Belvue Caravans (Reservoir, Vic)

[Don Ricardo]

BELVUE CARAVANS

Manufactured by H J Belmore
55 Thackeray Road, Reservoir, Vic

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1956 Belvue advertisement and publicity:


(Source: Keith Winser, Australian Caravan & Touring Manual for 1956, p 87)

[Don Ricardo]

Late 50's Belvue caravans leaflet advertised on Ebay, February 2014:



Note the canvas covered roof and the ornate wrought iron leg on the table.

[loriward]

How to i get hold of this? Harry Belmore is my grandfather and i have been searching for anything to do with Belvue Caravans... finding one of his vans would be awesome.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Loriward,

How wonderful to have you join the forum. We are always particularly pleased when one of the pre-1970 caravan builders - or one of their family members, such as yourself - make contact with us. Unfortunately many of the caravan builders of that era are no longer with us, and therefore we don't know as much as we would like about their involvement in the caravan industry, even basic things such as how they got involved, when they started and finished, and how many and what type of caravans they produced.

Your grandfather, Harry Belmore, is one of the people we know virtually nothing about beyond what is on this thread at this point, so anything you'd like to tell us about him would be greatly appreciated, especially by people interested in caravan history like me.

In relation to finding a Belvue caravan, I don't believe that anyone on the forum has one at this stage. Having said that, caravans built by some of the smaller firms of the 50's and 60's, such as Belvue, do occasionally turn up, and there have been a couple of instances of some of the rarer vans like that being found in the last year or so.  So my best advice to you is to keep a watch on the forum and also put a 'watch' for Belvue on Ebay and Gumtree so that you get notified if a Belvue van comes up.  If I see one somewhere, I'll also try and let you know.

Speaking of which, I thought you might be interested in this photo which was posted on our associated Vintage Caravans Facebook page a week ago, so it goes to show that there is at least one Belvue out there. This one is in Western Australia. May be time for a trip to Perth perhaps?



Don Ricardo

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Addendum - August 2018:

Additional photos of the above caravan copied from an auction catalogue published by Burns & Co in August 2018:





Description in the catalogue:

1961 Belvue Caravan
Registration: To be sold unregistered
Exterior Colour: Grey / Cream
Interior Colour: Cream
Badge: Belvue
Extras: Standard Early sixties Caravan Features
Purchased from the original owner from Mildura Victoria in 2012. Unrestored original.
The only known ‘Belvue’ make of caravan in existence

[firefighter]

G'day Don Ricardo

Form Member Belvue has a Belvue vintage caravan

Part of one of his postings

In the late 60's my father and I both towed the 12'6" Belvue with HD Holden and XM/XP Falcon. They were 3speed manual and the XM 2 speed auto. 179/170 motors.


Read more: vintagecaravans.proboards.com/user/385/recent#ixzz41MA8FiU8

I think I have his phone no here some where

cheers

Geoff

[retyred]

Feb 27, 2016 9:51:21 GMT 10 loriward said:

How to i get hold of this? Harry Belmore is my grandfather and i have been searching for anything to do with Belvue Caravans... finding one of his vans would be awesome.

Hi 
I have the belvue van now that is in Wa not sure if you are still interested in the van , but I am also keen to know more about its history .
cheers

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Retyred,

Loriward hasn't posted on the forum since February 2016, and I'm not sure if she is watching the Belvue thread. However, I have sent her an email via the address she has registered for the forum to alert her to your message. Hopefully the two of you can get in contact.

I gather you were the successful bidder for the Belvue caravan at the auction in Perth yesterday? Congratulations, and welcome to the forum. As indicated in the auction catalogue, this van may be the only, or one of only a very few Belvues still around.

