TIME MACHINE

This Jennings Road Ranger Commer-based motorhome from 1970 has become a 50th anniversary showpiece for Spinney.

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In the modern world we take it for granted that motorhomes are highly developed leisure vehicles with the latest tech, trends and all-year-round usability. We have a seemingly endless choice from both imported makes as well as homegrown motorhomes. But turn the clock back 50 years and things were very different.

By the late 1950s the coachbuilt motorhome had reemerged after losing its market share to the touring caravan during the early 1930s. By the late 1960s, sales of coachbuilt motorhomes were on the rise, and so too were motorhome manufacturers, with 99% being built in the UK.

Jennings was a passenger coachbuilding company and one of the early motorhome makers, starting in the 1930s as a caravan manufacturer before eventually changing to motorhomes in the early 1960s, becoming part of the ERF lorry building group. (The connection with ERF had actually begun in the mid 1930s, with Jennings building the cabs for the then-new ERF Cheshire-based truck company.)

Over the years Jennings began assembling coachbuilt motorhomes to order, alongside a standard lineup of models. As well as building specials using a lorry chassis, the company could also manufacture compact motorhomes such as the long-wheelbase Land Rover coachbuilt in 1968.

The Jennings factory was small and production kept low, because the company wanted to concentrate on fine craftsmanship, ensuring that their motorhomes compared to the best on the market. It primarily used Commer chassis cabs as well as the Ford Transit, and the brand had a loyal following. Although not cheap to buy, the Jennings was distinctive with its hand-sprayed bodywork and hand-finished real veneer furniture, which set them apart from the competition.

By the mid 1970s the Jennings motorhome brand was discontinued, as inflation and the oil crisis hit hard.