidy the caravan on the Tuesday. He always
used to do it actually – because I used to go off flyering on the Tuesday, by
the time I got back from flyering he would have got the bed back and cleaned
the whole caravan. It was a pretty sweet deal actually. But then I would, you
know... cook some food or something, or just take him to the pub for a little
drink.
RC
Name something which is essential to your lifestyle, or which you use every
day in the caravan, and why?
Polly Baby wipes. You never know when you need a baby wipe. Because if you run
out of water, when there’s no water connected, you can clean your hands.
RC
How about something which you’ve had to adapt or change? Have you done
any DIY?
Polly Well we DIY-ed our pipes... for the water. I mean, when we got this caravan it
wasn’t a new one, do you know what I mean? So, the circus owners bought it
second-hand so there were a few things that needed doing on it. Like
sometimes when you buy a house that needs a lot of work. So, the piping had
to be done. So did the cupboards, on a couple of handles where they weren’t
very strong, or they were built in... So DIY-Viktor did that. He fixed all of that.
Err... we had a problem with our roof, majorly. It leaked. Our skylight, so this
was a major problem. We had to have a bucket for a lot of the time, for heavy,
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heavy rain, to catch all of our rain coming in. The circus owners tried to close
it up from the outside, and they poly-fillered it, like, kept it as having it
permanently closed instead of having it open now and again. And it didn’t
really work that great – obviously it stopped it, but not a hundred percent – so,
we still had a bucket, it didn’t really work well. But I think it just needs a
replacement. Reason is with the circus owners, they buy them second-hand.
And they will be white like normal caravans (they always tend to be white
because white reflects the sun so the caravan inside doesn’t get too hot) and
the circus paints their caravans burgundy, because of their look, their colours
are burgundy and blue. And I think when the guy was painting ours he wasn’t
very careful on the roof and dented it. So instead of on the roof it being
completely flat, there’s a slight dip where the skylight is, so when it rains it
never really rains off the caravan, because its flat – because usually there
should be a line up the middle and the roof should slightly go down from that
and the rain drips off of it – but because of this dent now in the middle it kind
of bubbled up. It just slowly keeps going in. So, that was a bit of a nightmare.
RC
So this season was the last time you’ll stay in that caravan?
Polly It was. This summer was the last one. The circus is using it again next year
though. Another couple at the circus have got it. And we’ve told them all the
things about our caravan that they need to know, in case they need to fix it.
Oh – another DIY thing that was very good, Viktor hooked up the lighting
system inside so it was really good, because we didn’t have much light in the
caravan. And that is a big problem I think, if you don’t have a good light in
your caravan. We just had one lamp that worked – all our other lights that
worked off battery weren’t very strong and they drain your battery a lot, it's
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quite old – might’ve been 1970s my caravan – and it’s quite an old fashioned
one, the lighting and the bulbs. There weren’t any that hooked up to electricity
so you had to have a lamp, in this one. But he hooked up lights all along the
sides of it, bright lights, which was quite nice. To really light up the place,
clearly, that was good. I did fall in love with my caravan; I think it was the
better one out of all of the ones that the circus had. There were a few things,
the skylight was a bit of a downer with it leaking, but everything else was
really, really good.
RC
So the layout worked for you?
Polly Yeah it was brilliant. Because you’ve got a table and chairs – somewhere to
sit to have your dinner. Then you’ve also got the big sofa side, and a table
there, if you wanted it as well, a big table there.
RC
So as you walked in, on the left there was the kitchen unit, and then straight
ahead (slightly to the right) there was a little cupboard and a door to the toilet.
And straight ahead slightly to the left there was a little table?
Polly Yeah we had a little table and two seats so you could still have your dinner
and that.
RC
And then you had the other table under the front window which you could turn
into your bed?
Polly Yep and the other one you could sit four people along it on each side. It was
quite spacious. I think when it was Viktor’s birthday we had... thirty.... twentysomething people were sitting in there. So, you know...
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RC
Would you say that you like to have your caravan as just your own space, or
is having people over really important?
Polly that? I like doing that. Yeah. For both reasons, I like it being just our space,
and you know, having all this space... but then I like when people all come
round as well, and play games or watch a film, have drinks, or food or
something like that. But yes it is important to have people round otherwise I
think you’ll go nuts with just one person in the caravan the whole time!
[laughs]
RC
So how do you manage privacy? Especially when you’re living in a circus,
what it’s like immediately around the caravan as well?
Polly I think if you want to have private time, if you want it to be like that, you’ve got
to close all your blinds (not just the curtains). If you do that, people won’t stick
their faces up at the windows and try and come in because that’s what
normally happens! Window open, then that is an invitation for people to put
their faces in. [laughs] Cosmin was the number one – he would always do
that, if my window was open he would stick his head in straight away and
generally try and scare me. And it would work! Because you’ve got your
window, and then you’ve got a blind shutter that goes on it (that also keeps
the sun out like a shade) and there’s also like a fly-trap one. So you could
have just the fly-trap, so no bugs come in but you can have it open. And also
you have curtains that go over. If I’m hot and I want the window open but I
don’t want any bugs to come in (like at night time your caravan can be full of
bugs) I put the netting down, the curtains can still be open so it’s not too dark,
but people would come up and push their faces on the fly-trap thing, and it’s
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scary, you know!? So if I wanted nobody to bother me then the blinds would
go down, all the way.
RC
What about noise?
Polly Well, I think if you’re not next to Bena it’s not bad. But if you were next to
Bena then you know, closing the window doesn’t make a difference, it’s like
having a night club next door! But they’re not that bad – I mean, my caravan
wasn’t that bad for sound, once you closed it all it wasn’t that bad – you didn’t
hear everything that was going on. Unless someone was outside, screaming
at you – it was quite good. But some of the others, like Evelyn’s for example...
she had old windows (they were glass ones as well), they didn’t keep much of
the noise in or out. Whereas mine were almost like double-glazed windows.
They were pretty posh, pretty nice.
RC
So onto cooking... what are your views on that? What’s different about
cooking in a caravan as opposed to a house?
Polly Erm... The hob’s not very big so you can’t always have more than one thing
cooking on a hob at the same time, so it’s a bit annoying. I never use my
oven... that was because I think it wasn’t very strong and I don’t think it
worked too great... and like I said, I’m a bit nervous with the gas in a small
space, but that’s me. I know that a lot of other people do it all the time and
think it’s fine, but I think I just... I’m worried I’ve not turned it off properly, or
stuff like that. So that’s a bit worrying. I had a microwave as well, which I think
helps. Which I plug in and keep in plugged in just when I’m using it. I also had
a slow-cooker! So yeah.... Now that there are things, you know, like having
the slow-cooker and that, having a caravan with a kitchen... there wasn’t
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anything that I could not do. I could cook everything and anything I wanted in
the caravan. So I didn’t feel.... I mean obviously it’s a smaller space but I don’t
think.... well, I enjoyed cooking in the caravan. The one thing maybe was the
size. There were four hobs, but you couldn’t like, boil potatoes, cook some
meat, and then cook something else, because the pans are not suitable for
that. You could cook two things... possibly three things. But not more. We
were quite lucky that we had a good sized sink in ours as well. And a draining
board, so even though, when you’re doing the cooking and that, you’re not on
the table, we were quite lucky. Whereas some of the caravans don’t have all
that space – the extra table, the draining board, and things. We also had a
board that would go over the top of the draining board and the sink. Another
work-top basically.
RC
So when that’s down you have a lot more space to play with?
Polly Exactly yeah. You can do all your chopping up, and cutting up, or whatever.
So it’s good. The caravan was a good space for cooking.
RC
For the next part, I’d like to read out some statements. If you could listen to
them, and just tell me your response. “My home is the only place where I can
express my real identity.”
Polly [long pause] ....yeah.....you could say that.... but... yeah I guess so. I mean,
for me, because I’ve just bought a house, haven’t I? So that’s why, with your
caravan, you’ll know when it’s my caravan because I put all my stuff in there
and I can express myself through that. But I don’t think it’s the only way to
express my identity.
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RC
“A caravan makes a good place to raise a family, or spend time with friends.”
Polly I agree with that – totally. I’d say, with raising the family, it would feel good for
me to have holidays, and you know, spend a few months of the year. But I
don’t know whether I would raise my kids, personally.... because, you don’t
have that space.... you know, when they go to bed, if you’ve got young kids
that you’ve put to bed, if they have bunks beds.... you then can’t be in there
yourself, you can’t watch TV or talk very loudly. There isn’t that separation and
I think that’s important – that separation, so you have adult-time. But holidays
– I went on holidays and stayed in caravans when I was a kid. In France... and
I actually loved it – it was great.
RC
Perhaps I’ll ask this question next then; before you lived in a caravan
(whenever the first one you moved into was) what was your opinion of people
who lived in caravans, and has that changed?
Polly [pause] I don’t really.... I didn’t really have much of one, I think.... I thought it
was strange, that people didn’t have a house. I probably thought it was
strange, but I used to go – well, like I said, first we went camping when we
were younger. When I was really young. In the South of France. We used to
go every year for summer holidays. And after we’d been camping for a while,
we decided to do a caravan. And I thought we looked pretty cool! Everything,
you know! It’s like a house on wheels! So then we used to go and stay in
caravans, on holiday parks and things like that. I don’t think I ever did think
people lived in it full time, when I was younger. Obviously, they do, lots of
people do. I know lots of people that do. So yeah, I don’t think I had much of
an opinion. I thought it was really cool...
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RC
Did you think it was mainly just holidays?
Polly Yeah. I think I thought everyone did that and then lived in a house. But... you
know!
RC
So here’s another statement: “In a caravan there is less space, so less
housework to do.”
Polly No. Not at all. You have to do housework ALL the time.
RC
Why is that?
Polly It’s so small that you can clean it and it’ll be really nice; ONE PERSON enters
your caravan, and it’s all changed. All changed. No joke. Even if you want to
do a little thing; cooking is a big job, everything is a big job – a big job in a
small space. You’re forever cleaning stuff, picking it up and putting it down –
like if you went into your house, took your shoes off and put your coat down
inside, well that’s fine. But three people come into your caravan where are you
gonna put all their stuff? It all starts to pile up. And even if they’re alright for a
little bit, you don’t want to spend your time cleaning stuff – when they’ve all
left, your caravan is a BOMB. So, I believe, you’re forever cleaning! And
forever clearing up. It’s hard. It’s hard work. But that’s if you want it to always
look nice, and clean and tidy, I think you’re forever doing it.
RC
So who does that, whose job is it, you or Viktor?
Polly Both of us. He might tend to do a little bit more – well, he says he does a bit
more than me. Because I’m always happy to leave a few things out and about
[laughs guiltily] I’d say “I’ll do it later!” But he doesn’t like to see mess or
things, he likes it to be... he’s got his OCD for it. I’ve got my OCD’s too. He
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doesn’t like to see mess or clutter like that. It annoys me. When I clear up, I
like to put everything away, and everything has its right place. All the t-shirts
go on the t-shirt bit, all the socks are there, and so on. But Viktor just doesn’t
like seeing it – he’ll just pick it up open one cupboard and throw it in! Out of
sight out of mind! But I put it away properly in a completely.... I might not want
to do it all the time, so I say “Oh I’ll do it later...I’m watching CSI!” And he’s like
“do it now,” and I’m like, if you want it done, you do it – and then I hate it more
because I open the cupboard and everything falls out, where he’s shoved it in
there... and I’m like, “jumpers do not go with the jeans! They go in a separate
cupboard!” And I’m like that for a reason, because I do have a lot of clothes. If
you have a wardrobe like we did, having those hanging baskets that go in,
they’re a dream.
RC
What are they?
Polly things on hangers, and then all your t-shirts go packed in there nicely, all my
long-sleeved tops, and all my dance stuff...all like that. You get more space
then, to put your stuff.
RC
So you quite liked having a wardrobe?
Polly Oh yes. Having a wardrobe and a bathroom was brilliant.
RC
So tell me about your bathroom then – what was the good bit about that?
Some people in the circus don’t have one.
Polly That’s true – we were lucky enough to have one. A working toilet and
everything. We didn’t use our shower; the reasons for not using the shower
are one, it was a bit dodgy and had no hook for it. It uses a LOT of water. So
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you’re always then going off to get water. It takes a while to heat the water up
– so you know, the circus have their own communal showers, don’t they, so it
was much easier to do that. We used that as a storage space, so we put all
out suitcases in there. We had a big size wardrobe with two cupboards at the
top, and hanging spaces, which was brilliant. And also then, a toilet, which
worked... And we had a sink in there, remember I said earlier about the
mirrors, we had two big mirrors on the sides in there on the wall. And also a
cabinet underneath the sink that we put all out toiletries and stuff in it.
RC
Do you think it was necessary to have a toilet? Did you prefer having one?
Polly A hundred percent. I would not want to have one without. There’s nothing
worse than... if you have a caravan without an actual toilet in, if it’s chucking it
down with rain, freezing cold, and you’re dying for a wee – the last thing you
want to do is get up out of bed and go outside to go to the toilets. Ah! Having
one in the caravan was the best. But then the downside, you’ve got to empty it
yourself. Not pleasant. But then again, we’d do that together; that was a job
that we’d agreed on. Carry it off and empty it together! [laughs] Skipping along
the field with our turd! The Champagne-run, as it’s known in the circus.