Don Ricardo
(for the admin team)

[loriward]

Oh no, I can't understand why I didnt get notifications for the responses to this thread? I was aware of the van in WA and had contact the owner at the time but he was not willing to discuss selling the van.
I am happy to give you as much information as I can. Sadly pop died 12 months ago and had suffered from Alzheimer's for quite a few years however my grandmother is still with us and I am happy to get more information from her.
She did all the colour selections and styling of the Van's. Pop owned the caravan park in somerton on the corner of cooper street and Sydney road where he built the Van's. Many stories I can share!
Happy for you to get in touch via email
[e-mail]
Look forward to hearing from you
Lori

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Loriward,

It’s good to hear from you again, but I feel sad that you didn’t know about the sale of the Belvue caravan recently. I don’t think the forum offers a notification mechanism, but I’ll check that out.

I would certainly like to hear about your grandfather’s activities, so will contact you by email.

Don Ricardo

[loriward]

Can I get an email of the new owner of the van? I can email some more info on the van

Thanks

Lori
[e-mail]

Jun 16, 2019 23:39:08 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Hi Loriward,

It’s good to hear from you again, but I feel sad that you didn’t know about the sale of the Belvue caravan recently. I don’t think the forum offers a notification mechanism, but I’ll check that out.

I would certainly like to hear about your grandfather’s activities, so will contact you by email.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Loriward,

Unfortunately the moderators don’t have access to forum member email addresses (or at least I don’t), so we can’t give you Retyred’s email. However, we can email members through the forum platform. So I’ve emailed Retyred through the forum and asked them to email you to get in contact about the Belvue van. I’ve given them your email address.

Hopefully they will contact you. However, if you don’t hear anything from them within a few days, let me know, and I’ll try and track them down through some of my WA vintage caravan contacts.

In the meantime I will email you as I promised to do a while ago. Apologies for not doing so earlier.

Don Ricardo

[belevue57]

Hi Gents 
i am the proud owner of what we believe is the only Belvue . It is still in Western Australia and much loved . It would be great to hear anything you have on the manufacturer . It is a true icon van in near original condition , I only say this as it may well be absolutely original .
Cheers

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Belvue57,

Good to hear from you and to hear that you have the WA based Belvue. That’s fantastic news, given the historical importance of that van.

I’m not sure whether you have looked through this thread, but if you look higher up, you’ll see some posts from forum member Loriward. She is the granddaughter of Harry Belmore, the manufacturer of Belvue vans. Loriward has been really keen to make contact with the owner of what is now your van, and her uncle has information about Belvue.

Loriward’s email address is given above, and I’m, sure she will be thrilled to hear from you. If you have trouble contacting her, let me know, and I will try and connect you. I have the details of her uncle as well.

Let us know how you get on.

Don Ricardo

[jkh]

Hi there,
Could I ask how much you paid at the Auction when you purchased the Belvue? Do you use it much?

Regards,

Jess

[conway]

Hi there. I am the new owner (pick up Thursday)of an as original Belvue caravan that has been hidden in a shed since 74. I believe it was built in 57. I can't wait to get this beauty home give her a clean up and will post some photos. 😁

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Conway,

Welcome to the Forum. It's great to hear that you're the new owner of the 1957 Belvue. As you probably know already, there aren't many Belvues around, so you've got yourself a bit of a treasure.

I saw the post when the van was offered for sale, but some of the photos were from difficult angles, so it will be great to see some better photos once you get the van home.

There's info on how to post photos on the forum if you click here, but let me know if you have any problems with the process and I'll be happy to help you.

Don Ricardo

[wigley]

Hi,

I recently saw one of these listed on pickles. I was wondering what year and model it may be. Beautiful little van. Would love to give it a new lease on life. www.pickles.com.au/damaged-salvage/item/-/details/No-C-P-Unknown-Single-Axle-Caravan/531550.

[wigley]

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Wigley,

Welcome to the Forum. I was pleased to hear by PM that you had purchased the Belvue sold by Pickles and that you are wanting to restore it and look after it.  From the photos posted by Pickles, it looks to be in reasonable restorable condition, although photos can sometimes hide a bit.

