On Tuesdays, the Cullercoats fish wife called, wearing her navy blue serge skirt and carrying her creel.
I had to go to the butcher’s for the meat, a piece of boiling meat, no more than 8d I was told, to use for making broth when the money would run to it, otherwise a bone or a bacon knuckle which cost 2d and 4½ d respectively. Three penn’orth of stuff, a pot leek, turnip and some carrots to make the soup or broth. We always had dumplings in the broth, as that was our dinner. The meat was saved for tea, depending on the finances or another day’s dinner with pickled cabbage or beetroot, all from someone’s allotment. The fish man used to come round in the evenings and sell herrings at ten for 1d, no refrigeration in those days so they had to be sold off cheaply. On Tuesdays, the Cullercoats fish wife called, wearing her navy blue serge skirt and carrying her creel. She had a board, which she used to balance on top of her creel to cut slices from the cod. Often she kept Mother some broken kippers and gave quite a lot for 2d. They were cooked on a grid iron over the fire and we had them for tea. Mother used to clean the herrings, put sage and onion on them and roll them up and put them in a tin to bake. They were very tasty with new home-made bread buns. Mother used to bake 14 lbs of flour twice a week. The flour at that time was very good quality and cost ¼ d for 14 lbs and four ounces of yeast was 2d.