RC
So would that be just once a week, on move-day?
Polly Yeah... pretty much. If we’d done a two-week stand then no, we’d do it
midweek. Because we didn’t use it a lot, we’d use it for emergencies really.
It’s when... when you can’t go to find the toilets, or, in my case, if the toilets
are too far away! Like in Barrington the toilets were always too far away...
Frampton, miles way! You’d have to walk a mile or something to use the toilet
– no! It’s way better to have your own.
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RC
So it changed week to week depending on where you are?
Polly Yeah.
RC
And the other circuses you were in, what were their arrangements like on
site?
Polly They were fine, they were bigger than what we had at this one. Some of them
were, some of them weren’t. On site in Venezuela we only had one, for the
girls... just one toilet and it was really small, and always it was boiling hot. It
was horrible. But also we stayed in the hotel that time, so that was just for the
show times. When we were in Belgium we had it in the caravan – that was
nice actually. That was tiny, it looked like a wardrobe. You stepped into it and
the whole thing was a shower and toilet combo – you could have a luxury
shower and sit down! To have a shower, and to sit down at the same time! So
that was quite fun. We’ve had a few like that. When I stayed in Venezuela for
the first time you had to basically sit on the toilet to have a shower – you could
stand up but it wasn’t very comfortable. And you just went with it over your
head. All at once, good!
RC
I have another statement for you; “having indoor space is more important than
outdoor space.”
Polly [pause] Hmmmm.... I think it’s the same. Like.... well I don’t know.... Like,
Stefan had his awning. So I’d class that as an outdoor space turned into an
indoor space. I think they’re the same. Actually, I don’t like it when we have
the caravans next to each other, you’re too close to someone – even at the
front of it – so if you step out of my caravan, you’ve got another caravan right
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there, I feel claustrophobic. I don’t like that. Also because people play their
music, or they’re loud, you don’t feel you have any privacy. So the indoor
space is good, but I like that outdoor surround-space as well.
RC
You feel you need a little bit of a gap around you?
Polly Yeah. And also, I think there should be enough so you can have an awning,
enough of a gap. Because you don’t want to be sat in and listening to other
people’s TVs or that. So, a good surround. But sometimes you can’t have that
because you’ve got a small field that you’re in, or everyone’s parked up next
to each other... so, it’s a luxury to have a bit of space.
RC
So in your opinion how do you think Stefan and Irina got on? In terms of
having space and having their baby Pavla on tour.
Polly They loved it – having the awning and obviously having the baby. Because
what do babies have? So much stuff! They had everything there for her, so it
was a dream to have that awning. All of their stuff then – once they’ve set it up
– that goes up, and it all goes in there. I don’t think they could have done it
without the awning. They wouldn’t be able to do the tour without it. I mean
they would do it – but they would suffer. It would be really difficult I think. Their
outside space and their awning was really important for them. Because she
had a bath, then she had all her toys, the pram... they couldn’t keep all that in
the caravan and have three of them sleeping in there too. I mean, Stefan’s a
big guy as well.
RC
Do you think it was easier for them, not having to take all of her things out
constantly?
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Polly Exactly. You’d have to be moving it around, to move it onto the bed even just
to cook something – they’d be forever stepping over stuff and it would be too
cluttered. But when they had that awning up, it was just brilliant for them.
RC
Do you have anywhere else (a fixed place) that you use to store anything, and
why?
Polly All my stuff is at my parent’s house! [laughs]Because I haven’t cleared them
out. That’s what I’ve been trying to do recently. But for years now, that’s been
my base where I keep all my stuff, and then when I go off in the caravan I try
to do as many trips to fill the caravan with as much stuff as I can – because it
feels then at least I can have some of my stuff all the time. Because it feels a
bit like I’m living in limbo. Because the caravan wasn’t ours, we wouldn’t make
it a hundred percent ours. Couldn’t do so many things. So much stuff was at
my parents, and I’ve been now boxing it all up ready to go, and be moved into
my new house in Ukraine.
RC
So tell me about your new house.
Polly So, I bought a house...! Well, it’s a flat, so it’s not a big house. I didn’t want to
have a big house to start with, as a first time thing... because we’re not also
gonna be there for a lot of the year, because we’re still working and travelling.
So it’s a one-bed flat; we’ve got a living room, nice kitchen, the bathroom and
toilet (they’re separate) – Ukrainians do that a lot, having the toilet and
bathroom separate. Which I like because it means that if I have a bath the
toilet is still free, if there’s other people around. So you can not worry about
not going to the toilet, which is good. It’s got a big corridor in the hallway
which we are going to decorate with loads of big posters – basically all the
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posters of every show we’ve ever done. So, yeah. I’m looking forward to that.
It’s a new-build so it’s not actually finished just yet, it will be done by the end
of the year. You get to choose everything new. It’s like, a blank canvas. Even
the doors – I get to choose what doors we’ll have – it’s amazing! The whole
building itself is complete and our flat is complete. The rest is just doing things
like the hallways, and the lifts, putting in all the gas and electric. All that sort of
stuff is going in at the moment. Viktor had to go and listen to a talk on gas and
electricity from them. He didn’t know about that, but he had to go! And I’m
looking into shipping all my stuff over. There are so many companies that do
it, and they all got back to me really quickly. It varies so much in price. From
four hundred to four thousand pounds! I’m not moving a piano! And they
wanted to know how much stuff I would be moving, so they asked if it was a
one-bedroom or two-bedroom flat, and so on. And I had to say, it is ONE
bedroom – literally, because all my stuff fits into one bedroom at my parents
house. So I know it won’t be too difficult.
RC
Do you know how much stuff you have at the moment, or did you have to
guess?
Polly We guessed; we estimate eight washing-machine-sized boxes. And it’s
probably more like twenty.
RC
And Viktor will move all of his stuff in when you arrive; it’s already in the
Ukraine at his family house?
Polly Yeah but generally no! It’s gonna be all my stuff, can’t fit his stuff in there! I
have too much, he’s panicking. He said “I hope you’re not taking too much
stuff,” I said, “Babe – I’m taking everything I own!” So I’m going to be
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completely moved-out of my parents, which is the first time in thirty years. I’ll
leave some things in there – some of my childhood things I think. Because I
think one day we’ll probably come back to the UK and live. So, I don’t see the
point of taking all my old stuff, like my first ballet shoes... Actually I am taking
my first ballet shoes! I’m gonna hang them up! But some of the things will stay
in their loft out of the way.
RC
When are you moving in?
Polly Well I’m taking a really big bag to Spain. And then after Spain we’ll go to
Ukraine and start decorating and leave all that stuff there. Then come home
(well, Ukraine will be home then, I mean come to the UK) go to England and
send the rest of my stuff and that’s when hopefully we’re all in. And then we’ll
go on another circus contract, maybe a winter one, before our main summer
one. So we’ll only really live in our house for a month or so every year! The
beginning of the year and the end of the year! It’ll be the first time that when
we do the summer contract, we go back to just our place, you know, just the
two of us. Out house. Before, he’d always end up going to Ukraine, or I’d stay
at my parents. And we’re married now – I just want to have our own place, our
own base.
RC
Is it near to Viktor’s family?
Polly It is.... it could’ve done with another half an hour or so...! [laughs]They said
they’ll keep an eye on the place, you know, when we’re away. But I also don’t
want to come back and find that there’s some new carpet hanging on the wall
or something... they like hanging carpets on the wall! It would really bug me if
there are things in the house that she’d just decided to put in there. A lot of the
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time there could be like a statue of Jesus or something like that... It doesn’t
really go with my decor! It doesn’t fit it! If Viktor’s mum does find a few things
that maybe I don’t like, then I need her to tell me when she’s coming over so I
can get it out and put it on the side so she sees it! Then when she’s gone I’ll
hide it again.
RC
What would you consider to be your most prized possessions within your
caravan, and where did they come from? Things that you really take care of,
and that you would really hate to see broken or lost?
Polly Okay, this time around (I don’t know if I had them last time) were my ... I really
loved my salt and pepper shaker things. They were vintage... cat...erm, what’s
it called...
RC
Porcelain?
Polly Yep. So for me, if they got broke, there would have been tears for sure. The
wine glass – my awesome black goblet wine glass, which Viktor did smash
one. When he smashed it that nearly ended in divorce! Erm, I was really upset
by that. Other things... little knick knacks and things generally a little cat
figurine or something like that, I’d get upset if it broke. Which is why I always
do the packing down, cause then he has no excuse then, if something broke it
would be my fault and I couldn’t get upset at no one else. Photos, again... I
would love to have more photos in frames and have them up there, but I’m
worried they’ll break. So I just stick them on the walls and stuff like that.
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RC
It’s interesting that you said one of the first things you want to do in your
house is put up posters and pictures and stuff like that – is that because wall
space is something you don’t have a lot of in the caravan?
Polly Yeah. I’m gonna put... Well basically, Viktor was like ‘we’re gonna put
wallpaper up’ and I was like ‘no, we’ll just paint it and then plaster it with all of
our posters.’ And pictures. Yeah, lots of it. We’ve even got some from before,
when we weren’t together. From contracted things that I’ve done, at circuses
or different dance contracts, and I’ve got all the old posters.
RC
What about shopping – where do you buy your things from? Do you own any
designer labels?
Polly Err year, it always depends where I am, or what country I’m in, but I do own
designer stuff. But if, for example, going on this last circus, I wouldn’t take....
In the circus when you’re travelling you don’t take all your nice stuff because
(clothes-wise) you don’t normally get to wear them. So, the new house I’m
looking forward to that. Because I’ve got loads of clothes, and shoes...high
heels man!
RC
Where can you keep them, whilst touring at the circus?
Polly On grass all the time, by the time you’ve walked across the fields, you’re
covered in mud or whatever. I miss that. I miss all my nice clothes.
RC
You miss dressing up?
Polly Yeah. Don’t get to do that very much.
RC
Describe your personal taste.
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Polly [pause] I like cats. [laughs] Every kinda cat! Anything that’s cat, is good. Wear
them, I will... you know, cat it up! In painting and that, I would.... if I’m doing it
caravan-wise, never put a carpet in a caravan. They’re a nightmare.
Especially in a caravan in England, right, you’re guaranteed some rain. And
you’re guaranteed to be in some rain on some mud, right, in a field, and
they’re a nightmare – if you haven’t got an awning, okay, it’s so hard. You
always take your shoes off when you go into a caravan. And it’s kind of an
unwritten rule, that, especially in circuses anyway, if you go into someone
else’s caravan, it’s like the Japanese; you should always take your shoes off.
You don’t go into a caravan with your shoes on. Mainly, one reason is
because your feet are dirty it’s really hard to clean. Even though the area is so
small, it’s always impossible – you’re always on your hands and knees
scrubbing the carpet, you know. So I had a caravan when I was at Moscow
State circus and it had carpets in – and cream carpets! Possibly the worst
combination ever! It was 2012 and it was the worst summer. It was torrential
rain, it was horrible, and if you haven’t got an awning....well. I had to put bin
bags all over the floor [laughs]. Then I realised, as I tried to pull it up, that it
was like laminate flooring underneath, like a wood laminate. So I thought
brilliant! So I took all the carpet up and got rid of it, and, just put nice rugs
down. Like smallish foot-rugs, like a Union Jack one. It was really nice.
Because obviously being an English girl in a Russian company, I had to rock it
up! And that way it was so much easier – you could pick up this little rug, give
it a clean in the washing machine if it got dirty. And sweeping and mopping
the floor was so much easier. Because you don’t want to carry around a big
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vacuum either – so I just had one of those rolly things for the carpet.
Definitely, would NOT put carpet in.
RC
You used to have a useful little cleaning cupboard for anything like that, in
your caravan?
Polly Yeah. And I borrowed from Stefan, when he had an awning he had more
space, he had a vacuum. So we’d go round and I’d use his. If I wanted to
hoover up. But also, you spill things a lot in caravans. Because it’s a tiny
space, if you’ve got lots of people round then my elbow might knock
something and there’s your red wine all over your carpet! And that’s a
nightmare! So, yeah, definitely do not put carpet.....I do love carpet actually,
it’s a big thing of mine... but then in my house, I don’t know if we’ll put carpet
in. I love to have wooden floor with a massive rug. A big furry fluffy rug on it.
And even possibly the rug would have cats on! It could have pictures of cats
on, and then real cats could go and sit on them. And it would be rugs, and
cats, and cats, and rugs!
RC
I think we have covered tidy and clean, so how important is it for your caravan
to be new and fashionable? As opposed to useful.
Polly Well, if it was me – if I had the caravan and it was mine, then the curtains
would be important for me. I had some greeny ones which were quite awful. I
would have changed those, definitely. Take out the carpet, not have that.
Yeah, I would make it look more trendier.
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RC
So, this is related to this next question. When you move into a caravan (as
you don’t own your own at the moment) what is the first thing you do? If
someone else has been in it.
