NCCW 2019 ran from 27 May to 2 June, and launched with a media event in London in which Club President Julia Bradbury hosted a party on the world’s first floating campsite on the Thames.

The campsite featured a Swift Eccles 560 caravan, and Julia slept overnight in its comfy double bed while moored at Butler’s Wharf against a backdrop of Tower Bridge and London’s skyline.

Eamonn Holmes, Jenni Falconer and Christopher Biggins were among the celebrities who accepted Julia’s evening invitation to the caravan’s 100th birthday party. Guests tucked-in to a special caravan-shaped birthday cake before leaving Julia to camp overnight on the floating site alone. Zoe Ball joined in the fun with a live interview the next morning for her BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show.

NCCW launched in 2001, in the Club’s own centenary year, as the Club’s annual campaign to showcase the benefits of camping in the great outdoors in tents, motorhomes and caravans.

The first production caravans in 2019, which were also branded Eccles, were produced by Bill Riley and his son, also Bill, in Birmingham. As part of the NCCW activities the Club joined forces with Swift Group, which today manufacturers caravans with the Eccles name, to win the caravan featured on the floating campsite, along with a Vango awning, worth £26,500. The closing date for entry is 8 November. Go to the Club website to enter.

Caravan fans around the world also took part in NCCW’s ‘love my caravan’ competition, sharing images of their caravan adventures on social media using #lovemycaravan.