David and Joanne Waring started the company in David’s father’s textile mill in Skipton, Yorkshire, at a time when textiles had become a dying trade in this country. David had been building the occasional motorhome in his spare time for family holidays.
In the beginning looms ran in one side of the mill and motorhomes were being built at the other side! Gradually the looms were removed and by 1994 only motorhomes were being built at the mill.
In 1995 Drivelodge moved to a more suitable industrial unit with a sales forecourt in Crosshills, just 4 miles from the present mill premises and were soon producing 4 – 5 vehicles a month.
After 6 years David realised that he was spending more time overseeing the building of motorhomes rather than building them himself, so in 2001 it was decided to move to smaller premises so David could be ‘hands on’ again.
During their time building the business David and Joanne have had three children, who have all been visible in the business. As a family, they took their holidays in their own purpose built motorhome.
When their sons James & Joseph finished their education both decided to join the family business, James has the business head and Joseph is hands-on like David.
Over the past few years, Drivelodge Motorhomes have stopped producing full conversions and now specialises in manufacturing High Top and Elevating roofs. The company mainly supplies the trade with roofs and works very closely with some big manufacturers although they still retail as well.
In 2020 Drivelodge moved again to a new purpose-built industrial unit, still in Crosshills, to streamline the production of roofs, with this move the business grew again and now employs 25-30 staff within several different departments, making all components of the roof in house. We also now have a dedicated 2 vehicle fitting bay and our own delivery van out most days.
James runs the business day to day, Joseph helps out in all departments and is learning to develop new roofs.
David is still there most days, doing whatever is required and showing Joseph the ropes. Joanne still pops in but is taking a back seat. They have a motorhome which Joanne designed and David built and hope to spend time away in, but they have no plans to retire in the near future.
