Dinners

Until the late 1930s there were no school dinners – most children went home for lunch and those who lived too far away either brought sandwiches or a meal to eat at school. If the meal needed heating it would be stood by the fire to warm up.
From 1939 school dinners were available in the Baptist Chapel on the London Road and cost about 5 pence a day. The children had to walk there and back along the Heron Path and up to the Baptist Chapel where the meals were cooked and served, as there were no kitchen facilities available at the School.
The meals were good but were sometimes given nick-names such as:

‘Flies in Semolina’ – semolina with currants in!

‘Pocket Pudding’ – a sponge pudding which, if you asked for no custard, could be put in your pocket and eaten on the way back to school!

Not everyone had school dinners – some still went home for lunch.
By the late 1950s the school had it’s own kitchen facilities and school dinners were served in the school hall at trestle tables and benches.
The food was still very good and very English – suet puddings, liver and bacon, sausage and mash, etc , nothing exotic – and served from great big silver trays. Monitors from each table would collect the food and pass it out.
What do you have for your school lunch? Where do you eat it?

How many nicknames can you make up to describe meals we eat today?

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