Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us! In the age of the internet, social media and 24-hour rolling news, not many specialist-interest printed publications survive for long, let alone a magnificent 55 years. But that’s precisely what Park Home & Holiday Caravan has achieved. Founded way back in 1960 – the year Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was released, the first televised US Presidential debates were aired and Wolverhampton Wanderers won the FA Cup – our esteemed organ started life with a different name. In March 1960, it was called Mobile Home and has had a number of name changes over the decades, finally adopting its present pithy moniker in the 1990s. To celebrate the milestone we’ve got some special, nostalgic news and features that hark back to 1960, when it all began. Married couples lucky enough to reach 55 years traditionally bestow an emerald gift on their loved ones. At PH&HC, to commemorate our longevity, we’re also giving out little green parcels of love this month! Look out for the half-dozen special emerald boxes that detail the best of the articles in all six Mobile Home issues to appear in 1960, as well as UK and world events from the same period.
Back then, Mobile Home was bi-monthly. Fortunately, you can get your park home fix every month these days. In our March issue, we’ve also got park reviews from Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire and Gloucestershire in a packed issue (see page 10), as well as new home reviews of models from Omar and Pathfinder (see page 40).
Finally, look out for an intriguing legal feature on something that’s always struck me as a bit of a grey area: who’s responsibility it is to maintain or remove damaged trees on park sites. Nicholas Dyson, a partner at Blacks Solicitors, and the Leasehold Advisory Service’s Ibraheem Dulmeer attempt to give a definitive answer to a topic that sometimes flummoxes even long-serving park home dwellers (see page 77). Speaking of long-serving park home figures, I myself will clock up nine years in the industry this May (seven of them as Editor). Like everybody else associated with the magazine over the past 55 years, I can say it’s been a real pleasure!
Alex Melvin, Editor
Email: phhc.ed@kelsey.co.uk