Untitled Episode

Motus Commercials HR Manager for South West, Angie Elliott, hosts this months podcast. 

Angie talks about the theme of July - National Picnic Month! She dives into the history of picnics and why they are still a cherished pastime in Britain. 

Transcript

Hi, I’m Angie Elliott, HR Manager, South Western This month I want to talk to you about picnics because it turns out that July is national picnic month, like me, you are probably wondering if that is even a thing but apparently it is, and it’s happening in July. Putting this piece together made me think about when I last went on a picnic and I think it was on the river Severn about 10 years ago on a lovely sunny day. I’ve spoken to a few people recently about picnics and a high percentage said that their ideal picnic spot would be somewhere close to water. I bet you didn’t know that the notion of a picnic goes back centuries and even appears in the Bayeux tapestry and the French revolution was a key part of bringing the picnic to the British isles.

It was a group of French settlers who started London’s Pic Nic Society in 1801, a mixture of dining and amateur theatrics, where each member was required to bring along a dish and six bottles of wine. In the 19th century, a picnic was one of the biggest treats in the social calendar. Although they couldn’t always be planned due to the quirks of the British weather, it became very fashionable for the upper classes to take elements of their dining routine outside, with cookery books listing the essentials to make every picnic successful. The lifestyle writer of the time Mrs Beeton, had a picnic list including four roast fowl and two roast duck in her menu. It also became very fashionable to show up at the season’s big society events, such as Ascot and Glyndebourne, with a picnic hamper in tow.

For a long time, picnics were seen as a status symbol and not something the working classes could aspire to. But over time, access to transport made taking a picnic out to a favourite spot a lot more achievable and post war, sitting outside in comfortable weather to enjoy a bit of potato salad and ginger beer seemed a safe and socially acceptable way of enjoying the summer as a family or group of friends when the arrival of supermarkets, and plastic crockery which would survive a bumpy journey down to a preferred little nook meant the majority of the population could take advantage of a sunny day and whip up a spur of the moment hamper of treats.

Taking a basket of food to an outdoor spot is now a summer tradition regardless of class. It’s now unusual to find a public space which doesn’t include at least one picnic table and it’s become fashionable to have a wicker hamper tucked away beneath the bed which has all the crockery, cutlery and storage needed to take a veritable feast along with you for the day.

The contents of our picnics may have changed to suit our lifestyles. Where Mrs Beeton recommended a feast involving roast fowl, we’re now more likely to have celery dipped in hummus or a massive bag of crisps and some warm pop, but the concept of the picnic remains the same. And to think it took a revolution to bring it to our shores. So what are you waiting for? Grab your picnic blanket, dust down your hamper, and head on out for a feast surrounded by nature.