By William Coleman
A couple of weeks ago Lee Davey and his 10 year old son Charlie used their bank holiday to go on a time travelling adventure in a classic caravan to find out what their family members did during the Second World War.
When I spent 3 week with Lee on the Bailey Bristanbul tour I found our that he was a bit of a WW2 buff and had a real interest in the subject. During our 5,500 miles drive we spent a lot time talking about it, well it was more me asking lots of questions as my knowledge is shamefully low on the matter.
Lee told me about the trip he was planning to take over the second May bank holiday with his son Charlie. So now they are both back and fully recovered I got a chance to speak with Lee and see how they got on.
So, Lee, you recently went on a little time travelling tour with your son Charlie to retrace the footsteps of family members from the past.
We did. Charlie was learning about WW2 at school and we talked about it when we were fixing-up the caravan. This evolved into retracing wartime footsteps of our family in Kent, the New Forest and Normandy.
You went over the bank holiday weekend, how was the traffic?
Apart from the New Forest’s hotspot of Lyndhurst, we were incredibly lucky with the traffic. But, bimbling along at 55/60mph, we didn’t seem to catch the faster traffic!
What was the highlight of the trip for you?
Spending a week with my son doing something that will remain with us forever.
What did Charlie enjoy the most?
Charlie says his favourite bit was riding on the back of my bike as we followed the Normandy coastline. The bike is the same, or similar, to the one my dad rode as a Despatch Rider in WW2 and it gave us both an eerie feeling. Close second for Charlie was Camping Port’Land which we booked though The Caravan & Motorhome Club as it had swimming pools, three fishing lakes, games room and a restaurant.
You used a bit of a classic Bailey model did you not?
We bought a 1967 Bailey Maestro that had been sitting in a hedge for a decade or two and we spent 18-months getting her ship-shape again. When I bought ‘Gladys’, she was just a mile from the Bailey factory where she was made.
What kind of work went into updating the Bailey caravan?
We want Gladys (the Bailey caravan we used) to be usable all-year-round but we didn’t want any ‘mod cons’ to affect her 1960’s looks. We fitted a Whale Expanse water heater as it’s small enough to fit under the relatively low bed bases and a Whale underfloor heating unit fits perfectly between the chassis framework. We want to use it ‘off grid’ so we fitted a 100w Flexi solar panel on the roof. We also have a Dometic compressor cool-box hidden in the wardrobe which can be used on 12v, as can the heating and hot water when used with gas.
What’s next for the father son duo?
Where do I start? Our WW2 family history didn’t end at Pegasus Bridge as Charlie’s great-grandfather took part in Operation Market Garden and was part of the drive east towards Berlin. It’d be great to take Gladys on a Part 2 trip. We’re also touring a handful of countries by caravan this summer, with trips to the Isle of Wight and a 1940’s weekend in Weymouth added for good measure. Learning new skills during the restoration process has turned Charlie into a mad inventor and we have plans to build something that flies!
