Cosalt Static Caravan Mattresses

Cosalt Static Caravan Mattresses

Cosalt has one of the most unlikely origin stories in the entire British caravan industry. The name is a contraction of The Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company — a business formed in 1873 as a co-operative of fishing vessel owners in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. For the best part of a century, Cosalt existed to service the fishing fleet: supplying nets, ropes, salt for preserving catches, and tanning materials for waterproofing sails. The company was bought out by Carl Ross of the Ross Group, floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1971, and eventually came to be chaired by his grandson David Ross, who would later co-found the Carphone Warehouse. Somewhere along the way, this fishing supply company diversified into manufacturing caravans — and by the 1980s, Cosalt was one of the most significant names in the British leisure vehicle industry.

The caravan operation began with the creation of the Piper brand of static holiday homes. Then, in 1982, when Sam Alper's Caravans International collapsed into liquidation, Cosalt acquired the rights to some of the most famous names in British touring caravan history: Sprite, Abbey, ACE, and Bessacarr. The division was renamed Cosalt International, and for a period the company was manufacturing both touring caravans and static holiday homes from its base in the Grimsby and Humberside area. In the 1990s, however, Cosalt made the strategic decision to concentrate on static caravans, and the touring brands were sold off — Abbey and Sprite to Swift Leisure in 1994, and ACE following in 2001. From that point onwards, Cosalt was a purely static caravan manufacturer, producing an enormous range of holiday homes for parks across the United Kingdom.

The End of Cosalt

The final chapter was not a happy one. In the mid-2000s, Cosalt plc decided to sell its leisure division entirely. The caravan manufacturing business was bought by Leeds-based turnaround specialists Endless Fund, but it collapsed into administration within twelve months. Over 240 jobs were lost and one factory was closed. A management buyout preserved around 20 positions, and the surviving operation was renamed Cosalt Custom Homes, but production on any meaningful scale had ended. The parent company, Cosalt plc, eventually went into administration itself on 15 February 2013 with secured bank debts of £11.4 million and a pension deficit of nearly £52 million. The Cosalt name, which had been in continuous use since 1873, was finished.

None of this corporate history matters much when you are lying in a Cosalt caravan on a worn-out mattress at half past eleven on a Friday night. What matters is that there are still thousands of Cosalt static caravans sited on holiday parks from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands, and the company that built them no longer exists to supply replacement parts, mattresses, or indeed anything at all. If you need a new mattress for your Cosalt, there is no factory to ring and no dealer network to visit. You need someone who will make one to fit.

The Cosalt Range — From Entry-Level to Lodge

Cosalt manufactured static caravans across an exceptionally broad spectrum, from compact budget holiday homes to full-sized twin-unit lodges. The range spanned every standard width the industry has produced, and the model count runs well into the hundreds when you include all the annual revisions, layout variants, and special editions released over the decades of production.

At the entry level, models like the Torbay and the Resort were practical, affordable holiday homes designed for seasonal use. The Torbay was one of the most widely sold Cosalt models — a typical example measuring 35ft by 12ft with two bedrooms, a separate shower room, and a fitted kitchen. The Resort was more compact at 26ft by 10ft, offering two bedrooms in a smaller footprint suited to tighter pitches or as a first holiday home.

The mid-range was where Cosalt's catalogue became truly vast. The Carlton, Capri (and Capri Super), Torino, Baysdale, Riverdale, Coaster, Sandhurst, Fairway, Albany, and Rimini all occupied this territory — typically 35ft to 36ft in length and 12ft in width, with two or three bedrooms and varying levels of specification. These are the models you will encounter most frequently on parks today, and they represent the core of the Cosalt used market. Many were offered with upgrades such as double glazing and central heating, which extended their seasonal use and made them viable as early-season or late-season retreats rather than purely summer holiday homes.

The premium end of the single-unit range included models like the Balmoral, the Vienna, and the Studio. The Balmoral was available in sizes up to 40ft by 13ft — a substantial caravan with freestanding sofas, generous kitchen-dining areas, and bedroom proportions that approached domestic standards. The Vienna brought contemporary interior design to the range, with open-plan living spaces and modern furnishing packages. The Studio, with its vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, was designed to maximise the impression of space and light.

Lodge and Twin-Unit Models

Cosalt also manufactured wider models that blurred the line between static caravan and residential lodge. The Monaco Duo was available at 16ft wide — a twin-unit construction that provided significantly more interior space than a standard 12ft caravan whilst occupying a smaller pitch than a full 20ft lodge. With open-plan living areas, range-style cookers, integrated dishwashers, and en-suite bathrooms, the Monaco Duo was positioned as affordable lodge living for owners who wanted more than a caravan but did not need or could not accommodate a full-width unit.

