Can someone help me out? Understanding (past-times) meals in UK

[mbosnz]

So, there was breakfast, got that, lunch, got that, then there was 'tea' which was afternoon tea, was it not, and then a light supper, later on?

Was the main meal lunch then? I'm just wondering where the meat and veg' came in?

When i grew up in London in the 60s / 70s tea was the main meal at 5.00 ish, it wasnt as in tea and cake tea.. then a snack like toast / cereal before bedtime.. Oh and middle of the day meal at school was dinnertime not lunch.

It varies regionally, OP. In the north, “tea”usually meant the main evening meal. In the south, “tea” was a mid afternoon thing with cakes and sandwiches, and the main meal was eaten later (7 or 8pm) and called dinner.
Just to confuse things, there was also a thing called “ high tea” which was around 5 or 6pm and included a hot savoury course along with the cake/sandwiches!
Supper was a pre-bed snack.
Obviously, only seriously greedy people would have eaten every option on the same day...!

There were two distinct types of tea. The tea my family and I ate around 6 o' clock, which would be hot food, meat, two veg, that kind of thing. Then there was my middle class friend's type of tea, which was cups of tea, bread and butter and cake. They'd have dinner late and that would be where the meat and veg showed up.
On the other hand DH's dad worked close to home, and whenever possible his mum liked to have the main meal at lunchtime (dinner) then something lighter in the afternoon.

You would have to specify era, location and social class.

Tea can be a meal around five in the afternoon in the north.

Then there is high tea, afternoon tea and morning tea. And a cup of tea of course.

My family you have breakfast lunch and dinner (main meal)

Husbands family it's breakfast dinner (middle of the day) and tea

I might refer to the mid day meal as dinner on a Sunday if I was having a Sunday roast, but otherwise it's the time of day rather than the volume of food. Husbands family would refer to tea as tea regardless of it being a light meal or main meal.

Breakfast was always sugar laden cereal.
Lunch was sandwiches. Never crisps.
Dinner or tea was always meat, potatoes and sprouts or carrots unless we were being exotic and having spaghetti bolognese.
Dessert was always bread and butter pudding,
1970s.

Class and region specific. Dinner was the main meal but could have been eaten at (almost) any time between noon and ten pm.

Same as Jellykat in 60s/70s London. Dinner time was school dinners in the middle of the day. Tea was our main meal at home at 5ish. We could have some bread and cheese or toast before bed which was supper

I think class is much more important than region in the tea debate, OP. Did you have a specific time period in mind?

Growing up,we had breakfast,lunch and supper( main meal 6ish). I call it tea now

we (North) had breakfast, lunch and dinner. Supper was a snack before bed. Tea was a light tea - sandwiches or beans on toast, a little bit earlier. If we had a sunday lunch, we would have tea in the evening.

I was quite middle class though (or at least with a snobbish mother) so she would NEVER have called the midday meal "dinner!.

1970s Northern Ireland: breakfast; dinner around mid-day; tea around 6pm; supper just before bed. To me, thirty years on, ‘lunch’ still sounds a bit fancy.

Funnily enough my DH and I discuss this fairly regularly
I grew up with breakfast, lunch and tea as the evening meal at around 6pm as a full meat and two veg type thing. Supper would be something like a couple of biscuits near bedtime or a slice of bread and butter if a bit peckish.

DH grew up with breakfast, lunch and dinner and still after 18 years together claims to not know what I mean if I say ‘what do you fancy for tea’ 🤦‍♀️🙄
If we go out for an evening meal with friends or without the kids then it’s dinner, if we go out 6ish to somewhere child friendly then I’d call it tea.

The only person I know who calls the last meal of the day supper is my incredibly posh friend who I love dearly and who grew up in an amazing house in the country and went to boarding school etc.

I'm from the East of England. When I was very young we had breakfast, dinner and tea, then it became breakfast, lunch and tea and now breakfast, lunch and dinner. We did sometimes ask for supper, which was cornflakes before bed or buttered biscuits (crackers). My DCs never have supper, but I think we eat later.

Dinner is always the biggest meal of the day. That’s why we have Christmas Dinner not Christmas Lunch, even though Christmas Dinner is eaten around lunchtime. On a normal day the evening meal would be dinner as it’s the most substantial.

Northumberland.

We had (and still have):

• breakfast in the morning
• dinner at around mid-day
• tea in the evening

Tea is the main meal of the day.

Supper is a snack you have somewhere between tea time and bed time but only if you're still hungry, it's not an every day thing.

Obviously, only seriously greedy people would have eaten every option on the same day...!
Unless you're a hobbit!

I grew up in the 60s and 70s in the South of England (not London).

We had dinner at 12, being meat and 2 veg. My DF used to come home from work for his dinner. I later switched to school dinners, but the rest of the family carried on with dinner at 12.

We had tea at 5.20 (when Crossroads was on), which was sandwiches, cakes and cup of tea.

We didn't do supper.

Once I left home and we both worked FT we switched to dinner after work at 6pm, and lunch at work (sandwiches etc). I find it very odd when people refer to a cooked evening meal as "tea".

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea (for children at 5ish), Dinner (for adults later on), Supper (for children).

At the weekends everyone had Brunch, Afternoon Tea then Dinner.

I grew up in Scotland in the 1970s/80s. Office worker dad, Stay at Home mum.

We had a light meal at lunch time (e.g. sandwiches, soup or scrambled egg on toask).
We had a snack maybe in the afternoon (juice and a scone or biscuit) but not afternoon tea as such.
We had our dinner around 5.30-6pm which would be mince & tatties or sausage and chips during the week.
We'd get supper before we went to bed - milk and toast.

On Sundays we'd still have our main meal in the evening but it would likely be a roast dinner.

And yes, we called our midweek/Saturday evening meal "tea". We had dinner on a Sunday.

I'm Welsh but get my meal names from my mixed race DGM who went to a Quaker school in India in the 1920's.

We had supper as the main meal around 7pm. If we ever had tea, it was a high tea as a treat.

Dinner was a fancy supper e.g. having friends round for or going out for.

Good Lord, my head is spinning!

Thank you very much for enlightening me - or confusing me still further!

Breakfast, lunch, tea (with cake) and dinner (at 8pm). Children would have supper a bit earlier until they were old enough for dinner. I moved from north to south - it was less of a regional thing, more class related I think.