A short history of Vandwelling

Romana-S · May 25, 2012

Now that I am unemployed,and getting bored between looking for work (which takes up a lot of time in itself) I have decided to start writing a book about Vandwelling. I am seriously considering making it free and open sourced, eg, something people can add to. I realise it is a major undertaking, and a big thing to just plonkon cyberspace to give to people, but I consider that a huge number of people who are vandwelling these days are really not financially well off, and giving them useful advice for free is a good thing. Anyway, the best place to start a book is at the start. So what was the start? You may be surprised how long Vandwelling has been around. Here's the start:  A history of Vandwelling Although the modern form of Vandwelling can be thought of to have only been around since modern vans have been around, since the 1960s, Vandwelling has a long history. In the 1800s, particularly around the 1840s to 1870s, small one or two house drawn wooden caravans, were in regular use by travelling Gypsies, circus performers and travelling business people. Even in those days, they were referred to as vans. Typically these small wagons had four wheels, and would be towed by one or two draught horses. They would be small, about 5-6 foot wide, and 10 foot long. So about the size of a small modern van. Not much bigger than a modern day Volkswagen Vanagon or Kombi. From the 1870s, the traditional vans that we associate with Gypsies, the Reading Wagons began to make an appearance. These had large wheels on them, which enabled them to handle rough ground and river crossings better than then traditional wagons with smaller wheels. These vans had many of the basic features that are found in todayÃ¢Â€Â™s modern vans and motor homes. They had a place to sleep, storage, a place to cook, which was usually a cast iron wood stove, water storage and a toilet. Washing back in those days wasnÃ¢Â€Â™t as frequent as we like to wash today so it is possible that people washed less frequently, and outside of the van. Back in those early days, the government were just as intrusive in peopleÃ¢Â€Â™s lives as they try to be today. In England, the government of the day, through George Smith was set on restricting the movement of people. George had enacted legislation to restrict the movement of people living on barges, then commenced to try restrict the movements of people living in vans, traditionally showmen Gypsies and their families. As part of the proposed legislation, local authorities were to be given the right to enter vans on the premise of inspecting them for hygiene, sanitation and Ã¢Â€Âœmoral irregularitiesÃ¢Â€Â. <a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</a> Many showmen of the era banded together, and met to discuss the proposed legislation. They met at a pub in Salford, west of Manchester. The end result of this meeting was the formation of the Ã¢Â€ÂœVan Dwellers' Protection AssociationÃ¢Â€Â a sort of guild of travelling showmen. The guild was not intended to extend to Gypsies though, it was a business guild. This was one of the earliest documented uses of the term Ã¢Â€ÂœVan DwellersÃ¢Â€Â. It was interesting to note that the proposed laws to restrict the movements of Vandwellers were defeated in 1894, an early example of people power and business self-interests. The Van Dwellers' Protection Association is still alive today in the form of the Showmen's Guild, a group which still includes travelling show people and operators of fair grounds. Another early mention of Vandwelling is the book, Ã¢Â€ÂœThe Van DwellersÃ¢Â€Â by Albert Bigelow Paine<a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[2]</a>, published in 1901. This book tell of the lives of a family who are poor, destitute and who have to move so often that they consider themselves to be almost living in the moverÃ¢Â€Â™s van, old horse drawn covered carts. It tells of life in New York around the beginning of the 20th Contrary for this family, and how they come to live in a bricks and mortar home. It can be downloaded for free from many only sources. So it can be seen that the term Ã¢Â€ÂœVan DwellerÃ¢Â€Â has been around for over a century now. However it wasnÃ¢Â€Â™t until small, personal vans were built in large numbers that the modern concept of Vandwelling, that is living in a motorised van, began to occur. It is often considered that the Volkswagen Transporter, also known as the Volkswagen Kombi, Micro-Bus, Mini-Bus, T1 / T2 or Hippie Van, really started the modern Vandwelling trend. The Transporter was a small, self-contained van which was reliable and roomy enough to fold the seats down to form a bed. Introduced in 1950, it wasnÃ¢Â€Â™t until the 1960s that it started to become the symbol of the hippie era<a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[3]</a>. Volkswagen formed an alliance with the Westphalia company in Germany to produce dedicated campervan versions of the Transporter. Even in the 1950s, Westphalia were converting campervan models of the Transporter.<a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[4]</a> These vans typically featured equipment such as a pop top roof to enable people to stand up inside the stationary van, stove, sink, bed, water tank, water pump, electricity hook ups and storage cabinets. The seats could fold into a bed, so the van could still be used to transport people as well as for camping. In order to compete with the Volkswagen Transporter, other companies began to produce vans as well, particularly in the United States. Typical vans such as Dodge and Chevy types became popular. In England and the UK, Bedford vans and Ford Transit vans were used as the basis of campervans. These vans were often converted to have custom interiors, though early emphasis was usually on passenger transport with camping coming second. The 1960s surfer and hippie culture began to see the first wide spread use of vans as both a source of transport and a home to live in. People began to use small vans like the VW Transporter for living in over extended periods of time. While it is generally seen that people operated from a home base, and only lived in vans for a short time, many people took to the road for extended periods, often over a year, as they explored their countries or regions. This era also started to see the first use of larger vehicles such as buses to camp in. Conversion of school buses became popular in the 1960s and 1970s partially inspired by the Partridge Family television show. School bus conversions, known as Ã¢Â€Â˜schooliesÃ¢Â€Â™ are still a very popular type of rolling home these days. Bus conversions, larger van conversions and the desire for a modern, convenient mobile home lead to the development of the modern motor homes, known as RVs in the United States, and typically Campervans in Australia and the United Kingdom. In Germany they are known as Whon-Mobile, or Ã¢Â€ÂœCamping CarsÃ¢Â€Â.   <div style="mso-element:footnote-list"> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</a> http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/worlds_fair/articles/vans.html </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn2"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[2]</a> http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28101/28101-h/28101-h.htm </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn3"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[3]</a> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombi_van </div> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn4"> <a target="_blank" style="mso-footnote-id:ftn4" href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[4]</a> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Westfalia_Campers </div> </div>

