Dropping my 3 year old grandson
off for his end of term Pre-School outing to Rugeley (which wouldn’t be my
first choice of location, but then I’m not 3) reminded me of outings over the
years and, in particular, those outings that have been a feature of the various
pubs and clubs I’ve frequented.
I don’t suppose it is anywhere
near as common now as it used to be but, in my youth, every pub had an Outing
Society, charged with arranging a grand day out for the regulars for one day of
the year. Throughout the long winter
months, raffles would be run, blackouts would be bandied about and a whole host
of other fund-raising activities would take place, all with the aim of making that
year’s trip to the seaside one to remember.
I suppose, at one time, these Outing Societies provided the sole
opportunity for many to get a glimpse of the sea and have a great time without
breaking the bank. By the time of my
involvement, the significance of the annual outing had lessened but it was
still a much loved event on the pub’s calendar.
As my parents kept the New Talbot
in Anglesey Road, Burton, for a few years in the 1960s, I was introduced to the
peculiarities of the annual outing at quite a young age. I remember it had all the hallmarks of a
military operation.
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| The New Talbot in the mid-1960s |
On the day of the outing, the
platform of Burton Station would be thronged with the denizens of a multitude
of pubs and clubs, all waiting for the arrival of the train. As the landlord, my dad would be leading the
team that had the barrel of beer, boxes of glasses and trays of food. Being part of this team was always the
desired location for those who ‘liked a drink’ as it meant that they could help
themselves throughout the trip and didn’t have to wait to be served.
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| A ''New Talbot' jolly-boys outing in the 1960s - my dad is third from the left, in front of the beer! |
Once the train arrived, there
would be mad scramble to find the designated carriages for your pub. The beer etc. would be loaded, often into a
guard’s van or similar. Everyone would
claim their seats and a half-pint glass would appear, magically, in front of
you. I was to learn that you had to
guard this glass with your life as it was for your sole use throughout the
trip.
Shortly afterwards, and often
before the train had even left the station, the first jugs of beer would start
to make their way up and down the carriages.
As Outing Societies tended to be a more or less exclusively male
preserve, there was little in the way of allowance for any exotic tastes in
beverage. Basically, everyone either had
draught beer or orange squash. You have
to be a pretty dedicated drinker to enjoy a glass of flat, warm beer at 08.30
in the morning, on an empty stomach.
Glasses having been charged, the
next thing to arrive would be a filled roll of some description. For the same reason that the choice of
beverage was limited, so was the choice of filling (variations on a theme of
cheese, usually). Then there would be
various raffles and blackouts and so on to while away the journey. You usually found that the bonhomie of the
trip increased in direct proportion to the frequency of the beer jugs moving up
and down the carriages.
On one memorable trip, a couple
of enterprising blokes from our pub brought a smaller version of a one-armed
bandit slot machine along. I was never
actually sure whether this was to boost the funds of the Society or was just a
bit of individual entrepreneurship, but it was warmly greeted by those who
liked a flutter. The thing must have
been incredibly heavy, even at the start, as it was of metal and chrome
construction, but they certainly earned their money as the trip wore on, as
they carted the contraption from table to table and it became ever more filled
with sixpences. I don’t think they repeated
the exercise in later years and I imagine most of what they earned would have
had to go towards hernia operations!
Have you got any memories of pub outings? I'd love to hear them.
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