Polly Clean it. Yep. Completely. Strip it to the bone. Completely empty it, so I’d
empty every single cupboard of everything, in case there’s anything in there.
Then, make it my own – so, I would... how I stack things in the shelves, and
any of the cupboards, stuff like that. Put things out so it looks different from
how anyone else has had it. So like, I’d have tea towels that I put over my
oven, things like that. Put loads of things out and make it look... different to
what it was when you went in there. A hundred percent cleaner.
RC
Please think for a moment about when, where, and who actually
manufactured your caravan. What are your thoughts about that? For example,
the decisions they made, how useful it is, and how it works for you.
Polly Someone told me, where that caravan came from... I can’t remember now. So
where, when, what, how.... dunno. I think the guy who invented caravans was
a pretty genius man. Because really, it’s a house on wheels, isn’t it? It’s such
a good idea, because you can go anywhere. Just get up one day and go –
right, see where the road takes us! And then you can stop at the side of the
road and have a sleep. That’s quite amazing. The mechanics of it, also very
clever. The water pump system, and the heating, is really quite complicated
and really well done (from before, when we were trying to fix it and that). So I
think it’s quite impressive for quite a small space, with all the intricate little
details. Do you know where the caravan was first made? Germany? I’ve got
Germany in my head for some reason? Americans have got really good ones.
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They have also, which I know this circus didn’t have because they were only
small little pull-along caravans, but the outfits – so, you have extensions. My
boss at Moscow State had one. Their pack-down is very different to ours –
they have sofas in there, you know! Full-on, normal sofas that you’d have in
your house. They have extensions, so when the caravan is normal size, they
would pull out – you have these big pull out bits, and that would then become
the bigger space for the sofas. A friend of mine had a caravan that you would
honestly not believe it was a caravan from inside it. It had steps in it man, it
was like a bungalow! It had a proper kitchen top, you know, marble top, proper
side. Full on sofas, reclining sofas... fireplace! Just unreal. You would not
believe you were in a caravan. That was an American-style. Another boss in
South America had a caravan that had all the pull-outs, but also a car – a
sports car – underneath! Now that is caravan-living. On the next level. Unreal.
RC
So you’d like that sort of thing, in the ideal world?
Polly Totally! I wouldn’t need a house! I totally would do that more than I’d probably
do a house.
RC
Really?
Polly Yeah! Cause then you could do all of Europe, at any time. Obviously you’d still
have to sort out the Visa. I’d love to do that – everything in there.
RC
So you’d actually prefer that to having a fixed address?
Polly Well no, I’d love to have a fixed address. But then there’s a part of me, that... I
like that gypsy life, I like that I can just go... that’s why I’ve been travelling ever
since I’ve been at LIPA I’ve travelled. I’ve never stayed in one place. I’ve been
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doing it, you know, since 2005....2004 or something like that. That’s ten years
at least, doing this job. And I’ve never stayed in one place longer than eight or
nine months. I get itchy feet! I like the idea that I’ve got this place in Ukraine
but I know I’m not going to stay in it more than a couple of months a year
[laughs] so yeah. I would love to. I’ve looked into getting a caravan a couple of
months ago, recently. Before we bought the house. But yeah it’s hard, with
Viktor and the Visas and that. If he didn’t have to have a Visa I would have
one. But it would have a fixed address still – where I would keep it when I
wasn’t travelling in it all the time. You know if I had a job in Asia I wouldn’t
take it.
RC
How would it work in South America?
Polly Exactly. Well, you can get them over there, it just takes a hell of a long time.
It’s expensive. So you wouldn’t. Like my friend got a really amazing one (that
looked like a house inside ) they’d been in it quite a few years, and now
they’ve got it parked up in Spain, where they rent a space and keep it parked
up there. Then they joined South America where I was, and it’s still there. So
they’ve been there... four or five years, and that lovely American camper is
just....sitting there. Not being used. Waiting.
RC
Would you say they date fairly quickly too – not in decoration, but in
depreciation of cost and technology?
Polly I had an Italian friend, they’ve got a really nice one as well – and he said when
he’s using it all the time, he does find, like anything, like having a car, once
everything’s there, something goes wrong. He says he’s always doing
something to it. You know, fixing a lock here or something, then it’s something
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in the water tank that’s gone, so he fixes that, then the brakes, or something’s
wrong with the wheels. He does find there is always DIY going on. It’s hard
work. But I mean, you have this in your house. Whether it’s a light bulb that’s
gone, or you want to redecorate. I think it all depends on what kind of person
you are and how you live in it. Because some people can just live in it, they’re
not fussed about the mess or whether everything works perfectly fine or not.
And a lot of them are like, hardcore, you know, like the gypsy lot, you’ll find
that their way of living and mine would be different. Because I’m not in all the
time so I want to make it nice, whereas they’re in it all the time and they’re just
like – [shrugging] – but I like to make it nice when I am in it. But they’re in it all
the time so they’re not always....worrying about the little things. Whereas I
would, I’d want it always, on top, the whole time. But that’s just me. I think
everyone’s different.
RC
So, there are different lifestyles that use caravans in different ways, and there
are different people (even if they are living in the same place as you) who use
it in different ways. How would you compare yourself to them?
Polly Well, I had a girl who I worked with. She had a caravan, she did the same job
as me. Say for example, if I come into my caravan at the end of the day what I
would do in the caravan to what she would do in the caravan was completely
different. So we did the same job, but we were very, very different. She would
go into hers, kick her shoes off, sit down, put the telly on or whatever, and do
nothing. Whereas I’d come in trying to keep it tidy so I can find somewhere to
cook, then sit down, relax, make the bed up for instance. She wouldn’t – her
bed would already still be there. She’d just come in, didn’t really do anything
with it at all. When we were in France, one of those... different rituals and
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things like that. I’ve got OCD though! [laughs] Certain things, she wouldn’t
bother with... Like sometimes, she wouldn’t bother putting her legs down!
Sack it, she weren’t bothered! I can’t have that. And say, with Viktor, he’s got
his own OCD! He’d have to have the level out. To make sure it was
completely straight. And he’d hate it if it was slightly off –
RC
The spirit level?
Polly Yeah the measuring thing. And the ground isn’t ever completely flat is it, so
you’d always have to go and fine extra wood. That’s the worst, when people
haven’t got their legs down. You have to walk really carefully. Because if too
many people go to one end, it tips! [both laugh]
RC
Only a few more questions: Are there any objects in your home which you
rather you didn’t own, or which have negative connotations?
Polly I didn’t need an oven. And that annoyed me. Although actually I used it for
space... putting pots and plates in, and things like that. No, I don’t think there
was anything I didn’t want in there really. I could have done with a few more
things. Plug sockets, they could’ve been handy. Lights, in this one. But pretty
happy with it. Something I’d like, which we didn’t always have in our caravan,
is a fire extinguisher. That made me nervous, not having one in the caravan.
Because...well it didn’t matter for use because the gas didn’t work. But if it did
have a cooker, or a heater, and we used it, I would want one. I think that’s
quite important to have that there.
RC
I didn’t ask you yet about safety and security – what are your thoughts?
Polly Fire extinguisher!
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RC
On the security side of things, have you ever worried about your things being
stolen, or do you keep the door open a lot?
Polly When we were there, doing the job at night, we would have the door unlocked
or even open. I always felt safe. If we went away, like on our day off, we’d lock
the door. But say if we just went into town for the day, I don’t think we’d often
use the key to lock it. But that’s also because we were in nice areas, and
trusted everyone around us. Probably a bit naive. Some people might get
broken into. It was very hard to break into my caravan. When we were in
Cheltenham, do you remember half of us stayed on site in town, and half of us
stayed off site at the circus owner’s farm because there wasn’t enough room
in town? Well, when we left the farm to go for the day we would lock the
caravan. We locked the caravan at the farm and all the windows would be
closed inside and everything. Then we got back to the farm and I had left the
keys in the costume wagon so, you’d think ‘oh we’ll jimmy the lock or
something’ – it were really hard. We tried to get a knife in the window, as well,
but no! Virtually impossible, until.... well, it might not be a good thing, some of
the caravans are pretty much the same make, the same one. And they
weren’t that inventive with the lock. So we used another person’s key, and it
wasn’t perfect, but we managed to wiggle it enough to get in. But it would’ve
been a cold night. Either that or we’d have to go and snuggle in with the
bosses! It was night, and we were tired, and just where are the keys!? But
other than that, I don’t feel.... and when we went to bed every night we’d lock
the door. From the inside, you can lift the handle up which means that no one
can come in.
RC
How come? Is that more for privacy?
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Polly Yeah. Yeah, that’s a mistake that one of the Chinese acts made – not locking
the door. Because all the caravans do look the same! And someone might
come in, in the middle of the night, thinking that, you know, you’re somebody
else!
RC
And that someone might accidentally jump into their bed?
Polly Exactly, this is it!
RC
So what’s the worst caravan story you have?
Polly That’s one of them! Best caravan stories.... erm...It’s not the best one but it is
quite funny. One of the times, when it was a move-day, and Viktor was
sharing the caravan with Yulian and I’d gone to stay with them. And there’s a
compartment like another bedroom when you can close the door so we had
two rooms. And it was move-day and I was still in the bed, and Viktor was still
in the bed.
RC
Sorry, did you say there was a compartment?
Polly Yeah, you could pull a wall across and it would make two bedrooms then. So
when we went to bed, we had our own little room and Yulian could have his
room. That was in Yulian’s caravan. Yeah, and everyone was moving, and
Yulian took up all the legs, and then we tried to get out the caravan – but
because we were all on that side, the whole caravan flipped! To this end! But I
was half asleep and didn’t know what was going on and I thought the world
was tipping over or something, thought that I was gonna fall completely over
and die or something! [laughs] I freaked out. I grabbed the side of the wall,
and I grabbed Viktor in bed and – argh!!! It literally only tipped like.....tiny.....
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but it felt like the whole thing was gonna do a hundred and eighty tip or
something, which is impossible, but I was like aaaaah! I thought the whole
thing was gonna tip over and I was going to get crushed. What else...... toilet
stories are always quite funny. I didn’t tell Viktor this story.... but I....well,
normally, we take the toilet out together. And one day, he just did it, it was just
awesome! But I really needed a wee, and I didn’t know that he’d taken it! I
didn’t know, there was no toilet to collect it, there was just a hole...! And it just
sort of.... well, I had to run out, dripping, trying to clear it all up before he came
back, to put the bucket in! [laughs] That was a good story, but also a
nightmare! Because I had to clean it without him knowing. It was alright
though – he didn’t find out! He might now though!
RC
Good job it wasn’t the other way round, or he might have known.
Polly Well, that’s the thing, he’d have seen it. You can open it and do the wee, or
you can do the wee, then open it, and then flush it down. Two ways. There’s
different ways of doing it. Because I left it closed to do the wee, but if I hadn’t,
if I had it open, I probably would have felt the draught – and I would’ve known.
Maybe I should have it open from now on.
RC
Just to make sure the cassette hasn’t been taken?
Polly Yep that’s it, to make sure I don’t pee all over the caravan! [laughs] Other
good caravan stories... the soy sauce. That’s a good one. So that’s a lesson
learnt: lock up your cupboards, put jars on the floor..... Oh another good one!
So this is Marius, when we were all sharing the caravan. In the first year. He
went to take the water bucket (you know, that goes in for the pump) and he
couldn’t find the lid. Filled it with water, but couldn’t find the lid. So he got a
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stick, like a thick branch, and put Gaffer tape around it and tried to use it as a
stopper. But then obviously on the move it’s a bit bumpy and stuff. And the
stick fell down into the bucket – the bucket then tipped over onto its side – and
when I say bucket, this thing is ten litres! Again, a reason not to have carpet in
the caravan! Because it was then soaking wet and this was also the year of
bad weather. So it was muddy, soaking wet, carpet, which was virtually
impossible to dry. And that night it was chucking it down with rain. So we were
on our hands and knees with big wooden branches, and any wood we can
find, like blocks, cleaning the carpet! And using all the wood to try and make it
slush down the carpet to outside. Because all this carpet was horrendous. We
had hair dryers, heaters, all trying to dry it. It was like having a water feature.
And the boys, they carried on finishing doing the pull-down and I went through
with the horses, and I found it and was like – “are you kidding me.” Everything
was soaking wet and I was like.... I sent a message to Viktor saying tell Marius
he’s an absolute idiot!
RC
So he had just tried to plug the water tank with a stick?
Polly Didn’t even tape the stick to the actual thing, he just got the stick and thought
yeah that’ll stay! Idiot.
RC
Who sorts out pulling through to the new site? What happens normally on that
day?
Polly Craig did it a lot for me. And I’d go with him. I like to pull through with the
caravan. And then, if I did, me and Viktor would try and do the legs then, so
that when we come back in the night after pull down it would all be done. And
that was like, “yes!” And I would try and clean bits and bobs then as well. So
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we could just go straight into bed. It depends really, whoever was on the job...
depending on where you were in the field, who would go first. We were quite
lucky, we did go first quite a lot of the time. Which meant I could go there and
come back.
