The Works Outing
1895 · Works Festival · Work 398 of 1,871
A works outing on a village common: long tables of families laid with food, the men in dark suits, waistcoats, bowler hats or cloth caps, the women in long skirts, high-necked blouses and straw hats, the children in pinafores and sailor suits, a tug of war rope stretched across the grass, the decorated horse-drawn waggon that carried them there standing at the edge of the common with its horses, the cottages around the common with small-paned sash windows.
- What it was used for
- The works outing of the brewery Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton of Burton-on-Trent, by special train to the sea. Heritage Railway dates the start to 1865, "as relatively modest affairs requiring just two trains", and at first "restricted to employees"; from 1884 to 1914 the outing ran every year. The destinations were Blackpool, Liverpool, Scarborough and, from 1893, Great Yarmouth, 182 miles away. By 1913 the number of passengers had risen from 8,000 to 10,000 and the number of trains to sixteen. In 1888 Bass employed 2,760 "men and boys" according to the Victoria County History — so most of those travelling were family members and invited customers, not employees.
- What was new
- For 1895 itself no reliable novelty can be shown. The source gives figures for 1865, 1893 and 1913; 1895 falls between them and is not documented; according to the source Great Yarmouth was visited in 1893 and then every four years until 1913. What is documented is the shift: two trains for employees became an event that moved a large part of a town 182 miles and back in a day — according to the source the world's largest such events run by a private company. The price is in the same source: employees only at first, later wives and children were allowed "on payment of the extra fares". The man travelled free, his family paid. The series broke off in 1914.