Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 5411 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
CAMPING CAREFREE | c.1972 | 1969-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Sound Duration: 10 mins 15 secs Credits: Produced for the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland by The Centre Film Unit. Commentary written by Christopher Turner Spoken by Basil Moss Photography John Woolmer and Alan Lavender Sound recording Ken Burril Production crew members of the Centre Film Unit. Direction Alan Lavender |
Summary This is a promotional film made the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland explaining the benefits of the Club. It also features part of the annual ‘Feast of Lanterns’. |
Description
This is a promotional film made the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland explaining the benefits of the Club. It also features part of the annual ‘Feast of Lanterns’.
The film begins with photos from London in 1901 and a re-enactment of how Thomas Holding started the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland showing a photo of Holding. This is followed by up-to-date, large modern caravan and campsite. The commentary states that in this country there are three million campers. There...
This is a promotional film made the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland explaining the benefits of the Club. It also features part of the annual ‘Feast of Lanterns’.
The film begins with photos from London in 1901 and a re-enactment of how Thomas Holding started the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland showing a photo of Holding. This is followed by up-to-date, large modern caravan and campsite. The commentary states that in this country there are three million campers. There is a playful scene of illicit camping with a man camping in a field brewing up on an open fire, while some boys play on a tractor. The farmer grabs a shotgun and walks towards the campers.
The head of the Club speaks to the camera from the headquarters in London. He goes through the facilities of a modern campsite, with examples being shown of showers, laundry and shops. Several campsites from around the country are shown, including one at Folkestone, owned by the council but run by the Camping Club, “a perfect arrangement”. There is a short humorous scene of campers stuck in the mud with their car in a field, camping illegally.
The Camp Sites and Year Book is shown. With Westminster in the background, it is explained that there is a Parliamentary camping and caravanning group. Women relax in the sun on a campsite in the North Downs owned by the National Trust. Architects work on drawings for new campsites. A new site is shown at Chertsey. Campers on the Thames Estuary are out canoeing. The Motor section is having its dinner dance at the Dorchester.
A lone camper wanders through woods with a rucksack on his back. He stops to fry up some bacon looking out at an “idyllic spot”.
Then the film moves on to talk about the foreign part of the Club, called ‘Carefree’, explaining the benefits of belonging to this section, including an air ambulance service as part of the insurance. The cover of the 1972 International Camping Book is shown.
The annual giant meet of members at the end of September, ‘Feast of Lanterns’, is shown with the organiser of the event giving a speech. A procession goes by headed by a Highland Band. The film finishes at night with the campers collecting their lighted lanterns to walk around a bonfire and dance as music is played.
End Credits:
Produced for the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland by The Centre Film Unit.
Commentary written by Christopher Turner
Spoken by Basil Moss
Photography John Woolmer and Alan Lavender
Sound recording Ken Burril
Production crew members of the Centre Film Unit.
Direction Alan Lavender
The End
Context
There are either lovers of camping, or haters, with few in between, but here in 1972 the Camping and Caravanning Club seek to win over more to the lovers’ side, with a brief history of camping and a tour of some of its splendid sites. As the dangers of illegal camping are highlighted, we are given camping that is sanitised and communalised as all participate in the annual giant meet of members at the end of September, the ‘Feast of Lanterns’.
The Camping and Caravanning Club, as it was...
There are either lovers of camping, or haters, with few in between, but here in 1972 the Camping and Caravanning Club seek to win over more to the lovers’ side, with a brief history of camping and a tour of some of its splendid sites. As the dangers of illegal camping are highlighted, we are given camping that is sanitised and communalised as all participate in the annual giant meet of members at the end of September, the ‘Feast of Lanterns’.
The Camping and Caravanning Club, as it was re-named in 1983, has only passed on two promotional films in its film collection, although individual members made many more films of its activities. The club started out in 1901, with just 13 members, as the Association of Cycle Campers, under the inspiration of Thomas Hiram Holding who had started the Cyclist’s Touring Club in 1878. The name changed to the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland in 1919, and by 1972 it had a membership of 500,000, with over 3 million campers using Club and Certificated Sites. For a more authentic experience, so-called ‘wild camping’, away from organised campsites, is illegal in England and Wales without special permission. |