Is high tea still a thing?

We always had afternoon tea on Saturdays and Sundays when I was a child. This was served around 4 pm. It consisted of sandwiches or bread and cheese with chutney or pickles, home baked cakes and biscuits (kit kats or penguins) or other brands. The rest of the week we had high tea as my Dad came home from work at about 5 pm, and we all sat down together to eat. This was a cold meat salad, or fish dish sometimes served with potatoes followed by scones and jam or cake. We had our dinner at 12 - 1 pm. we all had school dinners during the week.

I agree Maw, two different things.
Wot, we also called dinner, tea.

Absolutely right Maw that is how I remember high tea and afternoon tea.

And only in “furrin parts” would it ever be referred to as English Tea!

High tea and afternoon tea are not the same thing.
High tea is a sit down meal at the end of the working day, sometimes hot, sometimes a ham salad or similar, or a pie or pasty, followed by bread and butter and perhaps a cake or a scone, accompanied by a cup of tea.
Afternoon tea is dainty sandwiches, “finger food” then scones/cakes etc also served with tea. It is usually served in the mid afternoon and would have been unknown in a working class household where people did not have the leisure to sit around drinking tea with their pinkie raised.

I was told off on TH for criticising people who called their main meal had in the evening 'tea '. It still really annoys me! Breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and finally, supper. Who could afford a ll that these days, though!?

I remember high tea as being something you had if you were going out in the evening, to see a film, for example - it was like a later afternoon tea with something more substantial added, like scrambled egg or cold meat -

or, as my mother would say, 'Tea off the mantelpiece.'

The days meals in our home
Breakfast
Lunch- something light like a sandwich or salad
Dinner which is a cooked meal around 6pm

Not for us but
Supper a biscuit and drink before bed

Sometimes dinner (a cooked meal) is served at lunch time

High tea, English tea or Afternoon tea is usually served around 4 - 5pm with small light sandwiches and cakes and a cup of tea.

In some households tea can be a cooked dinner.

I think it also depends on where you live and the customs associated with an area. Our daily routine these days tend to fit around our work and life style.
I suspect most people these days don't have English Tea, Afternoon Tea, High Tea unless they are on a cruise ship where the tradition still holds.

Has anybody come across the convenient snack which gets rid of visitors politely. Inky Scottish childhood friends would come round for a high tea served around 5 to 6 o'clock with a hot dish or maybe substantial salad followed by a big choice of homemade cakes and scones and tea. The hostess sat at one end of the dining table with rows of cups and saucers before her with milk and sugar to hand. The guests would stay on for talk and maybe board games for children. Around 9 to 10 pm, the hostess would produce a tray of tea with buttered crackers and cheese served on side tables round the fire. This was the tacit sign that it was time to go home. Note no alcohol at all . My home embraced the culture of Ulster Methodism and Presbyterian ism

Sorry Daddima I have no memory of what was on the walls so can’t help with your muriel ?

Agus, I too went to Wendy’s on our rare trips to ‘the town!’

Did it have a ‘ muriel’ of fields and a wall, or did I imagine it?

The high tea menu was displayed in many restaurants in Scotland. I’m not sure if there are still so many as we had in the 50s/60s but, I could be wrong ?

My late mother would meet up with my aunt in Wendy’s Tearoom whenever they went into town (Glasgow). On one occasion when I was there as a child with my mother, when we left the tearoom, I excitedly showed her the threepenny bit I had found under a saucer ?

Yes I have always thought we ate a lot more when I was young gillybob. Cooked breakfast, meat and veg in the middle of the day and another cooked meal around 6pm.
I don't remember many obese people then, I expect we all took more exercise as a matter of course.

Thank you for explaining MaryDoll yes perhaps a “regional thing”. Was it only eaten at weekends ? Seems an awful lot of food in one day doesn’t it ?

I remember asking if we were having a “dinner dinner” or a “ tea tea” meaning a traditional dinner ( meat,veg) or a tea (sandwiches, pies, cakes etc) . The high tea (dinner) would have really confused me !

Gilly, it must be a regional thing.
In Scotland, when I was a wee girl (and very common, I'm a "lady" now ) High Tea was a special treat for the working classes.
My MIL always had to have high tea on offer when my DH's great aunties came to visit. They always insisted on lots of home baking. I've never seen anyone eat as much as those three old ladies.

I have never heard of “high tea” (mind you I’m common as muck). (Afternoon) tea, was sandwiches and cakes/scones usually only on a Saturday or Sunday when we ate our dinner at lunch time.

Tish The Fourways at Dunblane was our favourite treat when the DDs were young. Proper waitresses in black with white pinnies and a 'deedly' on their heads. Cooked main course, followed by scones and cakes on a silver cake stand, a full pot of tea with a hot water pot to refill it.

We had breakfast at 7.30am, dinner = meat, potatoes and veg, with either soup or a pudding at 12.30 and Tea at 5.30 = fish, or pies, ham salad, bacon & egg with toast, scones, cake or icecream. Supper at bedtime = milk and a biscuit, unless we had visitors when supper was sandwiches, scones, cake like an afternoon tea but in the evening.

Nowadays it is usually Soup and a filled roll at noon and 2 or 3 courses around 6.00pm.

When I was a child afternoon tea was small sandwiches, bits of quiche, scones, cake and a pot of tea with tea leaves and a tea strainer. Hi tea was a hot light meal like spaghetti or beans on toast with a sausage or bacon and a pot of tea made with tea leaves. I still make tea in a pot but most people I know use tea bags in a cup.

wotnot - what you said about making tea by boiling the tea bags triggered a memory. Years ago I worked as a home care assistant and one of my clients was an elderly Sikh woman who lived with her son and DiL. Before I left after each visit, they would insist that I joined them for a cup of tea and a delicious home made samosa. The tea was made in that very same way - boiling tea bags in a pan of water. Maybe it’s an Indian thing?

As children my sister and I had high tea at around 5,00 pm; my parents had dinner at around 7.30 - 8.00 p.m , My father referred to our meal as 'highty diddleyitea' - never forgotten!

thuberon, that's the high tea I remember having as a wee girl, when going "doon the watter for the fair."

I have a rich friend/neighbour and recently I told her that DH and myself were going out to Supper. She immediately said ‘oh don’t say supper it is Dinner’. I was a bit taken aback.

I see dinner as a three course meal in a posh restaurant and supper as a pasta meal in the local Italian Café.

I think the meal with tea was just called tea, but so was a cup of tea in the afternoon so a bit confusing. So sometimes tea (the m eal) is called high tea to make that clear. It's more than a cup of tea and a snack, it's a not very posh meal eaten with tea. When I was growing up lunch was a mid morning snack (elevenses?) , midday meal waz fi ner, evening meal was tea and a drink and biscuit at bedtime was supper. I still find it odd when people refer to their evening meal as supper and imagine them drinking horlicks in their dressing gowns!

My parents owned a small hotel in Scotland in the mid 50's. High tea was served between 5pm and 6pm. The menu consisted of bacon and egg, poached egg on steak mince, haddock or sole and chips. These were regular options and were interspersed with pork chops or lamp chops. Depending on the time of year, there would be cold salmon or cold meat (home cooked) with salad. You could also choose a (preordered) mixed grill. All of the above were served with toast and butter and jam, home made scones or pancakes and home baked cakes. Memories!

You have reminded me of the children's high tea in hotels GabriellaG I think that was a good idea. Not sure if we would leave children in hotel rooms nowadays.