At the top of the range, the Matisse and the Inspiration Lodge were full 20ft-wide twin units — effectively small bungalows delivered in two halves and joined on site. The Matisse was available in configurations up to 36ft by 20ft with two or three bedrooms, and the Inspiration Lodge matched it at a similar footprint. These are substantial structures with domestic-scale rooms, and their mattresses are correspondingly closer to standard domestic sizes — though still not identical, as the bedroom layouts were designed around the specific dimensions of the lodge rather than around off-the-shelf bed frames.

Width Matters — 10ft, 12ft, 13ft, 16ft, and 20ft

The single most important dimension for understanding mattress sizes in a Cosalt caravan is the overall width of the unit. Cosalt manufactured caravans at every standard width the industry has used: 10ft, 12ft, 13ft (for premium single-unit models), 16ft (for the Monaco Duo range), and 20ft (for twin-unit lodges).

The width of the caravan determines the width of the bedrooms, and the width of the bedrooms determines the size of the bed platforms. A master bedroom in a 10ft-wide Cosalt will have a materially smaller bed than the same model name in a 12ft-wide version, even if the caravan is otherwise identical in layout. This is particularly relevant with models like the Monaco, which was produced in both standard 12ft width and the wider 16ft Duo configuration — the bedroom dimensions are fundamentally different between the two despite sharing a name.

For the 20ft twin-unit lodges, the bedroom proportions are generous enough that the beds often approach standard UK domestic sizes — but 'approach' is not the same as 'match.' A bed that measures 4ft 5in wide rather than a standard 4ft 6in double will not accept a shop-bought mattress without it either being too tight or too loose. This is why we always recommend measuring the actual bed platform rather than assuming a standard size based on the caravan's width or model name.

Why Cosalt Caravans Need New Mattresses

The youngest Cosalt static caravans are now approaching twenty years old. The oldest ones still in regular use date from the 1990s or even earlier. After that length of time, the original mattresses will have deteriorated significantly — the foam will have lost its density and resilience, the fabric covers will have absorbed years of moisture from the coastal and rural environments where most static caravans are sited, and the comfort will have declined well below what was provided when the caravan was new.

Because Cosalt no longer exists, there is no manufacturer's replacement programme and no 'genuine' spare mattresses available through any dealer network. The only option is a mattress made to measure — which is, in practice, the better option anyway. A bespoke replacement mattress can be made in a higher specification than the original factory-fitted item, using modern foam technology and better quality fabrics, and cut to the exact dimensions of the bed platform as it exists today rather than as it was specified on a drawing twenty years ago.

Cosalt Models We Make Mattresses For

We manufacture replacement mattresses for every Cosalt static caravan model ever produced. The most commonly requested include the Torbay, Balmoral, Carlton, Capri, Capri Super, Torino, Baysdale, Coaster, Resort, Riviera, Rimini, Riverdale, Sandhurst, Fairway, Albany, Vienna, Monaco, Monaco Duo, Studio, Millstream, Madeira, Las Palmas, Geneva, Country, Countrystyle, and Concorde.

We also make mattresses for the full-size lodge models including the Matisse, Inspiration Lodge, and all other Cosalt twin-unit and 16ft-wide configurations.

From the deeper back catalogue, we cover the Cascade, Cheltenham, Canterbury, Dorchester, Evesham, Grosvenor, Hadley, Hallmark, Buckingham, Bordeaux, Brisbane, Broadway, Bromley, Calypso, Castleton, Celebration, Debonair, Elegance, Evolution, Granada, and every other model in the extensive Cosalt production history. If your model is not listed here, we still make mattresses for it — there is no Cosalt caravan we cannot fit.

What We Recommend

For the standard 12ft-wide Cosalt models — the Torbays, Carltons, Torinos, and Capris that make up the majority of surviving Cosalt caravans — our CoolPlus™ memory foam mattress is a significant upgrade over the original factory specification. The modern foam compound provides better pressure relief and body support than anything that was being fitted to budget and mid-range static caravans in the early 2000s, and the temperature-regulating properties help manage the condensation issues that affect static caravans in coastal and damp environments.

For the wider lodge models — the Monaco Duo at 16ft and the Matisse and Inspiration at 20ft — our Imperial Elite™ pocket sprung mattress offers a level of comfort that matches the domestic aspirations of these larger holiday homes. When you have a bedroom the size of a small room in a house, there is no reason to settle for a caravan-grade mattress.

For sofa beds, pull-out doubles, and any convertible sleeping arrangement, a reflex foam mattress provides the right combination of comfort and flexibility — firm enough to fold or store when not in use, but supportive enough to sleep on properly when it is.

Every mattress we make is cut to your exact measurements in our Birmingham workshop and delivered free to any UK address. Call us on 0121 663 6114 with your measurements, or order online using the product links below.