Caravanning and Camping in the Past: 20 Vintage Photos of Holidaymakers in the Great Outdoors From Between the 1930s and 1960s

It was before the 20th century when camping holidays really started. The first real holiday camp was in the Isle of Man, called the “Cunningham Camp”. The only strange thing about this camp was that all the campers were men! This “all mens” holiday camp opened in 1894, and they all helped with chores so the day to day running of the camp went as smoothly as possible.

In the 1920s and '30s, many camps of this kind were in operation, and there was an obsession at the time for people to enjoy a healthy outdoor life which added to the number of campers.

Camping and caravanning holidays became popular in the '60s as an alternative holiday to stopping in a hotel or boarding home. People loved the freedom they got from caravanning holidays compared with staying in a hotel or boarding home. The savings they could make were brilliant, too!

Here, we take a historical look back at how we would spend our spare time under canvas and inside mobile sheds.

Supported by the roof of a car, the tent sleeps two and there is a 'ground floor' apartment for dressing, circa 1961. (Keystone/Getty Images)

A party of holidaymakers with their caravan and aeroplane at Abingdon, Berkshire, 1932. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Holidaymakers show how to look busy on a campsite in 1937. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The chaps take it easy while their dinner is prepared with the cricket tuned in on the wireless. (Everett Collection/REX)

A camping car on display at the Motor Show, Olympia, showing how the inside can be adjusted to make a bed. Built by A C Penman Ltd of Dumfries in 1929. (Edward G. Malindine/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Designed for comfort the Bedouin B collapsible caravan converts from a compact trailer into a spacious home for two in four minutes flat, circa 1956. (Harry Kerr/BIPs/Getty Images)

What a beautiful awning! (Central Press/Getty Images)

With his tent set up for an adventure holiday, a camper realises that his camp bed is too large for the tent, circa 1955. (Jacobsen /Three Lions/Getty Images)

Two models showing how a Dormobile Roma motor caravan can be extended, 1969. (George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Disc jockey Simon Dee (right) and actress Francesca Annis at the International Caravan Exhibition at Earls Court, London in 1967. (Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The vicar of Carnmenellis and Pencoys in Cornwall conducts a service in a caravan, which is being used as the local church in order to cope with the large and remote nature of the parish. (John Pratt/Keystone Features/Getty Images)

In 1935 David Weatherhead, an unemployed shipyard worker from Sunderland, toured the county looking for work in this one man caravan which he designed and made himself. (Fred Morley/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Two girls sit outside their tent at the Caravan Club Annual Meet at Stratford on Avon, 1915 (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

A cyclist towing his caravan, 1940. (General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

A complete camping outfit, including a folding canoe and a pneumatic tent which uses air tubes instead of tent-poles, on display at the 4th National Camping and Open-Air Exhibition at the Imperial Institute, London, 1938. (Stephens/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Man's best friend gets his own caravan so he doesn't have to sleep with his owner. (David McEnery/REX)

A couple of women make a cuppa by the side of their caravan in 1931. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A caravan for two that can be drawn by a motor cycle. It is only 9ft 6ins long and 5ft wide, circa 1939. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Two women wave to each other after arriving on holiday with their caravan, 1939. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A family setting up its caravan for a night's camping at Lynmouth in Devon, 1930 (General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

(via The Telegraph)