Regarding the age of your van, it's hard to be definitive at this stage, except to say that it seems likely to have been built somewhere between 1958 and 1962, and probably towards the end of that age bracket. That's a bit of a guess, but I'll tell you why I say that...

Your van has the distinctive triangular, waist high decoration on the sides, the same as the caravan shown higher up this thread. Belvue caravans with that particular decoration first appeared in the 1959 Caravan Manual publication produced by Keith Winser, which we believe would have been printed in late 1958 (see following post). The photos of Belvues in earlier Winser Caravan Manuals were decorated differently, or had quite different features.  If you look at the extracts on Belvue I've posted in the post which follows you will see the differences.

Going one step further, the van with the triangular decoration like yours in the 1959 Winser and the photos of a similar van higher up this thread also have one important difference to yours, and that is the shape of the windows. If you look at the van higher up this thread, you'll see that its side window frames have four rounded corners and the window frames are quite broad. In contrast the window frames on your van only have rounded corners on the bottom edges, and much narrower frames. We know that the window frames with four rounded corners and the broader aspect were used earlier by caravan manufacturers than the frames like yours, so that means that your van was produced later than the caravan higher up this thread, which is why I am suggesting that your van was produced later in the 1958 to 1962 period.

The previous owner of the van higher up this thread believed that the van was built in 1961, but I don't know if he had any evidence for that (I know the person concerned). I think it is likely to have been a guess, based on what he could find out at the time.

I hope that's some help? I'll also send you a PM (Personal Message) with some other information.

In the meantime, I'll post a few more photos of your van from the Pickles auction site so that others can see what we have been discussing.  Hope that's OK with you?  Others possibly will be able to provide additional information.  I'll also post some other info about Belvue.

Don Ricardo

 

 

   

 

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Following are the Belvue adverts from the late 50's Winser Caravan Manuals over a three year period, which show the changes in style during that time.

1957:


(Source: K Winser, Australian Caravan and Touring Manual for 1957, Book 9, page 91)

Note that this 1957 advert seems to show two different models.  The one on the left has a two-pane front window that is not full width, while the one on the right has a single-pane, almost full-width front window.  The van on the left is also a a slightly different shape with the front and the rear of the van sloping inwards towards the centre of the caravan.  The van on the left is probably an earlier model than the one on the right.

1958:


(Source: K Winser, Australian Caravan and Touring Manual, Book 10, 1958, page 94)

The Belvue van on the right is most likely the same model (or even the same caravan) as the one shown in the advertising brochure shown in the post dated 22 February 2014 above.

1959:


(Source: K Winser, Caravan & Touring Manual, Book 11, 1959, page 101)

The entry for 1959 shows the same triangular decoration on the sides as the van shown in the post dated 27 February 2016, and Wigley's Belvue shown in the posts immediately above. Note however that this van has the side window frames with the four rounded corners and broad aspect, unlike Wigley's van which has later style window frames.

Note also that the caravan in this entry has a bay window which was an option on a number of Victorian manufacturers' vans in the late 50's.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Evening all,

I seem to be on a Belvue caravan track after my posts yesterday. Here are photos of two Belvue vans that I forgot I had.

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The first set are of a Belvue from around 1957 or 1958 owned by Peter Axford and posted on the Vintage Classic and Retro Caravans Australia Facebook page in August 2019. The van is similar to Wigley's Belvue shown a little higher up this thread, but note that the side window frames have the four rounded corners and broader metal frame, which indicate that it is an earlier model than Wigley's.

The outside of the van has been 'redecorated' but shows the style of the side windows referred to above:



However, the inside of the van is original and looks to have been in good condition:

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The second set of photos is of a Belvue offered for sale on the Vintage caravan renovation and sales, Australia Facebook page by Peter Sprunt in August 2022:

This van looks to be quite similar to the caravan shown in the Belvue advert from the 1956 Winser Caravan Manual in the post that begins this thread.  That suggests that it may be from around 1955 or 1956.

Don Ricardo

[wigley]

Hi Don,

Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. I endeavour to post some photos once its back on the road.

Cheers,