HOW HOLIDAY HOMES HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS…

The holiday-home sales brochure paints a glowing picture. The only problem is: this 23ft Wonderland Olympic caravan doesn’t have a bathroom. There isn’t even a toilet. The only running water is to the kitchen sink – and it’s cold.

So what sort of holiday home are we talking about? The answer is a state-of-the-art model – from the 1960s. That was the way they did things in those days.

The company which made the Olympic 23 all those years ago is still going strong. But now, 50-plus years later, as well as a very different model range, it has a completely different name too.

Wessex Park & Leisure Homes is still based on the same site in Dorset as Wonderland was then. But today its manufacturing facility is light years away from the now-antiquated facilities of six decades ago when it was first set up.

In 1970, for example, there were eight homes, all single units, on the Wonderland price list ranging from £499 to £1,720.
Buy a Wessex today and you can choose from 27 different models, nearly all of them 20ft-wide twins, which start at £51,904 (for the Ferndown) and range upwards to £271,242 (for the flagship 22ft Seafronter). The level of luxury, never mind the size and sophistication, are at a level which owners in the 1960s could only have dreamed about.

It’s all a far cry from those days back in the sixties when holiday caravans sported gas lamps and coal fires and going to the loo during the night meant a trip to the toilet block using a torch. A wonderland indeed…
More information from www.wessexparkhomes.co.uk

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