RC
Did you have a set place where you would be on site, normally?
Polly No, not always, but this time we tended to be in the same places as we were
before which was quite nice. So we always had the same place. It all
depends, of course, the boss would decide one minute you’re there and two
minutes later, you’ve got to move. I think it goes by generators and how he
sets the tent up. Because it happens, that the measurements could be wrong
and the tent could be in the wrong place, and the caravans would be in the
wrong place. If you’ve already put your legs down then that’s really annoying.
Electric cables... Also, some people didn’t like noisy stuff, did they? So if you
were next to Bena, they’d want to move. So you might end up getting moved.
RC
Final question. What are the best and worst parts of living in a caravan? And
do you think it is something that you would carry on doing – is it a good way to
live?
Polly Yeah – I would carry on doing it, I enjoy it a lot. Pros for that are obviously
when you’re travelling around you go to new places, and every time you wake
up in the morning you look out the window you might have a different view. So
it might be a lake, or it might be a field, or a building. Whereas in my old
house, it would always be the neighbours house. So that’s always good.
Travelling in a caravan is always good when the weather’s good, I find. Maybe
not when it’s too hot. But that’s the bad side to it; weather. I think. I don’t like
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camping when the weather’s bad. I mean, don’t get me wrong – it is nice, to
go to bed with the rain on the roof. That’s a really nice sound. So I like that
part of it. But, not having the best stuff in your caravan, stuff like that.... If you
didn’t have a toilet, that would be bad.
RC
Do you mean, having to go in and out and in and out all the time, and
separate the two?
Polly Yeah, especially if it’s bad weather. Toilet, perfect.
RC
Thank you, that’s great. I do need you to just confirm, as this interview will be
used in my dissertation I need your full permission to do that.
Polly That’s fine, I give permission.
RC
That means it will be published in my written dissertation, and we also do a
final year exhibition so I could use it in that too.
Polly Yes that’s fine, you can use whatever you want.
Appendix Four: Interview with Philip and Lisa
23 December 2014, Wiltshire
Interviewed by Rosie Clarke (RC)
RC
Could we start with you explaining what kind of caravans you have
previously had, and what you have got at the moment?
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Philip At the moment we have a Bailey Ranger, before that we had an Abbey Swift
Challenger. We’ve increased our size from twelve foot long to eighteen foot
long. It makes a lot of difference.
RC
What’s the difference?
Philip Just more cupboard space, slightly bit more spacious...
Lisa
Bunk beds, built in.
Philip Bunk beds in the new one that are built in, so there’s no messing about
making all the beds up every night, just our bed.
Lisa
Built in aerial.
Philip Yeah, telly... aerial on the roof, makes life a bit better.
RC
So what happened with the beds before, did you have to make them each up
every night?
Lisa
Yeah you had like a sofa on one side, another sofa on the other. But both
sides had to be made up, at night. They both went into double beds, but they
both had to be made up. Whereas this time obviously because they’re built
in they stay there and we only have to build one of the big ones up, and the
dinette up. Which makes life so much easier. So you’ve got the dinette, so
literally like when you walk through our door of our new one, to the right
you’ve got built in bunk beds, then to the left (where you normally sit and eat)
the table comes off and folds down flat and you can just put all the cushions
on top of it to make it into a bed. Whereas the other one didn’t have that.
RC
So that makes your bed. And where does baby Jenna sleep?
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Lisa
Jenna’s on the bottom bunk, Joana’s on the top bunk, and Jorja we build
hers up. Because we can still use it then, at night – because obviously Jenna
goes to bed earlier, so of course we can just put her straight in. Whereas,
like I said, the old caravan couldn’t do that. You had to go in there and make
it all up – it was just so much hassle, especially with pulling-through and that.
RC
So then there would have been four or five beds to make up?
Lisa
You had, yeah...
Philip Last time you had to make up every bed, now you only have to make up two
beds. Our double and a single.
Lisa
And the single, yeah.
RC
So that means the two who go to bed first, their beds are all ready to go?
Lisa
Yeah, yeah.
Philip The new one’s a bit more up to date with electric heating as well as gas, and
there’s electric room heating as well as gas...
RC
What do you mean by room heating, is that a blower heater?
Philip Yeah but built into the trailer, so it’s built into the same fire that’s in the
trailer. So there’s no extra fire, but it does two things. The gas heater in it
heats the trailer via gas, and heats the trailer via electric as well.
RC
So when you’re on tour that’s much better, because electric is already
provided?
Both
Yeah.
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Philip Even if the electric goes off you can still heat through the gas.
Lisa
And when’s it’s really hot, you can actually turn it, and have the cold air
come through, can’t you, to make the trailer cold?
Philip The blower.
Lisa
Because obviously they can get quite hot.
RC
Similar to air-con?
Lisa
Yeah, so it’s like a little air-con comes out.
Philip And you can obviously do the same with the hot water system – that heats
hot water by electric or gas.
RC
So do you have a shower in there?
Philip Yes.
RC
Do you use it much on tour?
Philip Only when we have to. Because the ones on tour (now that I changed the
shower-heads) they work very well. So, only towards the back end of season
when it gets cold...
Lisa
Only then we start turning it on and using it... But it don’t take nothing,
because you’ve literally got like a shower curtain that goes right round so it
covers everything. So then once you’re done all you’ve got to do is just mop
the floor up, drain the water down, and that’s it.
RC
That’s in your own bathroom?
Lisa
Yeah, yeah.
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RC
How about the toilet, do you use that often on tour?
Philip Yeah, use the toilet, fully functioning – use everything! I mean the toilet,
people moan about the toilets, but if you do go to a caravan shop and spend
a tenner every now and again on the correct chemicals to put in them, they
don’t smell. You know, why go outside and traipse all across the field to a
toilet block when you’ve got one there? I mean with a family of five that we
got, I do empty it every day. It would last two days but it’s just easier to
empty it every day.
RC
How about the kitchen?
Philip Three rings, an oven, and a grill. We’ve got a full cooker, but a mini one. It’s
slightly narrower than the one in the house. But it’s got, like I say, grill oven
and rings, yeah. That is just gas though, on its own.
RC
What’s the process, with buying gas?
Lisa
We had one bottle given to us, when we bought the trailer.
Philip I put a new bottle on it at the start of tour, and I didn’t actually – I’ve still got
it, it’s nearly empty, but we didn’t run out during the tour time. Of a little red
one. Nineteen. Didn’t use one of them in a year.
RC
So that’s just used for cooking?
Lisa
That was just cooking, because we didn’t use it for the heating.
Philip We didn’t really use it for the water heating – occasionally we did. But most
of the time, it was alright.
RC
How about the family table and dining area?
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Lisa
Well we’ve got a little table that’s always up. And then if we want something
bigger for all of us to sit round, then we get that table out. What we used to
do is we had that awning – we used to put an awning at the side of it, and
literally just eat out in that.
RC
Did you use the awning a lot on tour?
Lisa
Yeah.
Philip It’s nice to have an awning, because you can actually treat it as an extra
room. Then you can use your awning as your... your kitchen dining room,
sort of thing. Dining room slash living room.
Lisa
And of course the dog was out there. The table and chairs was all out there.
And a fridge that we used to take round with us, that was out there.
Philip Yeah, our little fridge. Just as extra you know, for drinks and that, it’s the one
thing in summer that keeps stuff cool. And obviously you don’t want to fill
your food fridge up with squash or with water, so we have an extra fridge just
for that... and beer!
Lisa
So we’ve got the little table inside, and the bigger table outside.
RC
The awning, you said it’s like an extra room?
Philip Yeah, that’ll be eight foot wide by the length of the trailer. So it’s quite a... I
could easily buy a bedroom to go in it, in the awning, so like a tent, you can
hang things inside it, so you can have a pod, sort of thing. Or you can have
someone sleep in the awning.
RC
Have you had to use the awning for sleeping in?
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Lisa
We haven’t had to use that, no. I mean if anyone comes to stay like next
year, we might do.
Philip Generally the awning itself is warm enough, it’s just in case someone wants
the privacy of a bedroom.
RC
Could we talk about moving on and packing up? For instance, the awning.
Philip Generally... night before I empty the toilet and all that, just prepare for the
move, then you know you aint gotta do it straight away when you get to the
new site. We generally take things down in the morning, sometimes if it’s a
nice summer’s evening and we’re going early in the morning we take it down
around four, and that’s relatively straight forward – take down the poles, put
the tent bit away in the bag.
RC
Will everything fit in the caravan or do you have to move with a car?
Philip You can fit it all in, but you’ve got the risk of knocking things up if you start
loading all your chairs and stuff in the caravan... I mean if you’ve got space
in the vehicle towing it, use it, and it makes it better to equalise the weight.
Because you don’t want the trailer to be heavier than the vehicle towing it.
So we try to put most of it in the back of the Land Rover, or van, or whatever
it is.
RC
And do you tow your own trailer?
Philip Er, no. I have mine driven for me, because I’m busy driving heavy good
vehicles. So I trust it in the faithful hands of Rickey. He’s good, he had a
clear run, so no complains with that. We can leave the cups up and they’re
still in the cupboards when we get to the next place!
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Lisa
Thing is, you’ve got mainly where your cups are, and where stuff can break,
it’s got lock on anyway. You can lock your cupboards up.
Philip Yeah, the cupboards do lock.
Lisa
And obviously the bottom ones all lock up as well. So of course, unless
something really drastic happens, the cupboards doors won’t open.
RC
Have you had any breakages?
Lisa
No, touch wood, nothing. Nothing whatsoever. The clothes cupboard – no,
the wardrobe cupboard – comes open, but obviously that makes no
difference. But no, nothing.
RC
In what ways do you make sure things are kept safe and secure on the
move?
Philip Just general cleverness when packing down, really. Move all the heavy
objects down from up high. Put them on the lockers, chuck the blanket over
the top of everything, and they’re generally safe. Anything that is not fixed
down is going to fall down. So you just, you know...
Lisa
Pack everything on the floor. Wedge the telly in, under the pillows.
RC
Is that at the back of the sofa?
Lisa
Yeah, or you can do it just at the side, like if your telly’s got a bit of a stand
on it, you can just wedge it down at the side, and I just put pillows down on
top of it. So it’ll stay there.
Philip Just wedge it.
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RC
What else do you have in terms of technology?
Lisa
T.V., microwave, toaster...
Philip Electric kettle. We’re not a big technology family. Our kids don’t have
PlayStations or nothing like that, so we haven’t got to cart that stuff about
with us. Obviously got a tablet. Telly.
Lisa
Sandwich maker, a cheese-toastie maker.
Philip I mean we have got power-points in our trailer because it is fitted with them.
Not all trailers have fitted power points, it is one of the luxuries. Ordinary
thirteen-amp, house plug. We don’t have twelve-volt outputs as well.
RC
Is that for lesser stuff?
Philip Usually twelve-volt is smaller, like extra lamps, or a radio, or charging
implements. In a good caravan of today all you need is a good battery, and a
full bottle of gas, and you can go anywhere and do anything you want in the
caravan.
RC
Is that a battery that charges up as you drive?
Philip Yep, it charges up. You can plug them in and it can charge a bit off the car,
or you can buy solar panel chargers, or when you plug the caravan into the
mains it will charge the battery.
RC
What about water?
Philip There’s no tank in our caravan. It’s cans. So as soon as you get there you
get your can out, plug your pump into the caravan, put it in the can. The
pump’s in the can. It’s a bit of hosepipe, with an electrical fitting, and a water
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fitting. That plugs into the caravan, and in the other end of the hosepipe is
the pump, that goes into the can. When you switch the tap on, that switches
the pump on, and that pumps the water into the caravan.
RC
Would you rather throw something away and replace it for new, or fix it up?
Philip Fix it.
Lisa
Fix it, if we can fix it!
RC
Can you think of an example?
Lisa
While I was away we had to get a new water pipe, or pump.
Philip Yeah we had a new pump. The pump that came with the caravan
unfortunately outlived its life, so we had to just buy a new pump which was
twenty-one pounds. A good one that actually pumps water into the caravan.
Works, relatively easy to change, just two screws and two little clips.
RC
So how long have you had this particular caravan?
Philip We’ve had this one only a year.
Lisa
A year in March.
Philip Every caravan...well, there’s about three companies that make parts for
caravans. So if you haven’t got a Truma water system, you’ve got a Whale
water system. If you haven’t got a Whale water system you’ve got a
something else, and all the principles run exactly the same, they’re just
different units.
RC
Does that make it fairly easy to source replacements?
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Philip Yeah, all you need is a basic tool kit and little, little knowledge – because
everything comes with instructions and you can generally do anything on a
caravan, general changing of bulbs and things...
RC
And when you got this caravan, was it new?
Lisa
It wasn’t brand, brand new, it was six years old.
RC
So what was the first thing you did when you moved into it?
Philip Cleaned it!
