Ploughman's lunch term "ploughman's lunch" is believed to date no further back than the 1950s, when the Cheese Bureau (a marketing body affiliated with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency) began promoting the ploughman's lunch in pubs as a way to increase the sales of cheese, which had recently ceased to be rationed. Its popularity increased as the Milk Marketing Board promoted the meal nationally throughout the 1960s. Pierce the Ploughman's Crede (c.1394) mentions the traditional ploughman's meal of bread, cheese and beer. Bread and cheese formed the basis of the diet of English rural labourers for centuries, with skimmed-milk cheese, supplemented
Lunch history as food tastes, menu items and meal periods have changed greatly over time. For example, the word "supper" means bread and soup (from the German word "sop"- soup or stew over bread). In general, during the Middle Ages the main meal for almost everyone took place late in the morning, after several hours of work, when there was no need for artificial lighting. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this meal, called dinner, was gradually pushed back into the evening, creating a greater time gap between breakfast and dinner. A meal called "lunch" came to fill the gap. A