showmen

cool

The very distinctive body style was built by Howcroft of West Hartlepool, and they were almost exclusively to be found in the North East, owned by the major showmen who would have been the only people who could afford them. Not many have survived, but we have one that was owned by Randall Williams. The curved top panels were solid mahogany, this is the only one I have seen with the outer edges of the panels painted and the centres varnished, with gold and white lines as a border, it looks amazing.

To Kevin Scrivens: Thanks for this interesting info!

Added this wonderful caravan to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_trailer Thanks for posting these!

This is a particularly happy discovery for me as it shows my mother, Nancy Manders, with one of her younger brothers, probably William in front of my grandfather George Manders` living wagon. George along with brothers Albert, Joseph and sister Ellen traveled Manders Grand Star Menagerie from about 1912 to the early 1930s. Their parents Joseph and Ellen Manders had created the menagerie in the latter part of the 19th Century after the demise/sale of William Manders Grand National Star Menagerie. We have very few photographs from that time, so this is an amazing find.

Do you know that there is a Book , Called Manders Menagerie , with lots of photo’s in it , you can buy it on Ebay , or Amazon .

LuckyLady777 Yes... I do have it and it is a wonderful archive of the Manders family shows and menageries. The author was able to use excerpts from the short biography of my mother's childhood that I wrote for her in the section devoted to Manders Grand Star Menagerie.... so pleased about that :)