Lisa
Cleaned it! Fair play, they left us quite a bit of stuff... they loved their
caravanning, so they had like all plastic plates, bowls and cups, that sort of
thing. And we just sorted that all out – it was too much stuff that we didn’t
need. Like plastic wine glasses, things like ten of them, and we didn’t need
ten of them. So we just sorted out first what they’d left us, and I started
putting our stuff in there, what we wanted. Because we’ve got double of
everything. So like, in our home where we live, we’ve got a toaster, but
there’s also a toaster in the caravan. There’s a microwave in the caravan,
but we’ve also got one in our place, so we try to double up everything, so
every time we go to go out, I haven’t got to think right I need that – because
it’s all doubled.
RC
So everything like appliances stays in your caravan, ready for the next
season?
Lisa
Yeah. And even the clothes, I normally... Before we used to go out (before
we started touring) all the summer stuff was in here (the caravan), and all the
winter stuff was in there. And then I’d swap over. And then when we started
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touring, going out, I still left all the summer stuff in there, but I’d add to
whatever else we need.
RC
Describe your personal taste in decoration.
Philip Simple, clean-looking caravan. They make them all look horribly gaudy now
by putting all stripes and swirls on it. I just like it simple, clean.
Lisa
Some caravans have got net curtaining. We don’t like the net curtaining in
there. Sometimes it comes with it, sometimes people put it in – it looks
alright, but it just doesn’t look... look right. So of course our ones have just
got pull-down blinds. The pull-down blinds look nice. And then you can also
get on the pull down blind, behind it it’s got like a fly-string. So you can pull
that one down over the window and not let anything come in. Just simple
things like that that just looks nice.
RC
What are your thoughts on privacy, safety, and security in the caravan?
Lisa
We’ve got... security... so you put something on the draw-bar didn’t you?
Philip I did yeah, I had a bar lock, which just stops people activating the ball-hitch
lock, so they cannot put it on the back of a vehicle. Other than that, you’ve
really only got a simple lock that locks the door, but generally, caravans are
always in secure locations. I mean, you do get ones that are fitted with
alarms. But this one hasn’t.
Lisa
But we do put the lock on the door, depending on the area that we’re at.
Philip Depending on where we are.
RC
Have you taken it to many places without the circus?
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Lisa
The old one we had, but the new one went straight to the circus’s farm. It
went straight up there. The old one went loads of different places. But this
new one, we haven’t really used it much, except for just being on tour.
RC
For you both, what’s the best time of day in the caravan, and when do you
prefer to be in there? Or the busiest.
Philip Well I’m not there in the daytime. Night time is quite nice – bedtime,
snuggled, cosy. Morning, breakfast time!
Lisa
I think all the time’s nice in the caravan to be fair. Because it’s homely.
Philip Yeah, unless – the only thing that is a dampener for any caravan... is rain for
too long. Because you haven’t got that much space and you do utilise all the
outside. Any sort of caravan.
Lisa
Summer’s the nicest in the caravan. But like I said, at night – well, any time
in the day time, it’s nice. Especially if you’ve got all the kids in there, and
we’re all in there, and especially if you get people to visit as well... you know,
it’s nice. It’s cosy, isn’t it?
Philip Yeah.
Lisa
It is nice and cosy. It’s what you make it, you know.
[Back inside, with the rest of the family]
RC
Please could you respond to these statements... ‘My home is the only place
where I can express my identity.’
Philip No.
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RC
How about... ‘A caravan makes a good place to raise a family or spend time
with friends.’
Philip Definitely. Again, it’s all just being in a close environment and you all just
have to get on, you know, it’s precise living, in a way.
RC
What do you think girls, do you like living in the caravan?
Joana Erm, yeah.
Jorja
Yeah.
Lisa
Why’s that?
Joana Because it’s fun and there’s lots of room and you always get to spend time
with your family.
Lisa
And you get to go lots of places that you can’t go when you’re at home,
because you can’t move your home anywhere!
Joana No.
RC
Do you like moving around?
Both
Yeah.
RC
Do you like having your friends over in the caravan?
Both
Yeah!
Joana Our friends and family always look out for us and every time we get hurt
they’re always there for us.
Philip She sounds like she’s reading off a card!
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RC
How about ‘in a caravan, there is less space, so less housework to do.’
Jorja
Yes.
Lisa
Well, sometimes... I think in a caravan, you’ve got to be more tidy. Because
they’re aint a lot of space. I think you’ve got to make sure that everything you
get out goes back in its place. So like your cooking stuff, you’ve got to wash
it as you go along. Because you aint got a lot of space.
RC
What about ‘I prefer to spend more time in my home, than out of it.’
Philip In the caravan? Erm, fifty-fifty really. Well it’s all part of being in a caravan,
the outside space. Like I said, you appreciate both sides of it – it’s nice to
have your cosy comforts and all that, but then it’s nice to get outside and
have plenty of space and fresh air. Sometimes in the morning, caravans can
be a bit stuffy, obviously when you’ve had five bodies breathing in there all
night, you know, then you do appreciate being outside in the mornings.
RC
Okay. ‘Packing down, moving, and setting-up is something I look forward to
doing.’
Joana No!
Lisa
No, not every.... it’s nice when you’re on tour and you’ve got your two weekstand.
Jorja
It’s okay when we just pull it down a few times, but loads of times it’s just a
bit much...
Lisa
When you got a short stand somewhere, and you’ve just put everything up,
and you’re only there for like four days and you’ve got to put everything
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down again, then it’s a bit of a drag. But then it depends how much stuff
you’ve got in there to put up – if you’ve got loads of ornaments – I have got a
few ornaments in there, so obviously that takes time. But then it also, you
know you’ve got a clean caravan, and a tidy caravan, because you clean it
every time. Like I clean it every time I put that stuff back up again - it doesn’t
get cleaned when it comes down but it always does when it goes back up. I
don’t mind it, but it’s not one of my greatest chores that I’ve got to do.
RC
What’s the worst parts of living in a caravan?
Joana It’s too small! Sometimes.
Philip Yeah, to be honest the space, if there is an issue it’s always down to
general...
Lisa
If someone’s in the way, and you can’t quite get past them
Philip But then that’s no different to a bathroom in a house, you know. Or the
landing.
Lisa
There is actually no down-sides. I think if you didn’t have your hot water, and
you know, your heating, and stuff like that, in the winter, it would be a
massive downside.
Philip When things have gone massively wrong in a caravan, it is specialist. It is
not just anyone in the phone book, it’s a specialist plumber, it’s a caravan
plumber. You know, when the fires go wrong, it’s not just a gas man, it’s a
caravan gas man. When you do tour all over the country, sometimes they’re
not for miles. That can be a negative. But that’s not very often. There’s
simple things that go wrong with them and generally there’s simple parts that
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you can get off the internet, and like I said, a small tool-kit and a little bit of
knowledge.
RC
Is there anything else you want to add?
Lisa
Don’t think so..... DON’T EVER DRIVE TOO FAST WHEN TOWING A
CARAVAN! [laughs]
Philip Seventy-five?
Lisa
Because it sways – once it starts swaying you can’t stop it, it’ll go.
Philip Not necessarily – that’s normally down to people and bad weight.
Lisa
Bad packing.
RC
I think we’re done! That’s great, thank you. Please could I ask your
permission to use this interview in my dissertation? I also have a consent
form for you to sign.
Lisa
Of course, that is fine.
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Appendix Five: Interview with Ella and Simon
26 February 2015, Brighton
Interviewed by Rosie Clarke (RC)
RC
Please could you start by telling me a bit about yourself and your caravan;
how you came to be here, what your situation is at the moment.
Ella
We’ve been here since before Christmas – 3rd December we moved up here.
We saw it on... I think it was through Facebook, this guy was giving away a
twenty-four foot trailer (this trailer). Giving it away free, up in Arundel. So we
just went and had a look at it, and it was really minging! He was living in here
with his dog. But we saw the potential. And when we got offered the site up
here, we came up here. When we got it, it didn’t have a burner in it... it was
really run down and yukky. And before that we were living in a truck. Moving
round.
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Simon It’s the reason we got this for the winter; because when you move round in
the truck you have to tat down every day to go to work. So we needed a
solid base for a couple of months for the winter. Itching to get back in the
truck! But yeah, every morning, having to pack everything away, and find
somewhere to park the truck before you go to work.
Ella
It was our main mode of transport as well, we didn’t have any other mode of
transport. So we’d finish work at night (and we’re both chefs so we’d quite
often finish at midnight) and it was fine if we didn’t have to start until late the
next day, but if we were starting first thing it would be hard to get
somewhere, park up somewhere, have a fire and go to sleep. If we didn’t
have to start early we’d have the nice morning to take the dog for a walk and
do stuff. Thing is, you’ve got to tat down; you’ve got to take all your stuff
down and put everything away so the vehicle’s drivable. And it does get
really hard, you know. And I’m a head chef so I end up working a lot of
hours, so it just becomes a bit impractical in the winter.
Simon This is it. I remember mornings waking up and we were down by the King
Alfred swimming pool, even worrying about waking up in the morning and
tatting down, when you wake up and open the door and the sea is about a
foot away from the door, it’s quite nice and quite beautiful, and makes it
worth it.
Ella
Yes. There’s a lot of beauty in it. That’s why we do it. It’s nice to wake up
somewhere different. It’s nice to be out in the countryside, or at the seaside,
or you know, to be able to change your environment all the time.
RC
Do you prefer to move every day?
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Ella
In the summer, yeah, definitely. And we needed a bigger truck. I’ve had that
truck for a few years and it was fine when it was just me, but when I met
Simon it was just a bit small for two of us.
Simon As a camper van it’s a perfect size, but when you’re actually living in it, when
it’s your life and your home, it’s everything, all your belongings are in there,
food and dog... it’s tricky for space.
Ella
A bit more space, and yeah for the winter this is great. But for the summer...
Also, my daughter’s only just turned eighteen and my son is sixteen, and
although he lives with his dad, with my daughter she doesn’t want to live in
trucks and she doesn’t want to live in trailers. So I’ve had to maintain a
house for her. Now she’d turned eighteen and she’s got her own place, it’s
kind of freed me up a little bit. But previously, I was trying to live the lifestyle
that I wanted, and trying to keep her happy at the same time. It was always a
bit of a juggling act.
RC
Had she grown up in a house?
Ella
She did yes, we’ve all grown up in houses; we’re not from Travelling sites or
Travelling communities, you know. One of the guys over the road he’s Irish,
he’s always lived on sites. But we’ve always done it out of choice, a lifestyle
choice, rather than the way we’ve been brought up. I’ve always had trucks
since the kids were little. So we’d always have a house as a base, but we’d
always have a truck that we can go off in and so a lot of the summer when
they were little we would just stay on the road and go from festival to festival.
And then school comes in... We’ve got into so much trouble taking them out
of school. I’ve been to court for taking them out of school, but it’s our life and
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it’s our lifestyle, so we got in a lot of trouble. It was always keeping a home,
and trying to travel, and mixing it all up.
RC
Is this the first time you’ve stayed still in one place, and also the first time
you’ve lived in a caravan (rather than a truck)?
Ella
Yeah. It’s lovely, because we’re in a community as well. So it’s not just us on
our own.
Simon From a designed space point of view, a lifestyle with dirty dogs and wet
clothes, in that truck, it was why we needed a bigger space. But the
community’s nice here. You get a bit itchy just coming back to the same
place all the time though, don’t you? Finishing work and just coming back to
a solid place and it’s still going to be here tomorrow... I’d like to go away!
RC
How spacious was the truck in comparison to this?
Ella
So it’d be about half this. Constantly living on your bed. The bed would be
out all the time, so you’d be sitting on the bed, trying to cook and... The
space was tiny. We managed it.
Simon But then in summer you’ve got the doors open, and you can use all of that.
Ella
Yeah in summer you’ve got the outside.
Simon It’s just the winter really, with wet coat and wet dog, you need... it’s very
difficult. It was such a small space. It’s pretty cool that we managed it. You
just adapt to living in a small area.
RC
How did you adapt?
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Ella
The bed became our living space. You spend a lot of time on the bed. Yeah,
so the burner in here was in the truck before. That was ideal. That would
heat us and feed us at the same time. And you could put the hot water on to
do your dishes and to wash and everything.
Simon Storage solutions. Cooking-wise we did good as well.... recycling and
cooking stuff, you can’t keep a lot of food. We didn’t really plan meals, but
we did work out that cooking outside was pretty good. We bought a burner
that we could cook on as well as heat the house. It’s being aware of what
water you’re using, as well. You can’t carry.... in a house, people turn the tap
on and there’s your water. We only had a five litre drum. So obviously had to
utilise that water, what you’re using it for... you obviously don’t just turn the
tap on and let it run. So brushing your teeth, let’s say, you’ve got to work out
what you’ve got to do and what needs doing.
RC
Did you have to think about where to fill it up?
Simon Yeah - we’re quite lucky in Brighton, but yeah you do have to work that out.
Ella
We can get places to fill it up. I’m quite lucky because my daughter and the
kids are around in houses so we’d go and have showers and things. But I
know a lot of people will join gyms or go to the swimming pool. That’s quite a
normal way of keeping clean and washing. But we were quite lucky we could
pop to a house. So we’d fill up the water at the house.... it’s a bit half and
half, really, with us – we lived in a truck but we did always have that place to
wash our clothes and go and have a shower, unless we were well out of
town. I think we’re a bit different to the norm. It was never really a base, it
was just somewhere to go and wash our clothes and have a shower. I think
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we’d go like once a week, we’d do a trip down there. And wash everything
else by hand ourselves in the truck.
