As chairman of this club, I have for many years wanted to write our clubs history. So here it is, and if you can add to the ABI story or if some of the information is incorrect then please get in touch and I will amend wherever necessary.

From the limited information that I have obtained; the roots of this club began back in the 1960’s, when a group of friends, who used to spend weekends away together in their caravans, started to think about forming a club. These thoughts led to an inaugural rally.

The date of the inaugural rally was 1^st – 3^rd May 1970; the venue was The Staffordshire Showground; and the name of the club was to be The Ace Owners Club. The cost of the rally was 15 shillings, 75p in today’s money, and 8/6d (42½p) for a ticket to the Inaugural Party Dance.

The Club Chairman at this time was a Mr A.V. Webb. From 1971 to 1975 we had no Chairman but the driving force behind the club during those early years was Eric Gilbert, who was both secretary/treasurer from 1970 until 1984 and also Chairman from 1982-84. In those early days, the AGM’s were usually quiet affairs, maybe lasting up to 30 minutes, with low numbers in attendance.

In 1971 a couple called Percy & Daphne Wadey from Surry, joined the club. However all rallies were in the North of the country at this time in the club’s history and they lived in the South. They approached Eric Gilbert in 1972; who wasn’t to keen to allow rallies in the South. Eventually he relented and gave six dates of his choice to Percy and gave a week for him to find venues. Sure enough one week later Eric had six rallies to put in the rally book in the Surry area. Soon another two members; one being John Austin and the other we think was Jack Taylor decided to start running rallies in the Hampshire area. That’s how the Southern area started to run rallies for the club. Percy is now 86 and stopped rallying a couple of years ago.

In 1972, following a merger between Ace Caravan Company Limited (touring caravans) and Belmont Caravans Limited (leisure homes), Ace Belmont International began trading as ABI.

Somewhere in those early years, we believe in 1979, the club started to change its name to The ABI Owners Club. ABI were the leading manufacturer of caravans and leisure homes around this time. This included Monza, Ace, Target and Elddis caravans, and the new luxury Award range. Elddis caravans went on to form the Explorer Group of caravans along with Buccaneer, and Compass in 1998.

There appears to have been no committee during 1984 and the club membership was at an all time low. The earliest records of the club, that I am aware of, are the minutes of the 1985 AGM with 94 members in attendance. A new committee was formed to take the club forward with Ray Joyce taking the Chair. Some of the items discussed were membership to go up to £3:00, no longer was milk going to be offered on rallies, visitors to be allowed to attend three rallies a year, Eric Gilbert was given life membership for the time and effort he devoted to the early days of the club and the committee were charged with writing a proper constitution. The meeting lasted 2½ hours. What a meeting that must have been!!

In 1988 the club celebrated its 1000^th rally incorporating its 18^th birthday. Over 100 members and 4 guests attended the rally. A Miss ABI competition was held with Sharon Matthews being duly selected, I wonder where she is today? The club carried on with no major issues to change the way the club was run, the members just wanting to enjoy their caravanning. The club’s membership climbed in the late 80’s and early 90’s to around 850, making us one of the largest owners clubs in the country.

Then in 1993, Harry Grosvenor, who at that time was Secretary, Treasurer and Pacesetter Editor, pass away after a long illness. This left a massive hole in the running of the club. It took many weeks before we could obtain the clubs books, accounts and club literature etc. The following extract has been taken from the 1993 AGM minuets. “The response from club members with offers of help during the chaos caused by Harry’s death was magnificent. Special mention must be made of the fact that Bob and Margaret Ellis spent the best part of four months attending Harry both at home and in hospital on an almost daily basis. The emergency measures to keep the club running proved successful; all the rally marshals received their plaques on time. Pacesetter made a belated appearance and is now back on track thanks to a considerable effort by Ken and Sue Lovegrove”.

I now would like to make special mention of Roy and Ros Foakes, they; along with the rest of the committee, spent many hours pulling us out of the black hole that this club was in. Roy being Chairman at the time, worked tirelessly to pay the bills, obtain our insurance cover, renew our membership of ACCEO and the many other tasks that was needed to put this club back on it’s feet again. He was able to say at the 1993 AGM, “ that it was his pleasant duty to report to the membership that, The ABI Owners Club is in a healthy condition and the financial concerns of the last 12 months have been resolved and the club is solvent”. Roy and Ros were made, life members for all their efforts and still turn up on the rally field in their motor home to enjoy the company of the many friends that this club has provided.

