The Feeding of a Large Family

With eleven sitting down for a meal, eating was quite an event. Sunday dinner was the meal of the week, usually a leg of mutton with roast potatoes and vegetables in season. This followed by No. 52 as Father called it, which was apple pie and custard. All very nice and plenty of it. Breakfast was porridge, ugh, done in a double saucepan for an hour or two and toast. High tea was usually bread and jam and cake (home made) sometimes tinned meat or fish, salad was not fashionable in those days and fruit, although cheap, was expensive for a large family. When we were ill with childhood complaints though, we usually had one fruit meal a week. Orange, banana and apple with a chunk of bread, greatly enjoyed.

On Mondays, the great washing day, it was cold meat and bubble and squeak and leftovers for pudding. We all had large white starched serviettes for meals with numbered rings , the young ones usually wore starched pinafores and cotton knickers with lace around the legs, some washing! There were also loads of pillowcases and sheets but later on the latter went to the laundry. Most washing was done by hand with a scrubbing board, later on a pump in a large tub and eventually one of the first round washing machines. Washing hung in the garden on two long lines and a wooden rack in the kitchen with six poles.

Meals in the week were varied, we even had fillet steak and stews. Mutton stews were pale and ghastly. Fish on Fridays and plenty of steamed puddings, boiled and baked rice and pastry. When relations called to see Grandma and stayed to tea, it was normally macaroni cheese, the good old stand by, or tea in the garden with sandwiches and cake.