Simon Yeah. Because obviously work clothes you can wash at work; there’s always
a laundry service at work for chef whites. When you work a full time job
you’ve got to present yourself. I’m not saying a lot of people don’t, that
people on other sites aren’t clean, but you can get away with being a lot
less.... clean! [laughs] So it’s fitting work around the lifestyle as well. We
work really long hours, fourteen hour days.
RC
When you first got the caravan how did you change it?
Simon We did a turbo night, just kinda came in and went for it really. The weather
was so bad. What did we do first, just cleaned it all out I suppose?
Ella
A lot of scrubbing. A lot of scrubbing. We stayed in the truck; it took us about
a week, I think, to clean it out and gut it, and still lived in the truck. And got
the electricity going.
Simon We didn’t know anything about it, it was an exploration really. Especially the
electric hook-up thing, I couldn’t get over that.
RC
So tell me a bit about the site. Is it a legal site, is it council or privately
owned, and how did you come to be here?
Ella
It’s all legal, we pay rent. It’s run as a cooperative. We did get an eviction
notice because they want to build flats up here, so we got told we’d have to
move out by July. But we’ve just been given another year’s extension, which
is great. So it’s run as a cooperative; some of the people that live in the
house pay council tax, it’s all very legal and above-board. I think there’s
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about ten or twelve vehicle dwellers, and I don’t know, about ten or so in the
house. Ten or fifteen in the house.
RC
So initially the council had plans to flatten it and develop the land?
Ella
Yeah, that’s what they’re still looking at doing. It’s a beautiful house, there’s
a swimming pool in there, there’s a big room where we all meet up and have
parties up here, there’s a communal kitchen for people who want to use it,
there’s showers and everything if we want to go and use them, there’s a
composting loo for us lot, there’s a skate park for the kids. It’s a nice
community.
RC
So it’s just privately owned and rented out?
Ella
Yeah, it’s just rented. It’s been going for about seven years now as a
cooperative. But it’s quite hard to get in on. We were just lucky – we got
voted in and went through that process... I’ve come to a few events up here
before, and I applied, and I had to meet everybody and they had to vote to
say if they wanted us here or not. Because it is a small community, you’ve
got to be quite sure about who lives here and who doesn’t.
Simon It’s a balancing act.
Ella
Exactly. I think they like the fact that we’re working, because you don’t really
want people who aren’t working or aren’t doing anything. And now we know
that we’re staying longer, there’s a greenhouse in the garden, we’ve all
started to do that, and start doing up the garden.
RC
The eviction notice would mean everyone had to leave, but not until next
year? How about people who have lived here since the beginning?
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Ella
Yep. Next year, so we’ve got a whole summer. A lot of the original lot have
left now. One of the main women who’s still here, she’s moving to Portugal
anyway. I mean, a lot of people who live this lifestyle seem to be moving into
Europe. A lot more. Because it is so hard here. Even when we lived in the
trailer, we’d park up at Hanover – and I’ve had my mirrors smashed, I’ve had
‘Fuck off’ written on my van, I’ve had letters from the council saying you’re
not allowed to live in your vehicle... it always felt like you were persecuted.
You’re not allowed to live the lifestyle you want because.... I don’t see why,
we’re not causing anyone any harm. We just decided not to live in a house. I
don’t see what the big deal is. We’ve had people come up to tell us to move,
there were little notes, I think there was a vigilante, we had ‘this isn’t a
campsite’ written on it... just people in suburban areas, just, you know.
Especially Hanover, it’s called Muesli Mountain! But they really didn’t like us
up there! Where it’s free parking.
Simon They’re very liberal as long as it’s someone else – they don’t want someone
on their doorstep, do they?
RC
What would you say is the situation with people moving over to Europe to
live on the road, and what are the main reasons for their leaving?
Ella
You’re not welcome here.
Simon It’s more accepted there. In France for example, they’ve started to build
electric hook-ups and toilets and wash facilities, and areas designed for that.
And around here there are some beautiful nature spots, but you see they
have the barriers with height restrictions and width restrictions to stop
vehicles getting in. In France I know they don’t have any of that; they seem
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to have places specifically for you, with electric hook ups and that. The
facilities there in place, they actually cater for you.
Ella
A lot of places aren’t friendly for nomadic people and that, but more and
more people will go for a holiday there in caravans and it’s a more
acceptable way of having a holiday. It’s just an easier way to do it. And land
over there is a lot cheaper. People are buying land and doing that.
RC
Do you think those options are available in the UK, and why?
Ella
In England it’s not, no, it’s impossible. You can get land but you can’t put
vehicles on it. And if you want to actually live in a vehicle, and that’s what we
want to do (and live in trailers) they don’t want that because it’s like, ‘you’re
going to be Gypsies’ or ‘you’re going to make waste,’ you know. So I don’t
think you can get planning permission unless it’s to buy a property, and
that’s not what we want to do, we want to live in vehicles.
Simon We’ve decided not to live in a house. We call it ‘truck porn,’ where you look
at trucks like, ‘oh look at it converted, it’s so nice!’ We don’t get excited
looking at other people’s houses, like ‘oh look they’ve got double glazing
inside!’ There’s some beautiful trucks out there.
RC
Is living in a house something you would aim for in the future?
Simon No.
Ella
No, it’s nice to be able to get up and go, and change your environment, a
change of scenery. To live a more nomadic lifestyle. I know a lot of people
do want to live off-grid and have chickens, and all of that side of it, but that’s
not really the way... Also with our dog, she loves it. She used to go out so
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much and have so much fun; she has the biggest garden ever! And she’s
very protective, she always barks, she protects us.
RC
Please could you describe your neighbours in the residential housing estates
which are on the opposite side of the road to this site?
Ella
I know they’ve had noise complaints, because sometimes they’ve had
parties up here. But it’s from what I’ve heard, I don’t know so much because
we haven’t been here that long. But from what I’ve heard the houses quite
like us because they prefer to have us than a big block of flats or a big petrol
station or something. So I think they’re not too bothered.
Simon It’s not just this bit, it’s the whole marsh land down there that they will build
on. They quite like looking out of their houses at the countryside rather than
at bricks...
Ella
You don’t know what’s going to be here otherwise. So they’d rather have us.
And we’re a clean and tidy site. It was getting a bit messy, and so a couple
of weeks ago we got some skips in and tidied the whole place. We all sat
and had some soup and bread together and it was a nice thing to do as a
community. And we care about it, and try to keep it as nice as we can. We
have recycling and rubbish collected. We do all the recycling... we’ve got
compost loo. We’ve got electric hook-up which we pay for, so that comes out
of my rent. I could pay less and do battery hook-up but it’s difficult to keep
charging them. Unless we get solar panels or something but it’s another
outlet... So yeah, we’re lucky to have the electric hook-up and there’s a tap
outside we go and fill our water up. It was fun when it was icy because it was
really slippery down there. We’ve got gas for the cooker. We can use the
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washing machine in the house but we don’t, we prefer to go to my daughter’s
for that. And we cook in here. We’re a bit more reclusive; maybe in the
summer we’ll hang out a bit more with people because it’s nice to be in a
community, but we like our own space.
RC
Please could you describe the inside of the trailer and what you have inside?
Ella
The bed we’ve got it in there, it’s a bit of a mess at the minute – that’s our
bedroom in there. It’s really messy! [laughs] It goes all the way back there.
So we’ve got a little bathroom in there, a little toilet, sink. Got a fridge, oven,
grill and cooker, sink there... They were already here, part of the trailer, but
they were all really horrible and a bit of a state.
Simon There was a bit more kitchen, so there was a work surface there where the
burner is now, but the burner’s more important.
RC
So this burner came out of the van. Could you swap it back if you wanted to
in future?
Ella
Yeah, we just put it in here with new metal surrounding.
Simon All the old stuff’s still in the van, it’s all lined and ready.
Ella
We’d like to get another burner, but we’re a bit funny about them, and the
one I want is about two hundred quid. So we’ve got to do that.
RC
How did you decorate the inside?
Ella
We painted it all. New Year’s Eve it was painted! [laughs] Got a little bit tipsy
and had lots of tester pots with different colours and just went for it. But
there’s still loads to do! But we like it.
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RC
Does it makes a difference not having to tat down every day, and what
changes have you been able to make?
Ella
Yeah huge. You’ve got everything out here – I mean, there’s no way, if we’d
had to move this on in the morning, it would be an absolute nightmare. So it
can be done, but not for the minute. I think what we’ll do in the summer is
keep this here and all our stuff in it, and get the truck for going off and about
when we’ve got some time off.
RC
When you bought this caravan did you already have the pitch sorted?
Ella
Yeah the pitch was first. We were just going to stay up here in the truck, but
then saw this guy that had the trailer going, a twenty-four foot trailer, if
anyone wants it. So it kinds just worked out really well. But otherwise we’d
have stayed in the truck up here until we worked something out. People are
always giving away caravans, even when they just need a bit of work doing,
and a bit of love!
RC
What else do you have inside?
Ella
We’ve got wardrobes, loads of cupboard space, there’s cupboards under
here. This pulls out into another bed under here. So there’s quite a lot.
There’s a bit that pulls out. It’s all drawers there and then at the bottom there
are slats that pull out all the way to here to make this into another bed. So
we can have people stay. Or if we’re really lazy and want to watch a film in
bed! So you can be really lazy! And then we’ve got the bathroom and
bedroom up there.
RC
What about mirrors?
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Ella
Mirrors... I know that with the Gypsies they had a lot of mirrors in their trucks,
didn’t they? And old Travellers ones there are loads of mirrors in them. I
don’t have anything with mirrors built in... I think they’re good to give you
more light and more space. This one just needs putting up somewhere, and
this one we got off eBay. And I know the girl who lives in the trailer over the
road, she’s got loads of mirrors in hers, really beautiful. And I think it’s an old
Travellers thing, isn’t it, it brings in more light.
Simon And a sense of space as well.
RC
What are your thoughts on safety and security?
Ella
In the truck we’d always lock it. And when I was out and about when the kids
were little I could feel quite threatened. If I was on my own with them it could
be a bit more scary.
Simon It’s good having a dog. Here it is completely safe. I think when we had that
spate of people having a go at us, it’s when technically your home and all of
your belongings are in it, and we were going off to work and leave it locked
up when both of us were working – like you’d leave a car locked up on the
side of the road – and you’d worry about it, because it’s your home. And it
looked like a home, it had everything in it. Of course you try and make it look
homely, but by doing that, it advertises that there’s stuff in it. We’re not very
precious about things really, are we? As long as you’ve got family and your
health that’s more important than a few things. Of course if something did
happen it would be horrible, and an invasion of privacy more than anything.
Ella
But up here it’s not a problem.
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RC
And what about your immediate neighbours?
Simon There’s two on the corner and a truck.
Ella
We’ve got two there, another caravan there, another there, we’ve got a guy
that lives in a removal van, and a guy in an army van. They go all round the
house. It’s mostly single people in the group, it’s mostly single men it seems
to be these days. There’s one girl who lives opposite me. One of the reasons
I wanted to live up here is there’s more women! In the house too. There’s a
dad down there whose kids come and stay with him on weekends. It would
be nice if it was more family-orientated but it doesn’t seem that that’s the
way it is. Because it’s winter I think, but in the summer I think it’s going to be
totally different. I tend to chat to these two a bit more just because they’re my
neighbours. Talking of safety, poor girl across there had a fire a couple of
weeks ago, which was a bit scary for her. We were all like, making sure
we’ve got fire extinguishers and stuff in place. But she’s a single woman
living in here trailer and she feels safe and happy and secure. The fire just
burnt around where she was, around the flume and the roof. I think she was
just a bit scared more than anything else. Also it’s a bit of a warning, you
know, how close your trailers are together – little things like that and you
suddenly think, ‘hang on...’ But we’re the newest here. You know what is
really nice? Is that, you can see your whole house, the whole time! [laughs]
Nothing’s too far! It’s really nice. We’re all really close.
RC
Please can you respond to the following statements? ‘In a caravan there is
less space so less housework to do.’
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Ella
Yes, true! Very True! There is, although it’s more intense, if you’ve got less
floor space to start with. And you create more mess in a smaller space. So
it’s a kind of double thing... you have to tidy more and keep on top of it more,
because it is smaller. In a house it would take all day to do your housework,
wouldn’t it? But here it’ll only take like, an hour. But I don’t tend to do the
housework so I can’t really talk!
Simon We’re both quite clean-ish people, we don’t like lots of mess. It irritates us if
you don’t clear it away. The less space you’ve got...
Ella
...the more you have to be on top of it, yeah.
Simon It usually comes down to hiding it, really, as long as you can’t see it, out of
sight and out of mind! [laughs]
Ella
But yes you have to be more on it, in a smaller space. We’ve got loads of
storage here, loads. It’s all under the bed, all around here, under these
seats, the wardrobes... yeah, we’re all great for storage.
