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My Nan always called it..

(88 Posts)
phoenix Sun 21-May-17 16:35:30

The back kitchen, not sure why, as we didn't have a front kitchen grin

But having done a bit of research, well, ok I googled blush it seems to be a word for scullery, and as my Nan was in service in her young days, it seems to make sense.

Any other family words, although we all have the ones like armadillo for amontillado, don't we?

BlueBelle Sun 21-May-17 16:40:59

My Nan called it the pantry

kittylester Sun 21-May-17 17:42:06

My nan called it the back kitchen too phoenix. She was a mill girl though so hadn't got it from being in service.

Our last house was a 3 storey Edwardian semi and the other half hadn't been modernised. They had a kitchen and a back kitchen. The kitchen seemed to be used for preparation and the back kitchen had a range, modern fridge and washing machine etc.

They also still had the bell board. i don't know why, I managed to make myself heard on the top floor from the kitchen - no trouble!grin

BlueBelle Sun 21-May-17 17:53:15

I think I m going for something different ours wasn't a room big enough for preparation and fridges or washing machines None of which Nanny had it was a small shelf lined room for all the food and stuff I had it turned into the downstairs loo after I moved in a Nans house
What the hecks a amontillado?

phoenix Sun 21-May-17 17:54:00

kitty grin

BlueBelle thing is, we also had a pantry, which was a sort of large walk in larder type thing, with a meat safe, (anyone remember those?) and a slate shelf.

cornergran Sun 21-May-17 17:55:35

My Nan had a scullery, never called it a kitchen

Luckygirl Sun 21-May-17 18:10:34

My Nan had a scullery - she too had been in service. Their house was a very tall narrow London terrace with a room to each floor. There was a cellar (with an intriguing knife grinder and mangle); then above that a basement with the scullery and a tiny little dining room; above that a living room with a movable partition; then a floor with a small room (where the lodger, Miss Carpenter,lived - she terrified me!)and a bathroom with an equally terrifying gas geyser over the bath; then a floor with two bedrooms; then the attic where we slept when we went there at Christmas and could look out over the rooftops of Clapham - like in Mary Poppins. I have very vivid memories of it all.

I looked up the house on rightmove a while ago and it has been divided into flats, each worth about £500K - unbelievable!

Chewbacca Sun 21-May-17 18:11:15

My granny was in service from the age of 14 and she called the kitchen the scullery.

Luckygirl Sun 21-May-17 18:12:07

And a pocket handkerchief of a garden with an Anderson shelter of course.

downtoearth Sun 21-May-17 18:21:00

The air raid shelter in the garden was a dug out...a mound of of earth dug deep in thw grouns covered with corrugated metal ..in service she also had a pantry and a scullery with copper and mangle

joannapiano Sun 21-May-17 18:22:46

My Nan had a scullery,
We have just made a model Anderson shelter out of corrugated card for DGD aged 9, for her school project on WW2. We had one in our garden, too.

jusnoneed Sun 21-May-17 18:28:31

My Nan had a kitchen on one side of the back of the cottage, on the other side was the scullery where there was a walk in larder with thick stone slab and a meat safe. The same area had a large Belfast sink (she never had one in the kitchen).
Off of that was the wash house, complete with a mangle. The chicken food (potato peelings etc) was cooked out there too, in a beat up old saucepan on a Primus stove.

BlueBelle Sun 21-May-17 18:40:21

Ahh well we must have been poor just a kitchen and a pantry
Still don't know what an amontillado is ?

joannapiano Sun 21-May-17 18:42:57

The chicken food my Nan boiled up always smelled tastier than the dinner she was cooking for us.
We has a meat and milk safe outside the back door.I think the shelves were lined with asbestos, that I used to scrape at with my little fingernails!

sunseeker Sun 21-May-17 18:43:55

My gran had a back kitchen and a front parlour!

kittylester Sun 21-May-17 18:51:38

Our house also had a pantry. Isn't
amontillado sherry?

Christinefrance Sun 21-May-17 18:57:58

Yes Amontillado sherry.

I remember the parlour and the front room only used at Christmas or when the minister and posh visitors came.

sunseeker Sun 21-May-17 19:53:18

Christinefrance Yes the front parlour was used at Christmas for family get togethers and if the doctor had to visit, the rest of the time what would now be called the dining room (next to the back kitchen) but what my Gran called the sitting room was used.

Deedaa Sun 21-May-17 21:00:13

confusedI always liked the box room which had all sorts of stuff in it - but no boxes

kittylester Sun 21-May-17 21:10:02

My nan had a large front room, with a bay, an itchy 3 piece, a set of encyclopedias a companion set, brass coal box and a China display cabinet.

The smaller dining room had a dropleaf table, 4 dining chairs, a leather sofa, 2 leather armchairs, a TV and a bookcase. And, mostly 3 people too.

paddyann Sun 21-May-17 21:12:05

the kitchen in or tenement flat in the 50's was a large open plan kitchen area with sitting room and was used by all of us ,my parents two sets of aunts and uncles my gran and unmarried aunt and my three sisters and me.There was a large sitting room that we called "the big room" where grannies 6 piece suite and massive square dining table and 8 chairs lived and where all the family gathered for Hogmanay thats all including the ones who live d with granny .After the war housing was short in Glasgow and my parents and the others were all in the same house,a 4 bedroom two public and bath for 12 years .We loved living with all the family,so much so that when everyone started to get their own places granny sold up and moved between the families for the rest of her life.My uncle said it the 80's it was like Southfork ...up a close .lol

Hopehope Sun 21-May-17 21:55:26

We had a back kitchen too but DH Family had a scullery. My Nana had a front parlour

phoenix Sun 21-May-17 22:19:46

Sorry, it was one of those silly family things, somehow amontillado sherry was referred to as armadillo, after a mistake by an aged relative.

Problem is, we all sort of got in the habit of calling it that, and then struggled to actually use the right word. There must be a lot of waiters or bar staff out there who think they were serving right numptys!

BlueBelle Sun 21-May-17 22:26:18

My Nan had a front room, dining room, kitchen, pantry and glory hole on the bottom floor Did all of you have a glory hole? Upstairs were the bedrooms and third door was the attic

NfkDumpling Sun 21-May-17 22:31:31

My GPs lived in a terrace house with a front room (special occasions), back room (living room with two comfy chairs, a sideboard, and a dining table used for eating, making pastry and doing the ironing), and the back kitchen with a sink, copper in the corner and a gas cooker. The pantry was the cupboard under the stairs, there was a large mangle in the shed outside next to the outside loo and coal shed. Our house next door was the mirror image arranged the same, except for the copper - but we had a front room, living room and kitchen 'cos we were modern.