Bedford CA Dormobile Dormobile's top model in the early 1970s was the Bedford CF based Dormobile Debonair "coach-built" conversion, with body panels formed from GRP. Although the Dormobile name was primarily associated with motor homes based on the front-engined Bedford CA, conversions were also offered of competitor vehicles with more intrusively located engines such as this 1965 Morris J4. The Bedford Dormobile is a 1960s-era campervan (motorcaravan, motorhome) conversion, based on the Bedford CA van, and subsequently on the Bedford CF. It was manufactured in Folkestone in Kent, southern England, by Martin Walter. The first Bedford CA based Dormobile motorhome, complete with a gas stove, a sink and cupboards and seats which converted into beds, appeared in 1957.
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Nowadays, it has become popular to hire a classic campervan but out of the numerous campervan hire companies out there, only one is offering the British made Ford Thames 400e Dormobile. M. Calthorpe (Coachbuilders) Ltd.; Airborne Service Equipment Ltd.; Kenex Coachworks Ltd.
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Folkestone was at one stage a resort town with a developed shipping trade. With the decline of such industries others have filled the gap. The Dormobile works, car conversion manufacturers were based in the town. Church and Dwight, the US company famous for such brands as Arm & Hammer, has its UK headquarters in the town.
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The Laycock type of overdrive was available to order or on the later Vauxhall four-speed models. There were three CF1 body styles. A standard panel van which was intended to rival the Ford Transit; the special van body (essentially a self-contained cab with a general-purpose chassis onto which a wide range of custom-built bodies or beds could be built), and the Dormobile (caravanette).
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Bedford CA ambulance. Curved windscreens were expensive in the early 1950s, and until 1958 the CA used a "split-screen" windscreen. Bedford CA panel van Bedford CA pickup As the 1960s progressed, the Bedford CA chassis found itself used as the basis for an increasingly flamboyant succession of motor homes such as this 1965 Dormobile Debonaire. The front windscreen is shared with the standard van along with the mechanical components.
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Smaller models often carry a "porta-potty" portable toilet, and sometimes an external shower which operates within the privacy of an awning. The term "Dormobile" is sometimes used generically in the United Kingdom thanks to a once highly popular conversion brand, and "Kombi" is used in Australia and other countries. The popularity of this type expanded in the 1950s after Volkswagen commissioned the Westfalia company to use the Kombi version of their Type 2 transporter as the basis for a campervan.
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The Bedford CA was a distinctive pug-nosed light commercial vehicle produced between 1952 and 1969 by Bedford in Luton, England. It was manufactured in short-wheelbase and long- wheelbase forms, each form available in either a 10–12 cwt or a 15 cwt version. Generally it was supplied as a light delivery van with sliding doors, but it was also available as a chassis with cowl upon which specialist bodywork could be added. The Bedford Dormobile was a Campervan conversion based on the Bedford CA van.
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Floor shift, rather than column change, was also standard. Vauxhall Cresta PC from behind) In January 1967 domestic market deliveries began of the Vauxhall Cresta estate car. This vehicle resulted from a conversion by Martin Walter of Folkestone, a firm better known for their (primarily Bedford based) Dormobile motorhome conversions. The estate version was higher than the saloon due to a combination of heavy-duty rear suspension, an increase in the outer diameter of the tyres (to 7.00-14 in from 5.90-14in) and the modified roof line.
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Beard's Roman Women is a 1976 novel by British novelist Anthony Burgess. Dated "Montalbuccio-Monte Carlo-Eze-Callian, Summer 1975", according to Burgess it was written in the back of his Bedford Dormobile as he and his wife, Liana Burgess toured Europe and "partly in the bedroom of a small hotel run by Swiss homosexuals" (You've Had Your Time). The novel is set in Rome and is apparently based on Burgess's experience of being widowed in the mid-1960s. Burgess's wife, Liana, is depicted as Paola Lucrezia Belli in the novel.