Simon There’s even storage outside, outside the caravan in those trunks you’ve got
on the side of the caravan. So I can keep my tools in there. And a tool-chest
outside. There’s still lots of stuff in the truck as well.
Ella
As well as the tool-box outside, we’ve got an awning that we keep
underneath the truck. We’ve got the gas bottle outside, obviously. The
awning for the trailer but it’s just too windy at the moment to put it up, but
when it extends it’s the same size as this again. That will go out the front,
which we’re really looking forward to doing. It’s fully closed-in. We’ll use it in
the summer. We’d put it up in the winter but it’s just too windy. When we got
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this off the guy, this trailer was so messy, that he was living in the awning!
And this was just a dump – it was so bad! [laughs] it was too messy in here
so he’d just moved into the awning with his dog.
RC
How about ‘a caravan makes a good places to raise a family, or spend time
with friends’?
Ella
Yeah. I think when you’re kids are little, it’s great, and being in trucks with
them when they were little was fantastic. Schooling is a big problem, and as
they get older their privacy is a big problem. So unless they’ve got their own
trailers... both my kids I’ve said to them, I’d get them a trailer up here and
they can come and live with us, but they both want to be in houses. They
liked it when they were little, going off in the truck. We’ll get my son a little
caravan yet! His own one! Socialising in here is great, we just sit around
here, drink tea and coffee. It’s fine. It’s nice to have people round.
Simon I don’t think it’s the caravan necessarily, because the space in a normal
house is just the same – people need their own space.
RC
How about ‘packing down, moving, and setting up is something I look
forward to doing’?
Ella
[pause] no. No, not at all. Packing down is.... no. It’s nice to set up, because
it’s always nice to be in a new place. But the tat-down is always a nightmare.
Simon It’s always when we’ve got to go to work, as well. So you’re doing what
you’ve got to do.
Ella
Or in the summer it’s nice when you get to your destination, and especially
when we’re doing festivals it’s nice to get there. But the tat-down is always a
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bit sad, especially if you’re on site and you’ve got to say goodbye to friends
who are all going off to different areas... it’s a bit sadder than the set-up,
because set-up is always quite nice. We do as much as we can festival-wise,
I think we did about five last year, and the year before that it was seven. But
I have still got a kid and I can work at festivals but I’ve still got the home to
keep going here. So at the moment... they’re a bit older, so this summer will
be a bit different. But I’ve been trying to juggle both of them. We would do
the festivals and I’d come back here and do kids stuff here. The kids like
their friends around. It would always be a bit here and a bit there – whereas I
know a lot of people would just be on the road constantly, just keep going
from festival to festival, but that wasn’t always the option for me. I’ve always
got to pay rent for my daughter’s place and for the houses that we’ve had
here.
RC
What about ‘living in a caravan has made me reassess the values of owning
my own house’?
Ella
[pause] Erm.... I wouldn’t want to own my own house.
Simon We never have, so it’s a bit weird really. No aspirations to own my own
house.
Ella
I think rent is atrocious; you just burn your money on renting. Here, we still
rent, but it’s an affordable amount. I think one of the biggest problems is that
even if we wanted to (which we don’t) we couldn’t afford to pay it all and to
live that lifestyle even if we wanted to. Renting in Brighton is extortionate, so
this way it is a lot better and a lot cheaper. And we own our own home – this
is ours! We own it. I haven’t got a mortgage on it, I’m not in debt to a bank,
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so it frees up our capita a lot better. It’s mine. I don’t owe the bank, or
anyone else. So that’s the biggest bonus to it.
Simon I don’t want to sound too hippy-dippy, but it’s enough space that we need.
We don’t need a six bedroom house. This is enough space that we need to
live in, isn’t it? I know we moan and say we need a bigger truck, but this is it
really, this is more than enough and we don’t need any more. It’s all about
the outside space, really.
RC
Is having indoor space more important than outdoor space?
Ella
It is at this time of year! [laughs] It is a winter thing. It’s still nice to have
outdoor space, though.
Simon I think that’s another reason that people are going abroad more, because the
winters are milder. Having the back door of the truck open is great!
Ella
The outdoor space is so important. In the summer, it’s great to have that big
garden, you know, wherever you’re parked up you’ve got a big garden, or
you’ve got the sea... So it’s half and half really. The indoor is lovely to be
nice and cosy, but it’s also nice to be out in nature to see the stars and to
see the sky, and to feel like you’re part of nature rather than being stuck in a
big city.
RC
Where are your ideal spots to park up?
Ella
June in Stanmer Park, there’s lots of us that go up there. That’s one of our
favourite places. And near the sea. Seaford is nice. New Forest is lovely, if
we get a chance to get out, and Ashdown Forest. As far away from people
as possible!
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RC
What would you consider to be the most prized possessions in your home
(or the most essential) and why?
Ella
The burner. I’d have to say the burner – that’s the most essential, and
without it we’d have no heating, we’d have no hot water, no cooking (even
though we’ve got the gas). The burner is the most essential. And then all my
photos, after that. And a lot of textiles. We’ve had this burner about a year.
There’s a woman here that does tree surgery so we quite often get wood off
her. We’re really lazy – a lot of people will go and do wooding and get it, but
then you’ve got to dry it out and all the rest of it. We have it on all the time.
Simon Coals are a grand thing! You wake up in the morning and they’re still going,
and you can heat it back up again. It’s quite bleak up here too – we’re quite
exposed. Bleak sounds a bit harsh, but it’s a very exposed place.
RC
Name something you use every day?
Ella
Kettle.
Simon Burner!
Ella
Kettle and burner. And that’s on gas, although the kettle we usually put on
the burner.
RC
Have you had to adapt any of your belongings to make them suitable for this
lifestyle?
Ella
Wi-Fi. We have to get the Wi-Fi off our phones.
Simon I used to have a lot of shoes... I don’t now! [laughs] No more trainer fetish!
Downsizing.
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Ella
Downsizing, and you just live a simpler life. We’re a lot less materialistic.
Don’t have many clothes. Here we’ve got the T.V. but in the truck it was nice
not to have the T.V. and we’d just listen to the radio and listen to music, and
talk. We used to invent board games. And we’d play hide and seek in the
truck! [laughs] You find ways to entertain yourself!
RC
Describe your personal taste.
Ella
We like lots of colours. Warm. It’s got to have that cosy, homely feeling. I like
to have lots of my pictures and my photos of my kids around. Warm and
cosy.
RC
Do you like to change it a lot, or keep it the same?
Simon It’s organic, it does change a bit.
Ella
We change it quite a bit. But we’ve got a certain style that we like. So we
both like lots of colour. Simon’s quite artistic so we do like lots of colours and
things, lots of bright things. Mirrors are really handy for the light.
Simon We’re learning now that darker colours are really good as well, because with
the burner, it doesn’t show so much. The carpet came with it. That’s a bone
of contention; I’m not a fan at all!
Ella
You have to sweep it out every day, especially with the wood from the burner
and a dog. It is a bone of contention! I know a lot of people have wooden
flooring, but I like carpets. For the cosiness! It’s just that cosy feel. I like
carpet.
RC
Is there anything in here that you really like, even though it is impractical?
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Simon We do like free-standing things as well, like this shelf here. Rather than the
built in things. It’s not really bad, but if we were constantly moving it would be
a bit impractical. You like hanging things too, so the van clatters and clanks
a lot when we’re driving around. There’s a lot of hanging stuff in the van. It
might make more sense to have it stacked away in a cupboard but it’s nicer
to have it hanging out.
RC
Please think for a moment about how your caravan was manufactured. Do
you feel that they made good design choices, and how would you change it
to suit your own needs better?
Ella
I think they’ve done amazingly well for the things they’ve done, but they’ve
been designed so long ago.
Simon Yeah, since the sixties or the seventies the model hasn’t changed – it’s like
they went, ‘that’s it’ and didn’t change it since. Like, ‘if it’s broke don’t fix it.’
And it does work for jetting off for a weak at Butlins, maybe, but to live in you
want to personalise it a bit more. It’s just not our style.
Ella
They do seem very outdated, caravans, and the style that they’re made in.
But the storage is fantastic. But personally we just like to hang lots of things
all over the place; that’s just our style. The ultimate is to get a big truck and
kit it out exactly how we want it, which would be totally unique. There’s big
buses, library buses that I really love. But you need a 7.5 tonne licence, and
I didn’t pass my test before the cut-off point, so we’re limited by the size that
we can get. Horseboxes are lovely, they’re often quite good sizes. But the
problem with them is quite often the flooring is rotten from the horses wee.
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Simon A lot of the box trucks, the Luton’s and that, they put the bed above the cab
– and you don’t like that, do you? You like a bit more raised up, it’s too close
to the ceiling and you don’t like being boxed in. Slightly raised, but just not...
cramped. Our truck is a Ford Transit long wheel-base high top, so it’s up
high.
Ella
That’s right. I don’t like being boxed in, I like it on the floor level. When I got it
I did have a bed that was up high at shoulder height, and it folded out. But I
felt like I was in a coffin. I hated it. So we had to move it to down there. But
it’s just my personal taste. Lots of people do have the bed up high, and then
you can have a sofa and a bigger living space underneath, but I just feel a bit
claustrophobic in it.
RC
If you were to design your own space what would your priorities be?
Ella
You’ve got to have the burner, and a good gas cooker. The bathroom!
Bathrooms are an issue, you know, they’re a massive issue. So here we’ve
got a camping toilet with a bucket in it, and for me that’s really important,
because it’s nice to have a sink and a jug for washing, those little things are
important. Because I like baths Simon once bought me a rubber dinghy –
and said I could bath in that! [laughs] I said, ‘that’s not going to happen!’
RC
Is having an indoor toilet more important than an outdoor one?
Ella
In the winter, yeah. In the summer, fine, use the compost toilet. We only wee
in here anyway. But in the winter, when it’s freezing, it’s not so bad for the
boys, but for me as a woman, yes. And there’s a whole thing about not
having a bathroom inside – I’ve always been really anti it. In the truck I was
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always really anti it. But here it’s a bit different, when the compost is quite far
away, and I don’t want to wee around my house. It’s much easier to have a
toilet that we take over to the compost bin and dispose of. So, this winter I
had to radically change my views on bathrooms inside. In the winter you’ve
got to have it. When you’re moving around it doesn’t seem so bad, but when
you’re staying put I don’t want to wee around where I’m living, you know? It
sounds a bit odd. It’s nicer to have a bathroom inside and take it off
somewhere to dispose of it, rather than weeing around where I live. I just
don’t like it. So the bathroom is a bit of a funny one.
Simon Round here there are a couple of plots; there was the guy who’s now moved
nearer the house out of the wind. He’s on hard-standing now and he doesn’t
like it. We’ve got blocks under this here. It’s stable, and there’s less sinkage
with the ground getting soggy from rainwater.
RC
How important is it for your home to be tidy, new, decorative, clean,
fashionable, or useful?
Ella
Tidy and clean. Fashion I’m not bothered about. We like decorative too.
RC
Would you rather throw something away and replace it for new, or fix it up?
Can you give some examples?
Both
Fix it up!
Simon I built some shelves out of pallets. All the tin surrounding the wood burner is
all recycled. When we first moved in we put out a notice asking if anyone
had any old paint for us to use, or fabrics. If we were to redecorated I
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wouldn’t go and buy a tin of paint from B&Q. The most we’d do is a few
tester pots. Then find old paint.
Ella
I think it’s quite sad that we live in such a disposable society. We did up this
dresser. The mirrors we all found in skips, we’re real bad for looking in skips.
A lot of the fabrics have been given, or acquired over the years. Everything
seems to come to you as you need it, we don’t buy things so much. We get
lots of gifts. I can’t remember the last time we actually bought something.
Simon Bought a sander the other day, for your Valentines’ day present!
Ella
[laughs] Yeah it was a good present, it was what I wanted! I’ve got loads of
stuff to sand, got to sand the van down because it’s getting really rusty and
needs some work doing on it. That’s the first thing we’ve bought in ages!
Simon And when we’ve got the money we will invest in another burner. It’s definitely
worth it, the amount you get out of it.
Ella
We can’t be moving this one in and out all the time, so we’ll have to buy
another burner. So over the summer when we leave, this trailer will stay
here, and when we come back it’s here. We’d like to keep this going. As long
as we’re careful who stays here out of our friends, and we pay the rent, they
are fine with it. It would be a shame to lose this, because we are so lucky to
have a site. It’s that thing... do we settle down and keep a site, or do we want
to travel? At the moment we’re in between a rock and a hard place.
Simon Yeah. It works for the moment, but I don’t think it’s going to be a long term
thing. It’s just definitely what we need at the moment.
RC
What are your thoughts on sites in Brighton?
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Ella
We don’t have any sites in Brighton. We’ve known a few people that live on
sites and move around but... the Gypsies, they tend to make a lot of mess,
but I think they have a right to live their life the way they want to live it. And
the New Age Travellers the same thing; but it’s not the way I’d like to live. I
spent some time with the Travellers years ago and there’s a lot of ‘You have
to live this kind of life,’ that sort of thing. But, I was bringing my children up,
and you know, I’m not totally anti-society. It’s not political.
