The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
This film is part of Free
Camping Carefree
In the spirit of the first campers, a lone camper wanders through woods with a rucksack on his back, stopping to fry up bacon at an idyllic spot – out of sight of the farmer with his gun.
From the collection of:
Overview
There are either lovers of camping, or haters, with few in between, but here in 1972 the Camping and Caravanning Club seek to win over more to the lovers’ side, with a brief history of camping and a tour of some of its splendid sites. As the dangers of illegal camping are highlighted, we are given camping that is sanitised and communalised as all participate in the annual giant meet of members at the end of September, the ‘Feast of Lanterns’.
The Camping and Caravanning Club, as it was re-named in 1983, has only passed on two promotional films in its film collection, although individual members made many more films of its activities. The club started out in 1901, with just 13 members, as the Association of Cycle Campers, under the inspiration of Thomas Hiram Holding who had started the Cyclist’s Touring Club in 1878. The name changed to the Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland in 1919, and by 1972 it had a membership of 500,000, with over 3 million campers using Club and Certificated Sites. For a more authentic experience, so-called ‘wild camping’, away from organised campsites, is illegal in England and Wales without special permission.