It’s now 1995, and we reach the clubs silver anniversary and a bumper year for the club. Many special rallies were held throughout the country to celebrate 25 years of the club existence. In 1998, a major concern arose for the club. ABI crashed with 600 of its employee being laid off. An employee buy-out temporarily saved the club and it rose out of the ashes as ABI (UK) Ltd (with a new blue oval badge) that went on to produce new and revitalized tourer ranges such as the Quartz, the Manhattan, and the Ikea-styled Papillion. The company also advised the club that they would put in new updated bathrooms, kitchens or upholstery into your existing van instead of buying a new one, much the same as you would in your own home. However these ideas never materialised.

The club continued to enjoy the pleasures of caravanning around the country, and then in 1999; ACCEO informed the club that visitors, a source of new members for the club, would now no longer be allowed on any rally. We had also that year, for the first time, opened our club to motor homes with certain restrictions, as we were a caravan owners club. We had also started up the club’s web site in 1999, and this also helped with membership. However, by the start of the new millennium our numbers were down to 350 and still falling. Apart from the two main caravanning clubs all owner clubs were experiencing the same fall in numbers.

Foot & Mouth hit the country and the club at the beginning of 2001. As a club we carried out risk assessments on all rallies resulting in some having to be cancelled. Not a good start to the year. In May 2001; another bombshell hit the club. ABI announced without any notice that they were to cease all production of touring caravans and only concentrate on static caravans and overseas commitments. As an owners club, over night we lost our availability to buy new ABI caravans. On 30^th July of that year, the Swift group of caravans, at that time the biggest in the industry, acquired the ABI touring caravan’s name and would produce caravans known as Ace Caravans. Swift tried to put pressure on the club to change our constitution, the name of the club and to limit us to only buying their new Ace caravans. At the AGM that year the membership of the club spoke out and decided to change its name to ABI and Friends Caravan Club and open the membership of the club to any marques of caravans.

So where are we today? We are a small independent club, (150) members; we are financially sound and invite members with either motor homes or caravans from any manufacturer to join us. We have our own web site www.abiandfriends.org. We rally throughout the country, having around 50 rallies a year to choose from. The friendship and camaraderie that this club breeds, has been there since that first inaugural rally back in 1970. Through the highs and lows that this club has endured; this is still the club of friendship; this is a members club.

This is The ABI and Friends Caravan Club.

Grateful thanks to Roy Foakes, Dave Williams, Percy Wadey and daughter Jackie for supplying early information that enabled me to compile this story.

Peter Grubb (Chairman)

12^th February 2008.

The ABI caravan empire began in 1962 when Terry Reed, who had been with Astral caravans as a joiner, set up Ace Caravans in Hull with a capital of £2000. Originally two models were produced; the Ace 10, and the 12’ Ace Continental. Reed exported all of his initial production to Holland, where enthusiastic caravanners bought all of the five tourers a week that Reed could produce.

Following increased production, and the introduction of two new models, Ace Caravans attracted much attention when showing for the first time at Earls Court in 1963. By 1966, familiar names such as Rallyman, Globetrotter, Pioneer, Ambassador, and Viceroy had been launched.

The popularity of Ace Caravans grew in the 1970’s, and in 1972 Ace Caravans and holiday home manufacturer Belmont Caravans agreed on a merger and formed Ace Belmont International (ABI) The merged company became the second largest UK tourer manufacturer after CI. The following year ABI acquired Elddis Caravans.

1973 saw ABI launch the Monza, in competition with the CI Sprite, and 1980 saw ABI introduce its first twin-axle tourer, the Target 5.70. At Earls Court in 1981, the ABI Tycoon, a silver bullet-styled tourer with super aerodynamic profile, led the way in futuristic caravan design. This approach was adopted in the 1983 Award range and became an instant success, setting new standards in tourer design.

1983 saw the launch of the Ace Debutante which led to the launch of the hugely successful Marauder in the following year. ABI’s success in exporting (it being the largest caravan exporter in the UK) resulted in a Queens Award for Export.

ABI’s innovation, coupled with production of well made durable tourers such as the Marauder and the follow on Sprinter, made the early 1990’s a successful period for the Company. However, the late 1990’s proved to be a disaster - ABI was building tourers for the UK, French, German and Dutch markets, and its comprehensive range of tourers meant that ABI models were most caravanners first choice. However, the financial strain of the large export commitments took their toll, and in 1998 600 employees were laid off and the company crashed. An eleventh hour deal resulted in the creation of ABI(UK) Ltd, which went on to produce new and revitalized tourer ranges such as the Quartz, the Manhattan, and the Ikea-styled Papillon.

However, sales did not reach expected levels, and in 2001 ABI(UK) Ltd announced its intention to cease all tourer manufacture to concentrate on the holiday home side of the business. The end of an era.

(With thanks to “Caravans - The Story of British Trailer Caravans and their Manufacturers from 1960” by Andrew Jenkinson)