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This is
a new addition to our range of accommodation at Goongillings,
as a result of a restoration project we have undertaken recently.
The caravan is technically a 'Showman's Wagon'. These were built
for the itinerant fairground workers and performers at around
the turn of the century when steam engines became available to
tow the equipment and their caravans. This allowed wagons to be
built which were much bigger, more robust and spacious than the
gypsy bowtop wagons (vardos), as they did not need to be pulled
by a horse. However, the same romany tradition of embellishment
and decoration was followed and there are many original decorative
features in ours. |
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It was
built around 1900 probably in Penzance, but we have not found out
much about it's early history. However, in the 1940's it became
the home of the family of Sven Berlin, who was one of the St Ives
school of artists Originally an immigrant 'adagio dancer' he became
a well known sculptor and writer. However, he split with his wife
Helga and departed in another gypsy caravan, leaving his wife and
two children living in the wagon in a clearing in the woods near
St Ives where they lived for many years. Greta Berlin, the daughter,
with whom we have been in touch, remembers an idyllic if rather
bohemian childhood. In the
1950's, Helga Berlin and her children departed for London and the
caravan, though remaining in the ownership of the family, was effectively
abandoned in the woods for approximately 40 years, becoming very
dilapidated. Between 1995 and 1999 the exterior was restored painstakingly
by Frank Pollard whose farm it rested on, but when he died it had
to be sold to settle his estate, which was when we brought it to
Goongillings.
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