Getting Close To Nature — The Old, The New & The Scary
Talk of camping often goes hand in hand with talk of holidays these days — leisure, relaxation, getting close to nature — but this is a relatively modern interpretation. We will never know for sure who went on the first ever camping holiday in the sense we understand it, but modern recreational camping is said to have been founded by Thomas Hiram Holding who wrote the 1st edition of The Campers Handbook in 1908. However, people have camped out in one form or another for millennia for many reasons; for travel, for work, or simply for lack of any other option in their lives.
The Old
Finding temporary accommodation whilst working in a particular location, can mean anything from staying in an Airbnb during the week to living under canvas for months. Circumstances can turn temporary accommodation into somewhere people spend most of their lives; a work encampment can become home for generations.
One of the longest ever camping-out-for-work expeditions must surely be for the creation of Stonehenge. Did you know that the project took well over a century to complete and that the workers encampments became rich archaeological sites in themselves? I didn’t. I learnt this and a great deal more from a fascinating series published by Linda Acaster.
