Viscount & Ambassador caravans built in Adelaide

[tinnie]

Hi,
Does anyone know where in Adelaide the early Viscounts were built?
by chance was it 7 Kensington Road, Noarlunga??
EDIT - 7 Kensington Road, Norwood

Cheers,
Gristy

[retro1]

I went to the link below...
www.whereis.com/whereis/mapConfirm.do?nref=homeMap&js=true
Where did you get the address from, as Noarlunga is a residential area?

Cheers
retro

[tinnie]

Thanks retro1,
The location of that address (reading what I can) is on the side of a caravan (namely the Ambassador).



I imagine it was painted there in about 1960, and wonder whether there was a kensington Road Noarlunga in that time, maybe now it has been 'renamed' and redeveloped into a housing estate???

Asking whether anyone knows Viscounts manufacture area was a cryptic question really. I suspect the Ambassador may have been built by Viscount, but wanted some more info before I broadcast my wild ideas (oops too late now).


Thanks,
Gristy

[minicamper]

Perhaps it's like a dog tag?

Some where to send it if it ever got lost away from home? ;D

[313royal]

Sure its not Kensington Rd. Norwood - that would fit

313

[Deleted]

Our Viscount, known to be built in 1956 (possibly 55) has this address on the side:





Mark

[tinnie]

Thanks 313,
I will have another look in daylight, as artificial light really doesn't show it up. I am pretty sure Noarlunga looked like it would work, so not sure about Norwood, but given extra size of a W it might.

Thanks Mark T, interesting that both appear to have address sign written on (I assume yours is in the same place??). Was this something that manufactureres did at that time?

Did Viscount remain at one adress in Adelaide? Or did they move before going to Sydney?
Looking at Whereis, Kensington Rd Norwood and Glen Osmond Rd Fullarton are not a long way from one another, perhaps Viscount moved premises?

I assume my AMbassador would be newer than your Viscount by 3,4,5? years. It is build number 375. What is yours Mark?

Observation, from your photo the alluminium cladding is definately the same.

The plot thickens

Cheers,

gristy

[harriet]

hi harriet here. had a look through my old street directories back as far as 1951 but could not find a Kensington RD AT Noarlunga . I lived in that place for 30 years and I cant remember any van builders down their.

[tinnie]

Gidday Harriet, seems my original guess was wrong, more likely Norwood.

Do you know of any van manufacturers there??

Gristy

[raym]

Hi gristy. According to the Adelaide phone book in 1958,59,60&66 Viscount were located at 306 Glen Osmond Rd.Fullarton S.A. and in 1959 &60 Ambassador were located at 7 Kensington Rd. Norwood S.A. If I remember corectly my father told me that some of the people that worked for Viscount left and started ther own caravan company calling it Ambasssador and almost copying the Viscount .Later Viscount bought them out and continued to use both names. raym

[lazza]

Viscount caravans were sold from Glen Osmond Road Fullarton and manufactured at Provident Ave. Glynde.

[tinnie]

Thanks Lazza and Raym.

Ray, you said Ambassador caravans were at that address in 1959-1960. Does that mean they were not there after that date? Or is 1960 the latest records you had?

Thanks again for the info about the x Viscount employees, makes sense about the aluminium etc being the same.

Cheers,

Gristy

[raym]

Hi Gristy I only have a few photo copies of some old phone book pages and A and V may not be on the same page the only entries for Ambassador are for 1959&60 I would suggest they were there prior and after these dates raym

[tinnie]

Thanks Ray,

I had started to get excited thinking the van might be from the 50s . But then thought better of it.
Apparently the National Library has copies of Adelaide phone books from 1936 to the 1960s, I think that I will email them and request copies of pages relevant to Ambassador and Viscount from say, 1955 to 1965. (When I get time that is).

Cheers,

gristy