dragonflyinthesky · May 26, 2012

Good idea and good luck, any venture like your book, in what ever form it winds up taking takes lots of focus and energy. Only listen to positive people, critisism is okay though, negativity no. If it's online, I know you can get sponsers and advertisers. That is almost a job in itself and is said to help finance some people. I don't know much about it though. Good content in you beginning. I learned a lot. Dragonfly

stude53 · May 26, 2012

Romana, Good Stuff !!! I've even toyed with building a modern Vardo (gypsy wagon), and there are lots of informative and How-To/DIY articles on the internet. I think they are cool looking (although the exact opposite of a stealth van). Write your book ... I will certainly read it.  Bob

Guest · May 26, 2012

Go for it Romana....I love the ide3a... Bri

Sunny1 · May 26, 2012

Romana, I've been fascinated by Gypsies and other nomads for as long as I can remember.  I've pored over photos of vardos and how they evolved. In fact, I was showing my sister pictures of vardos a few years back.  She caught the fever, and that is what inspired her to get a cargo van and convert it to a camper van. What was new to me was the general history of van dwelling and the governments' attempts to control it. I don't have a van.  I have a little Casita trailer.  And although I long to fulltime, it's not in the cards for us.  So I live out my Gypsy and van dwelling dreams on these forums.  <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle">

Seraphim · May 26, 2012

An existing Wiki book on van dwelling.

I'm assuming it's yours?

robear · May 27, 2012

Great write up Romana, looking forward to reading more <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"> Seraphim, cool link, I never heard of wiki books before, I'll have to spend some time browsing, thanks!

Romana-S · May 28, 2012

Seraphim I did contribute a lot to that wikibook, but it seems as though some one has vandalised the book. It used to have a heap more material in it a couple of years back. <img src="/images/boards/smilies/frown.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"> Anyway, the next section I'll be working on is downsizing.

Seraphim · May 28, 2012

When I first read the WikiBook, I noticed there was no historical section, so I metioned the book. When I went back to read it some more, I noticed a reference to you. Good luck with your endeavor. When you have a section complete, you might want to put it in a .pdf format so it can't be messed with.  My one foray into editing/publishing was a book of formal poetry (not mine, thankfully lol), and the .pdf format was great for downloads.

VanTrekker · May 28, 2012

Romana, This was informative and captivating.  Thank you for posting - I really enjoyed it.   The part about governments wanting to control the movement of people was fascinating.  How little things change over the years. Take care and best of luck with your endeavor.  V.T.

Romana-S · May 28, 2012

And here's the latest installment with a section on downsizing. I am of course happy to takle and add feedback if peoiple would like to suggest improvements or ideas. www.vandwellers.org/Vandwelling.pdf This is still in draft format. Thanks Seraphim for the suggestion on PDF format.

Romana-S · Jun 4, 2012

In between many a job application I have been writing some more of this Vandwellers guide I am putting together. A lot of it is copied from my we site, but a lot is also new writing. Lots to go still, but I'm interested on feedback. I especially am after prices and web sites for buying used vans in the USA. The latest version is at http://www.vandwellers.org/vandwellersguide.pdf So far it is free, but I was thinking of charging money for the final version as a lot of work has gone into it, and I could definetly use the meagre funds. However I have always liked to write, and like to give this sort of information out for free. I was also thinking of asking if people wanted to write bits for it, and that if it was sold for price of say $10 per ebook, that the cost be divied up according to distribution. Thoughts on this would be welcome.

A short history of Vandwelling

Help Support Van Living Forum:

Romana-S

Active member

dragonflyinthesky

Well-known member

stude53

Well-known member

Guest

Guest

Sunny1

Well-known member

Seraphim

Well-known member

robear

Well-known member

Romana-S

Active member

Seraphim

Well-known member

VanTrekker

Well-known member

Romana-S

Active member

Romana-S

Active member

Similar threads

Latest posts

A short history of Vandwelling

Help Support Van Living Forum:

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Guest

Guest

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Active member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!