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From 1986 to 1992, Bustler was the registered service name and brand used by National Welsh for a large fleet of minibuses in a chrome yellow livery, featuring blue, red and white stripes. Its key marker was the use of the stripes like wedding ribbons on the front bonnet. The van chassis were initially Iveco Daily, Freight Rover Sherpa and Ford Transits with conversions by Dormobile and Carlyle. Whilst comfort was not their strong point, the five- to ten-minute frequencies transformed patronage levels in the towns of Aberdare, Barry, Bridgend, Cwmbran, Ebbw Vale, Penarth, Pontypridd, Porth, and Tredegar.
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Despite the fact that the Vauxhall Viva upon which it was based had gone through two further model generations, the bodywork of the HA van stayed the same until its eventual discontinuation in 1983. The engine arrived in 1967, followed by a in 1972. A pickup was also made by Martin Walter (Dormobile) - who also made the Beagle conversion - and by Walker Bodies of Watford. Made in very small numbers (believed to be around 60 in total) only a handful of these survive today: they were originally sold to companies and private buyers directly through Vauxhall/Bedford dealerships.
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A Ford Thames 400E van was used for the football fans' decorated van; this was referred to as the Dormobile, the name of a common camper-van conversion coachbuilder. The cross- Channel ferry featured in one scene is the MS Free Enterprise I. The ship spent many years as a day cruise ship in Greek waters before being scrapped in 2013. The "Chinese" plane delivering the gold to Turin is a rare Douglas C-74 Globemaster, of which only 14 were built and only four passed into private ownership. It had been abandoned in Milan by its owners and was moved to Turin for filming.
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The Bedford Beagle was the basis for several small motorhome conversions including this Roma from Martin Walter Ltd. The Beagle was an estate car conversion of the Bedford HA 8cwt van, which itself was based on the Vauxhall Viva HA. It was launched at the 1964 London Motor Show. The conversions were undertaken by Martin Walter Ltd in Folkestone, Kent, most famous for Dormobile campers based upon the larger Bedford CA commercial vans.The Worst Cars Ever Sold in Britain, by Giles Chapman, publ 2001 for W H Smith, , page 20-21 Whilst the vans were very common at one time, the Beagle was altogether rarer and there are very few left today.
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Despite being so small, and with so little activity, the village sees its fair share of fires, which Sam and his team can easily handle. The vehicles at the fire station include a four-wheeled Bedford TK fire engine called Jupiter, a six-wheeled 1982 Range Rover Rescue Tender named Venus, and Trevor's Bus, a 1985 Ford Transit Dormobile. Fireman Sam's colleagues are Elvis Cridlington, Station Officer Basil Steele (renamed Norris Steele in the new CGI series) and later Penny Morris (who hailed from Newtown with the firetender). The villagers are bus driver/auxiliary firefighter Trevor Evans, Italian café owner Bella Lasagne, troublemaker Norman Price, Norman's mother Dilys Price, and the twins Sarah and James Jones.
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After Dark 'What is Sex For?' in 1988 Burgess was a Conservative (though, as he clarified in an interview with The Paris Review, his political views could be considered "a kind of anarchism" since his ideal of a "Catholic Jacobite imperial monarch" wasn't practicable), a (lapsed) Catholic and Monarchist, harbouring a distaste for all republics. He believed socialism for the most part was "ridiculous" but did "concede that socialised medicine is a priority in any civilised country today." To avoid the 90% tax the family would have incurred because of their high income, they left Britain and toured Europe in a Bedford Dormobile motor-home. During their travels through France and across the Alps, Burgess wrote in the back of the van as Liana drove.
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Her translation of his Malayan Trilogy received the Premio Scanno prize, and she also translated the sonnets of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli that were featured in his 1977 novel Abba Abba. She also sued the producers of the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, winning a 10% share of the film's profits which were worth more than $1 million. The couple left the United Kingdom in 1968 as a result of the income tax demands that Burgess now faced as a high earning writer, and traveled Europe in a Bedford Dormobile, with Burgess writing in the back of the vehicle while Liana drove. The couple next settled on the island of Malta, which they then left for a four-year tour of universities in the United States.
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