Lumpy Custard - Yorkshire School Dinners

[Rita]

Did you stay at school for your school dinner?

How much did it cost?

What did you hate the most? Was it lumpy custard or brussel sprouts?

[Stan]

I have had school dinners all the time could not get back home as both my parents worked. I could eat anything so I did like them. If I can remember it cost about 5d for a dinner and sweet, for those too young like Grace that is 5 old pennies or 2s 1d a week

[Rita]

I have had school dinners all the time could not get back home as both my parents worked. I could eat anything so I did like them. If I can remember it cost about 5d for a dinner and sweet, for those too young like Grace that is 5 old pennies or 2s 1d a week

Now you've got me thinking.... was it 2/6 or 5 shillings? I'm veering towards 5 shillings. I started school in the late fifties. Hmmm

[Stan]

I started in the late 40s it started for me at 5d a day then went up to 7d a day so it was 2s 1d then it went up to 2s 11d. When I first started on the milk it was only 10d a bottle went up a 1d every increase to 1s 1d a bottle then the only time milk fell was when it went decimal and started at 5p a bottle, now I have no idea what a bottle of milk costs nowdays.

[Ozzie]

Did you stay at school for your school dinner?

How much did it cost?

What did you hate the most? Was it lumpy custard or brussel sprouts?

I had school dinners - loved them especially the egg and bacon pie. And I loved brussel sprouts - still do.

Can't remember how much the dinners cost - too many years ago

Also loved the school milk

[Rita]

I think the cost of my school dinners in the late fifties and early sixties must have been 5/- based on Stan's costs when he was a lad.

You had egg and bacon pie at your school Ozzie? Darn , we were lucky if we got cold water and comics at Pontefract Road School in Cudworth!

[Stan]

"Also loved the school milk "

I wish I had a penny for each bottle of school milk I have handled, about 700 bottles a day for about 20 years and I cant even today drink a glass of milk

[Rosie]

I never stayed for school dinners ..... I lived quite close to my Primary and High School

[Diaz]

"Also loved the school milk "

I wish I had a penny for each bottle of school milk I have handled, about 700 bottles a day for about 20 years and I cant even today drink a glass of milk

I haven't seen milk in a glass bottle for years. I remember milk being sold in bags, what a performance opening one of those was.

[Rita]

Our milk was in third of a pint bottles and seeing as it was parked next to the radiators was always warm.

It was delicious washing down the dreaded cod liver oil capsules with warm milk Urgh!!

[Stan]

Our milk was in third of a pint bottles and seeing as it was parked next to the radiators was always warm.

It was delicious washing down the dreaded cod liver oil capsules with warm milk Urgh!!

When I was at school it was like that. When I first started delivering milk to schools it was in bottles but all that changed and now it is in little cartons

[Joan]

Junior school dinners at St Paul's school. Mirfield were awful - I think they cost 6d or a 1/- each, but they were cooked centrally and delivered in trucks. Dark green cabbage and fatty square lumps of meat were the worst, also 'frog spawn' - some sort of sweet pasta.

Then i went to Heckmondwike Grammar where they were cooked on the premises. They were much better, but I was often still hungry afterwards, so my mate and I would sometimes go to a nearby transport caff and get a bacon and egg sandwich with a pint pot of tea. This meal only cost 6d, same as school dinners. (We got caught eventually, banned, and put in detention - which was no doubt just as well for the sake of our figures)

One year the potato crop failed, and schools were instructed to provide bread and butter instead. They baked the bread at school, and provided real butter, so we really loved that.

[kevknott]

My Mam was a school lunch lady... so I had to love them!!

You mentioned Cod Liver Oil capsules... we always had them as kids.... is the same as the fish oil they promote today with "high levels of Omega 3"??

[postylyn]

We've just bought those Omega 3 fish oil caplets to give to our dogs. It's supposed to be good for their coats.

[tedster]

I went to birkwood infants school, i think the meals were 5 shillings a week, i hated the frog spawn also it was called sago. And there was semolina i hated that too, i still can't eat that stuff. I remember monday was bank day i took half a crown in a matchbox to deposit in the school bank, and being a yorkshireman i've still got most of it lol. The milk when i first started was a penny a day for the little bottle of milk and a cod liver oil capsule, then after a while it was free. Anyone remember miss turpin the headmistress she wore a stole around her neck with a foxes head and used to scare the kids with it.I think she lived near the bottom of church hill near the west end club.

[Rita]

I also had a teacher that lived in that area Ted, but I can't remember her name for the life of me.

I saw MIss Goodhall last Autumn and she still looks the same!

[tedster]

How old will miss goodhall be now bet she can't be far off 90.

[Rita]

How old will miss goodhall be now bet she can't be far off 90.

I don't know but she looks the same as when we were at school and still as sharp as a tack. A gifted and brilliant teacher.

[Michael]

They varied a lot. Tapioca pudding was a staple as was macaroni cheese and spam fritters with baked beans and chips at junior school. Things looked up at secondary school with decent fish and chips, meat pies and so forth..hardly health food tho..they did serve Longley Farm strawberry yoghurt tho which I had EVERY day for pudding and I'm partial to it to this day.