Spritely
Good afternoon,
I've read the whole lot. Took ages.
I know next to nothing about Motocross and even less about caravans except for riding them and towing them (or is that the other way round?) briefly in the distant past, but I'm a keen, questioning and inquiring researcher.
There's an interesting discussion going on here & I've learnt a lot, but one thing gave me a jolt. On September 7th '09 'firko' submitted an piece mainly on the American Eagle which stated Today, Sprite Development still exists, but it builds RVs, caravans and motor homes. I've also seen the same claim on The Early Years Of Motocross website (earlyyearsofmx.com) and I don't know if it's altogether correct.
In a later piece (Jan. 14th '10) 'firko' appends two flyers or printer's proofs of magazine ads, which has the maker's address in Halesowen, a relatively modern telephone number format (in 1995 a '1' was added after the initial zero) and names itself as 'Sprite Developments Ltd.', with the plural 's' lacking from both sources mentioned above.
My dad had a Sprite caravan and I remember its logo, which was quite unlike the Sprite logo shown in 'firko's' flyers. I also remember the Caravans International logo, but wasn't aware at the time of any link between this organization and Sprite Caravans.
In his book On Roads (Profile Books, 2009) Joe Moran has this to say:
After the Second World War, caravans developed a counter-reputation for being cheap and flimsy, largely because, in an era of austerity, the manufacturers had to make do with non-restricted materials. The inventor of the classic Sprite caravan, Sam Alper - whose other significant role in history was to found the Little Chef restaurant chain in 1958 - built his first model in 1947 out of wartime salvage, using a Spitfire's undercarriage and a roof made from an old barrage balloon.
The company was started with Sam Alper's brother Henry (who soon left it) in Stratford, East London. Moran goes on to say that the 1960s Sprite Alpine became the best-selling model of all time, but, despite that
The recession and rising inflation of the 1970s hit caravan sales hard and in 1982 Alper's company, Caravans International, went bust.
Or did it? Now, the history of caravans, in which I'm sure you're not particularly interested, seems about as murky and difficult to sort out as that of small manufacturers of motorcyles and whilst the above story seems a bit gloomy, in its heyday, Sprite took over Eccles, Bluebird and Fairholme caravans, making it the world's largest caravan manufacturer. It was probably at this time that Caravans International was set up as an umbrella company. I found from the Trigano webpage that In 1976, Caravans International was the largest Caravan Manufacturer listed on the London Stock Exchange, also present in Italy with a sales office in Varedo. This Italian link obviously became stronger as Caravans International (or CI) migrated to Italy in the early 1980s. It produced its first motorcaravan in 1985 and such were their success that by 1988 the company, under the ownership of Tuscan spa ceased the production of caravans. Tuscan became Trigano spa, probably in 1996, and is still based in San Gimignano, where I must have driven past them on the way from Florence to Sienna. Pity I didn't know what I need to know now, or I'd have gone to visit them!
So, Caravans International might have been on the rocks in 1982, but as this coincided with the company shipping out to Italy, they certainly disappeared from the UK then.
If that's not confusing enough, Sprite caravans are still produced as a brand of The Swift Group, based in Cottingham, East Yorkshire (near Hull). As well as a Swift range, they produce a Sterling range, one of which is the Stirling Eccles . . . Enough now?
That's the problem with nouns (as opposed to proper nouns), they're words that are difficult to adopt exclusively because they cannot be copyrighted. So here you go: Sprite: noun: an elf or fairy, often with wings, especially one associated with water; small, human in form, playful, having magical powers. So, not only are you a bunch of fairies, you're pretty wet as well.
So, back to the beginning: Today, Sprite Development still exists, but it builds RVs, caravans and motor homes. Sprite Developments does not still exist (missed telling you that, didn't I?); Sprite motorcycles were made in Halesowen (near Birmingham); Sprite caravans were made in Stratford, East London and, until 1988 in San Gimignano, Tuscany; Sprite caravans are a model line of caravans made today by The Swift Group in Yorkshire. There are no geographical coincidences and, although there are CI motorhomes and Swift motorhomes, I cannot find any evidence of there ever being a Sprite motorhome.
