Women Campers in 1908

One of the great resources that I use for my ancestry research is newspaper archives. Today, just for interest, I took a look at what I could find for the “Association of Cycle Campers”. For those that don’t know this is the original name of The Camping and Caravan Club and was started in Summer 1901.

This particular article appeared in The Daily Mirror on 17 March 1908 and starts “Camping-out, formerly a mode of holiday making confined to the hardier members of the sterner sex, is becoming more and more popular among women”!

The article is shown here and goes on to mention that women were organising an Easter meet. Read it yourself, I found it fascinating, especially the kit list at the end:

• Tent

• Poles

• Water-proof groundsheet

• Blanket

• Down quilt

• Stove

• Cooking utensils

• Canvas bucket

• Canvas basin

  “It can all be carried on an ordinary bicycle, as it only weighs from 10-15lb (4-7kg)”.

I can’t imagine how resilient those women must have been as they must have faced a lot of societal resistance in those days, brave pioneers indeed! However, I also can’t imagine all my camping gear weighing less than 7kg!!

From The Daily Mirror on 17 March 1908