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The music playing in Rollo Dunford Wood’s workshop in rural Wales is usually folk, often Appalachian, but recently he has been listening to podcasts about ghosts. “I have been enjoying The witch farm” he says of Danny Robins’ drama, which is set in the UK’s most haunted house in the Brecon Beacons. Having moved from a cottage in Gloucestershire last year to his late grandfather’s Welsh house, with its crooked beamed ceilings and childhood memories, he too is surrounded by a specter of sorts. Here he spends his days restoring historically significant showman’s cars that had their first life a century ago and are part of the iconography of the colorful carnivals that once traveled with conjurers, sword swallowers and freaks.
He shows me his grandfather’s house. “We think it could be about 800 years old; some parts could be older,” he says of what is now a family home he shares with his ceramist wife. Freyja Lee and his two children. She previously restored her caravans in a former grain warehouse with capacity for five vehicles. He is now working in a smaller space but building a barn to help him expand. It’s all part of the process of creation through restoration. “I am fascinated by the original line decoration that I find on these cars under 100 years of paint. It makes me think of the people who lived in them, of beautiful vehicles that were also a home,” he says. “I have the same fascination with our house, the layers of different colors on the thick stone walls, and knowing that there may have been more than 40 generations of people who have lived within these walls. I’m just the custodian.”
The seed of his future was sown a little over 10 years ago when Freyja, then his future wife, expressed interest in having a decorative wagon that captured the magic of her experiences living in India and traveling through Mexico on horseback. “It was her birthday and I bought a cart, which is the bottom of a cart with wheels, from a traveler in Norfolk. It took me a week to build the upper part of the lodge and I realized that after working so long full-time as a carpenter making fancy kitchens, if I could do this for a living I would be a happy man.”
The couple lived for a time in two mid-century showman’s carriages in rural Oxfordshire. The caravans were parked side by side on a farmland with a bonfire between them. Even before, Dunford Wood He was already living off-grid in a 1970s trailer. When his first child was born in 2018, he quickly got to work building a barn that they could convert into a more domestic space. But halfway through his build, his life threw him a curve ball. While he was undergoing successful treatment following a cancer diagnosis, he had a Damascene moment: doing what made him happy: building cabins and cars.
“I now build one cabin a year from scratch for clients,” he says. “It can be anything from a £10,000 shed to a £300,000 bungalow. I do this in the summer with a team of craftsmen and in the winter months I work solely on the restoration of carriages (which start from £15,000 and up to £150,000 for special versions). It is mainly in solitude and meditation: carving, carving and painting.”
It is impossible to say how long any restoration project will take. “I lose track of hours and days,” he says. “I have found a wonderful community that is also passionate about the work I do: metalworkers, sign makers and glass makers. The Heritage Craft Fund has a list of at-risk skills and funds people who want to train new craftsmen.”
Dunford Wood has trained prospective craftsmen, but is also constantly learning new skills. “My hands are always hungry to learn more and understand the materials better. I will try anything,” he explains. “I had relatively little experience in carving before doing this. I also had to train my eyes on the construction of horse-drawn carts and their beautification and decoration for practical purposes, such as a chamfer. [a sloping edge between two surfaces]which is an elegant way to reduce the overall weight of a wagon.”
These details evoke the charm of the vehicles that dominated the roads before the automobile. “I see these objects as folk art,” Dunford Wood says of his revived wagons. “On a prosaic level, I’m restoring them to sell to people who want something beautiful for their garden. But they had so many lives before. They were used by artists, farmers and the Romani community. The peddlers went from town to town in brush carts, which were straight-sided, with cubicles all around the outside and a large railing for hanging wicker baskets and pots and pans. “Those carriages are particularly rare.”
Finding potential bow-top wagons (and other wooden gems on wheels) involves traveling from one side of the country to the other. “I have met many characters and made many friends, all with a story to tell and an appreciation for the artistry of these beautiful, romantic relics,” says Dunford Wood. Along the way, he has learned about the history of the master craftsmen who first built the wagons and trains. designs that relate to different periods of production.
“One of the best creators was Thomas Tong, who would have had a lot of people working for him. The culture of the travelers revolved around ostentation, and their carriages were highly carved and decorated, while inside they must have cut glass mirrors and the best porcelain. I have one of his kite wagons, built in the 1890s: it has a curved roof but no window on top,” he says. “After that time, they had sky windows to let in light and create more free space. Certain manufacturers had more prestige than others, and after Tong there were George Orton, Sons & Spooner and the manufacturer William Wheeler. But in the 1950s, people stopped traveling in horse-drawn carriages.”
It is unlikely that Dunford Wood and his family will live full-time in a wagon (or two) again. “I’m a complete romantic and we had a beautiful life when we lived in the one we had,” she recalls. “But when I hear it raining, my stomach still turns because I wait for the water to fall through the roof.” His grandfather’s house is a forever home, and Dunford Wood can move forward beyond any thoughts of retirement. “I see myself in old age, having restored my prized Tong kite car, hitting the road with Freyja, our grandchildren and our dogs to go to the beach to look for samphires and catch mackerel to cook on the beach,” he smiles. “I have spent my happiest moments in cars, with a pot of dinner bubbling on the stove and snuggled up inside the wood-paneled bed listening to the wind blowing outside. We have forged suitable memories in them.”