Hurst of Retford Living Wagon

This handsome van is believed to have been built in 1955 by Hurst of Retford for the Proctor family, although its history is sketchy. Hurst were a long-standing joinery business that came into working for showmen during the war when Joe Ling asked them to carry out some repairs on his Moonrocket ride following a fire. They soon began to build living wagons, and turned out a number over 20 feet in length. One was described in an advert as having three bedrooms, a lounge and kitchen!

Joby Carter bought this wagon from Gerry Cottle, who had been planning to use it as an office for his circus at his yard. He did a large amount of work to restore it to its former glory. When he came to strip it back to aluminium (it was painted beige) he discovered that the original scroll pattern had been etched by the sun into the aluminium of the belly boxes, so he was able to use this pattern to paint it how it would have originally been.