Simon That’s it, they want you to be completely anti-society, don’t they. Even if it
makes your life harder, it’s meant to prove a point. There’s no need.
Ella
So I’m for any sites, I think it’s great – but, they have to be respectful of the
community around and they have to keep it clean and tidy and just be
respectful. It’s a shame there aren’t more permanent sites. And I think it’s a
shame for the Gypsies that they are turfed off and moved on all the time, I
think it’s very sad they are nomadic, but they don’t help themselves so much.
RC
What would your ideal site be like, something like the existing road side
stopping places like you mentioned in France? Without height restrictions?
Ella
Yeah – somewhere you could just pull into, that would be amazing, that
would make me so happy. Definitely. Years ago, you could. When the kids
were little – ten years ago we could drive around and park up in any car park
and it was fantastic. There are so many more restrictions now. Ideally it
would be nice to go back and be able to do that all again.
RC
What do you think has changed since then?
Simon The Criminal Justice Bill it started with, I think.
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Ella
You’re not allowed more than five vehicles together at a time. They changed
all the laws to do with convoys, and travelling. There were a lot of parties
going on. You weren’t allowed to have a sounds system, or more than five
people with you. The Criminal Justice Bill, really, so it’s all down to Margaret
Thatcher and her time period.
RC
Were you travelling before the Act came into force?
Ella
Yeah, a little bit. I actually travelled a lot of Asia before. I travelled a bit in
England, I knew a lot of people who were doing it, and it was much easier.
But you did have the same element in that you did have – well, there were
lots of people trying to live this lovely life, and then there was this other
element which was just people trying to run away from society, and who had
mental issues, or drug related issues.
Simon It wasn’t just running away from society, it was sticking two fingers up to
society. They couldn’t leave society without running back and sticking it in
their face. It didn’t need to be like that. If you don’t want to live with the rest
of society, you can do that, but it’s also society’s choice to live like that, and
you need to let them make their choice too. There was a big section of
Travellers who said ‘we don’t want your society’ and tried to boycott it and
cause trouble against it. That’s not the way to do it.
Ella
I wouldn’t want to be a part of that. And I wouldn’t want to be a part of a big
site mentality again. There’s always that element... It depends on who the
people are. Here, we’re really lucky because everyone is very productive. It
would be lovely to live in a community with productive people. I think that’s
why this place works really well because they’re selective about who they let
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join in. One of the problems with the Travellers is that people would just join
in, and you couldn’t get rid of them, and they’d cause a lot of problems.
RC
What are the worst parts of specifically site life, and then also caravan life?
Ella
Site life, exactly that, that there are a lot of drugs and mental health issues
that go along with it. And this life here, living in a cooperative in a caravan,
we are more isolated and, you know...
Simon I think (it doesn’t bother me) but we are judged a little bit more, too. You are
judged, there’s no point saying you’re not.
Ella
I think you are judged either way; you’re judged more harshly if you’re in a
convoy than if you’re living in a caravan. I still get it now, when you say to
people you live in a trailer they kind of look at you as if.... you know. The kids
find it quite difficult.
Simon I know it’s meaningless, but people also say ‘do you want to come and use
the house?’ Like they feel sorry for you. I think no, I’m not living in a caravan
because I’m lost and I don’t have a home, this is a choice. They always say
that. If I wanted to live in a house, I would! I think that’s just that
misunderstanding though, it’s their perception of us.
Ella
Yep, when they go on holiday they offer for us to use the house for a week.
It’s like, ‘no’! I think most people would imagine that we live like this because
we can’t live anywhere else, or we can’t afford to live anywhere else. But it’s
not. It’s actually a way of life and a way we choose to live.
RC
Do you think people accept that?
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Ella
Once people get to know us they get to know that were alright and were nice
people. But it’s not their life... it’s like people who live in houses, it doesn’t
bother me, and I totally understand it, but I wouldn’t want to do it.
Simon It works across the board, same with tattoos, and same with anything –
people will judge you. It’s always that not understanding, or
misinterpretation. But I don’t judge people who don’t live in houses.
Ella
But I think people do still judge people who live in caravans, because they
think you must be poor, or you must have issues... It’s just not accepted to
them that we’re trying to live off-grid, it’s always ‘you can’t afford to live in
houses’ or whatever. Some of my daughter’s friends think it’s really cool that
we live in a trailer, others are a bit like ‘why don’t they have a house?’ It’s
their choice.
RC
Do you think that there is anything in the vehicle or caravan itself that directly
attracts animosity?
Ella
I think people think you’re Gypsies. It’s different down south, I’m not sure
what it’s like up North. Down South we get a lot of hassle in our truck. A
caravan not so much, I think it’s a bit easier, but in a truck people tend to
think were hippies.
Simon There is obviously the cliché that drivers hate caravans on the road. We
haven’t really done it enough to know yet, I’m a bit oblivious to the fact.... I
don’t really mix with ‘normal’ society (that sounds weird) but I’m a bit
oblivious if someone might be judging me. It’s definitely a growing
phenomenon; it’s the way the housing market it, and the way life is, that is
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driving people to it. It’s becoming a lot more attractive to people. And it isn’t
as bad as people think! It’s not that old cliché of living in a Gypsy caravan.
People are seeing how you can live, and it’s not just living like that.
Ella
We know quite a lot of people who live this way of life, in trailers or trucks.
We’ve got a lot of social networking groups on Facebook and other places.
It’s nice because you can catch up, and there’s always hints and tips on
different things. I think in the future there will be lots more people living in
different ways and finding different trailers, because it’s just impossible to
live in a town or a city where the rent and everything is so extortionate. I
think there’s a huge thing for being off-grid. It’s a great way to bring up small
children, because it just gets them out into society a bit more.
Simon Like not having the T.V., getting us talking a bit more. But nowadays I see
people who have trucks on these social networking sites, and it’s every
possible thing that you need in the truck, every gadget and thing that you
want you can have – solar panels, LEDs, they’re so easy. You’re not living
without stuff if you don’t want to. You can have whatever you want.
Ella
I’d rather go back a few decades. Id quite happily live without a lot of mod
cons. Right now we have the T.V., the radio, internet on our phones. That’s
it, really. I’ve got a big thing about the T.V., I think it just sucks you in. It
came with it, otherwise I wouldn’t have it.
Simon You love cooking on a fire as well, that’s really nice.
RC
Do you think social networking over the internet is a big part of current and
future caravan living?
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Ella
I think they’re great, it spreads the word, and I think more and more people
know that there is an alternative way of living. It’s helpful for hints and tips,
for different park-ups, different places, and different laws. They’re great.
Everybody should have the right to live the way they want to live. If you want
to go and live in a truck or trailer and give up the rat race I think fair play, do
it. I’m not an elitist, I say do it.
Simon A lot of this way of life is learning by the mistakes you make. When it doesn’t
work, you put it on these sites and say to other people making mistakes as
well, telling them ‘I did this as well, don’t do this, or try this.’ Those social
network groups I often see people saying they’re considering doing it, and
looking on the site they now know what they should get or what’s available,
and what they can do on a budget. It’s really encouraging.
Ella
Some people do their trailers up and inside they’re like modern homes; there
are quite a few truck-dwellers who don’t like them. But I think each to their
own, everyone has the right, as long as they’re benefitting, be it a boat or a
truck, to live a different nomadic lifestyle.
RC
In general do you think caravans are suited to long-term living, and why?
Ella
Yes. A lot of people just seem to think they’re for weekends, but I don’t see
why.
Simon It gives you exactly what you need all the time, but not necessarily what you
want. Everything you need is in here – you might want more stuff, but if you
get your head around that, needing stuff, you’re okay.
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Ella
People don’t need to have a big space. You can perfectly well live in a
caravan full time, or a truck, or whatever size you want to. We’ve met people
who are living in tiny trucks and are quite happy. You adapt to whatever
space you have. There are tiny bedsits that people live in and don’t have the
freedom. The truck I’ve got now started out with a kitchen in it, and then we
converted the rest of it. And the trucks that I had before I converted myself.
It’s basically just getting a cooking area, getting a burner in. It’s never a
massive conversion, most of the time.
RC
What would you change in here?
Simon Our original plan was to rip it out completely – to rip it out and rebuild it
ourselves. But to be honest we got it, and it just ended up that it worked
really well for us. We ripped that kitchen out and put the burner in and that’s
it.
Ella
You’ve got to be quite careful in a caravan to start ripping out stuff and
changing it, because it’s all built on an A-frame, so the whole thing could just
collapse. And weight. We’re jacked up higher on one side than on the other.
RC
Please can you explain tatting down?
Ella
When we tat down in the truck, everything gets put away. It has to go away.
The bed gets made, everything gets hung up. You have to make sure all
your dishes and kettles are put away. Bungees on things, to hold them still.
Everything just needs to be secure.
Simon We’ve got it down to a fine art. If you know you’re leaving the next day, you
don’t get so much out. If we were working late and off early the next day we
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will only get the minimum of stuff out. Things you use every day as well,
need to be easily accessible. You know, storage under the bed is not easily
accessible so you don’t want thing in there that you need on a day to day
basis. You want those thing out and ready to grab.
Ella
It depends on how settled you are. If you stay somewhere for a week you will
get more stuff out. Everything has got to have its set place, because you’ve
got to find it again, that’s important. We’ve had a few breakages in the van.
Glasses and things. If you forget to put the lid on the water bottle that’ll go
over. Forgetting about a bottle of wine from the night before.
Simon It’s just if you forget something and it rolls on the floor, nothing serious. The
cupboards all get locked down, but once I forgot and the Marmite came out,
covered everything.
RC
Do you have any other location that you store things?
Ella
This is it, and what we’ve got in the truck. It’s down to the minimum. I’ve got
a few things down at my daughters, but it’s not very much; like I’ve got an old
table that I love and I won’t get rid of so that’s in her cupboard. We want to
have a car boot and sell some stuff – we’ve got a lot of books that I want to
get rid of.
RC
What are the worst parts of living in a caravan, and why?
Ella
The cold. We don’t argue, which is quite good – I can imagine not being able
to get away from each other if you have an argument it could be quite
annoying. Although luckily we do have a bedroom and we have a lounge, so
if you want some space you can.
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RC
Before you lived in a truck or a caravan, what did you think about that way of
life, and has it changed?
Ella
No. I’ve always been a romantic and idealised it! It’s always been a really
attractive way to live. I’ve always wanted to do it – my dad’s a sailor and he’s
always had boats, so I’ve always found that side of things really romantic,
living in small areas and having that freedom, it runs in our blood. Moving
around is good.
RC
Is there anything specifically about Brighton that you feel is suitable to this
way of life?
Ella
Brighton’s a nice community. Nice people. One of the great things is having
the sea and the Downs. I’ve lived all over, and Brighton is one of the most
beautiful places to live because of its diversity.
Simon It’s got city amenities within a town.
Ella
Brighton’s grand, but if we didn’t have this site here, maybe we’d think about
moving on. It is getting harder and harder to park up.
Simon We’d like to go to Cornwall, because of the natural beauty of the place.
RC
What are the best parts of living like this?
Simon The freedom.
Ella
The freedom, and it’s easy to clean! [laughs] Big garden! It’s just more real
and wholesome. If you chop wood and you have a fire, put the radio on... I
don’t like the central heating that much, so I just think it’s a bit more in tune
with nature and the world.
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RC
Do you feel that the wider travelling community in general, or the little
community you have here, is well-represented when it comes to making
decisions about housing and planning?
Ella
No, I don’t think it is.
Simon I’ve got no idea how it is represented, so no – how is it represented? I don’t
understand the nuances of how it works.
Ella
There’s a Traveller liaison officer. I don’t think were represented at all. I don’t
think our... I don’t think people want sites, and I don’t think people want us
around.
Simon I think were seen as an inconsideration, rather than a consideration.
Ella
An inconvenience. I think we’re frowned upon, and yet, we want to live this
lifestyle. You are judged, and people think surely you want to live in a house,
and that’s annoying. That attitude of ‘you really want to live in a house,’
because no. I don’t think we’re represented at all. Everyone has the right to
live the lifestyle they want to live, whatever it may be.
RC
What are your best tips for living in a small space?
Simon Chill out! Don’t be precious, basically.
Ella
Don’t have lots of clothes, don’t have loads of clutter. You don’t need much
stuff. A good pair of clogs for going outside in! [laughs]
RC
Is there anything else you want to add?
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Ella
The worrying thing is, I don’t think anyone should be biased, and anyone
should say this is the right way to live or not. Everyone has the right to what
they want, that’s the most important. And small spaces work!
RC
Thank you very much.
Appendix Six: Unpublished Interview Transcripts
The following interviewees gave written consent for their words to be used. However,
they did not wish the transcripts to be published. Therefore these remaining
transcripts are available from the author on request:
Interview with Cosmin – Gloucestershire, 2 November 2014
Interview with Bella – Surrey, 18 January 2015
Interview with June, Rosa, and Sonic – Brighton, 20 January 2015
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