Coventry Steel Caravans Ltd

Hi all, I`ve just watched a programme called George Clarke`s Amazing Spaces on Channel 4. A young lady had converted a 1950s caravan into a mobile beauty salon. What caught my attention was the make of the caravan, it was a Coventry Knight model, built by Coventry Steel Caravans Ltd. A quick look on the internet, I found the company was founded by an engineer called Clifford Dawtrey at the end of the 1930s. His factory was in Clay Lane. On the same programme there was a Bedford coach which was converted into a mobile cinema, the bodywork was supplied by Coventry Steel Caravans. I found that they had also built specialist vehicles for the government for dental and medical use. As I`m a fan of anything with wheels I was surprised I had never heard of any of the above and it doesn`t seem to be mentioned anywhere on the HC site, so I thought it may be an interesting subject to investigate

The local telephone directories tell a slightly different story The company first appears in 1938 at Quinton Road In 1942 the address changes to Brooklyn Works (no address) with a Kenilworth telephone number 1947 sees the addition of a second telephone number - in addition to the Brooklyn Works number, there is also a listing for Exchange Works, Market Place, Warwick 1948 only shows the Exchange Works number, but in 1950, in addition to Exchange Works there is a listing for Brooklyn Works, Leek Wootton (same Kenilworth number as previously) In 1953, the Leek Wootton address is listed alongside Central Chambers, 148 The Parade, Leamington Spa The Leamington Spa address is the only listing for 1954 For 1956-58, the company is shown as being at 15 East Dene, Lillington There do not appear to be any further listings, and at no time is there a listing for a Clay Lane address ***** **** PS I now find that his employers, Airlite Trailers, were in Clay Lane (link) Edited by Midland Red, 6th Dec 2013 9:49 am (PS added)

No doubt you've seen this link The telephone directories show C R Dawtrey at a variety of addresses in the area, from Woodside Avenue, Coventry in 1938-41 to a number of different addresses in Leamington Spa Born in Halifax, he died in Leamington Spa in 1958 aged 54

An interesting topic Only a quick look into it so far, but it appears that there was a company named 'Airlite' in Clay Lane. Mr Dawtrey was a designer with them and then moved on with his own company. Warwick Knight Caravan

Hi, I'm new to this forum but thought I'd like to contribute to this Coventry Steel Caravans thread. Here's a couple of pictures of my mobile ex-dental unit made by CSC sometime around 1952ish. It was formely used by the South Staffordshire Health Authority. It's exceptionally strong, made from double skinned extruded aluminium vertical panels, and mounted on a truck type chassis. Loads of character too.

Hello Willys & welcome to our Coventry forum Thank you for your introductory post.

I own 5 Coventry Steel Caravans, CSC. I tried to buy the one in Wales, hope the restoration's going well Willys. Clifford used to design cars before caravans and worked for Standard cars and Swallow pre Jaguar. His son Brian is living in the New Forest. Ahead of the times with his designs, Clifford produce specialised trailers as well as caravans, mobile banks, vets, labratories, dentists. I have a Ministry of Defence recruitment unit in my collection, a Martins Bank, a CK49 caravan, another caravan that has now been converted to a bar, and a Warwick Knight 50. I used to own the CK that was in the programme mentioned and a Lloyds Bank semi trailer. Brian has written a small book on life during the war in the area. See it on Amazon here. Please have a look at the CK owners group on Facebook here Paneltex brought CSC and are still making specialised vehicles. Info here. More info at Amazon here I believe the Corn exchange in Warwick became a Woolworths and has since been demolished. Clifford Dawtrey was a brilliant designer and one of the best of a small handful of this era. I wish to sell my collection of Coventry Knight Caravans and Mobile units due to lack of space and ill health. Charlie T

Hi this is Mohammed from KSA. Coventry Steel Caravans Ltd - We are trying to obtain the details directly from Coventry Steel Caravan LTD. Unfortunately, the company was dissolved in 2008. We are interested in obtaining any available design, technical drawings, original documentation for construction and layout. Kindly provide the contact or email information as requested to get the details.

Hi Mohammed, welcome to the forum. As you can see from the date of these posts, interest/knowledge in the Coventry Steel Caravans is quite niche. We generally discourage members from exchanging real emails until they know each other quite well. Use of the site emails limits what can be sent to each other but it offers protection of anonymity. Perhaps you could expand on what you aim to do/want so that any future Steel Caravan enthusiast can decide whether they want to contact you? Regards Helen F

I did my usual newspaper archive site search and came up with some interesting bits if information. CSC were bombed out of Quinto Road in 1941. They moved the manufacturing to Leek Wootton. That site was taken over by Broad Lane Caravans (from Broad LaneI), but I believe that company went into receivership last year. Coventry Steel Caravans are advertising buying caravans in the 1940's and later became just Coventry Caravans. In 1952 they were also at the Corn Exchange in Warwick and offices in Leamington but they were selling the Corn Exchange property and moving to larger premises in Newport Pagnell. I found a few interesting pictures. In 1938 an Ambulance trailer, a large motor vehicle 1968, and inerestingly they did work on the pope mobile in 1982. ( my husband worked for a company that made caravan windows in 1982 and he always reckoned that they made the bullet proof windows for it.