About Us

It all started when Robert ‘Bob’ Earl, a Sleaford auctioneer and an enthusiastic camper, built himself a trailer-tent and then asked a local wheelwright to build him a lightweight caravan. There was so much interest in his new caravan that he decided to go into manufacture.

The local wheelwright started producing small numbers of caravans in 1930. These incorporated a streamlined design inspired by the wing section of an aeroplane that Bob Earl saw at nearby RAF Cranwell. Production increased, and in 1932 Carlight Trailers Ltd was formed and production moved to premises in Church Lane, Sleaford.

The firm rapidly moved into the luxury end of the market, earning a reputation for producing the ‘Rolls Royce’ of caravans.

Carlight remained very much a family company whilst based in Church Lane, with the business passing from Bob Earl to his step-grandsons, Robert and Chris Hodgson, before being sold and moved to North Rauceby.

Over the last thirty years, the Hodgson family has built up a collection of Carlight caravans (‘the Carlight Heritage Collection’) with one caravan from each decade of the company’s manufacturing history from 1932 to 1999, and it is hoped that one day the collection will go on public display.

As well as the Carlight Heritage Collection, Carlight Heritage makes available copies of past brochures, instruction manuals and magazine articles via this website and also produces for sale a small range of factory-approved merchandise.

We would like to see this website constantly grow and improve, so if you have photographs, articles or anything else you would like to see included, please let us know.