Letter: How Did You Have Your School Dinners?

Published on: 17 Jan, 2024
Updated on: 16 Jan, 2024

From John Lomas

I have recently been having a discussion with neighbours about school dinner provision.

Some of us older citizens do find odd things to chat about and many of them remember their dinners being delivered to their schools by van from a central location.

I attended Stoughton Infant and Junior Schools from 1947 to 1953 and subsequently Godalming County Grammar, but I am convinced both school sites had their own kitchens.

Does anybody know whether my memory serves me correctly? Or did Guildford and Godalming have central kitchens to supply all their schools?

Local historian David Rose adds: I have never heard of Guildford schools having school dinners delivered to them. However, I have heard that some schools back in the day did not have their own kitchens, so pupils walked each dinner time to somewhere close by that did.

An example of this was at Shalford School. Pupils walked up an alley at the side of the school, over the railway bridge and then along Station Road to Pound Place, where there must have been a building where they ate their lunch.

Stoughton Junior and Infant Schools certainly had a kitchen when I was there in the mid-1960s. I only had school dinners once (which I hated and used to go home for mine). On that one occasion I recall we ate our meal in our classrooms.

If you can add any details for John, please leave a comment in the reply box below.

Share This Post