Many of the participants in the recent oral history project remembered certain aspects of the food at Stannington, some more fondly than others, and we can see how everyday things like this were important and have clearly stuck in the mind. The way the memories have been recounted also seem to bring out the child's perspective as opposed to how we would see it now as adults. Here are a few excerpts from the recordings:

"I do remember, this is funny this, every morning you always used to get porridge and I used to detest porridge and you used to get cocoa, two things I disliked, cocoa and porridge, I used to put the cocoa in the porridge to mix it up and try and make it sweeter."

John Dodds

"We used to go to the big dining hall, four to a table, and there was always a big jug of milk on the tables, and the cleaner maid, she was a lovely person, she used to come round serving us. And one of my friends turned round one day and said the soup's too hot so she said put some milk in to cool it, and we thought this was a huge joke because we'd never heard of such a thing before."

Norman Watson

"They gave you breakfast in the ward, and you used to have your cornflakes and everything. ... It was canteen food and you had to eat it, they wouldn't take your plate away until you ate everything. Oh yeah I had paper bags and I used to have it hidden away under the sheet, scrape it down and get rid of it down the toilet. They would give you macaroni cheese and I hated it, and that came round often, that's what went down the toilet."

June McGlen

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