Is high tea still a thing?

There's posh jenpax I grew up in Yorkshire where we had breakfast ( pronounced brake fast) dinner at midday then tea at 6pm. Supper was a movable feast.
I think high tea is probably something remembered only by an older generation, I haven't heard the term used for years.
I remember it as being a veritable feast though with a cooked dish and cake or trifle.

I had only heard of high tea in books and didn’t really know what it was, so have been fascinated with the social history that has been posted here
Growing up we had 3 meals which were Breakfast,Lunch and Dinner. occasionally if we had visitors we would have afternoon tea as well, which was sandwiches, cakes and a pot of tea.
When visiting my paternal grandparents we were served afternoon tea which I loved as it involved two kinds of leaf tea, Lapsong and Earl Grey, and different little sandwiches, several cakes and often fresh scones! As my mother was not one for sweet foods we rarely had tea at home so this was a real treat.
If we had eaten dinner and then been out to a play or similar, on return we had a light supper, this was something like a few sandwiches and fruit or cheese and biscuits.

I remember in my childhood at the weekend in the summer we had crisp lettuce, cucumber, lovely smelling tomatoes, a slice of tasty ham and a round of white bread and butter and a nice big dollop of salad cream and we called that tea. Plus a pot of tea.

Highdays and Holidays: "What is a highday"? - Good question!

Perhaps it's a day that is celebrated but which is not a proper day-off-work holiday. Birthdays, Guy Fawkes night, Valentine's Day, Hallowe'en. Or perhaps it's a holiday that's not religious - Queen's birthday or Coronation day, or New Year's Day.

If anyone can explain, please post on another thread!

As for making the tea by boiling the water with the tea in it on the hob, I only learned last week from an Irish and a Scottish friend that they both said that that was how their mothers made it back in the day.

we would have high tea on Saturdays either at a restuarant in Glasgow or at home,typically fish and chips or gammon steak with chips bread ,butter and pots of tea and a selection of cakes and scones after.Supper in our house was sandwiches or cheese pudding or if somebody would walk to the bakers fresh hot rolls and chips from the chip shop .Strangely we were all thin

What is a highday, please?
(So I know when to have a high tea!)

Exactly Cold you have it right.

Nobody with a maid would have a clue what High tea was, because they would be having dinner later. High tea was a meal eaten by those for whom it was the last meal of the day, and generally was only eaten on highdays and holidays, not every day. It frequently, especially in summer, included a tin of salmon.

The dictionary definition is: a meal eaten in the late afternoon or early evening, typically consisting of a cooked dish, bread and butter, and tea.

MissAdventure we come from the same background I honestly never have heard of high tea until recently and my thoughts went immediately to a maid in a mob cap serving thin cucumber sandwiches and cakes on a stand and tea to drink
We were plain folk breakfast, dinner, tea and maybe a supper ( biscuit and milk) if needed

www.thespruce.com/afternoon-vs-high-tea-difference-435327

I didn't mind what It's called, as long as there is cake involved.?

I always thought that high tea was sandwiches and cakes

Bathsheba, I agree with you, 'high' relates to the height of the table.It was a substantial meal eaten by working classes after the day's work. The upper classes then adopted the term for a meal they could have when the servants were not about, that they could serve themselves and was a combo of their afternoon tea and the working class high tea.

There are often adverts in Scotland for bus tours, stopping for "High tea" at various hotels.
In my experience , high tea involved a hot main course( fish and chips/ steak pie), bread and butter, a pot of tea and cakes.
It was usually on offer between 4pm and early evening.
We always referred to lunch as dinner and dinner as tea.
Afternoon tea consists of sandwiches and various cakes.
I suppose your interpretation depends on what area of the country you were brought up.

Our evening meal was tea and as we usually had it at 5.30, it presumably counted as afternoon tea. The advantage of a tea, bread and spread and cake meal is that it is an economical evening meal when money is tight.

I think the purpose of afternoon tea was to fill the very long gap between eating lunch between 12.00 - 1.00 and not having the evening meal until 8.00pm or later.

All this rubbish about 'posh'meals and 'ordinary' meals. The meals people eat and when or how have always varied over time and with region, culture and job patterns.

I believe the 'high' tag was added to indicate a meal that was eaten at a proper (high) table, necessary because this was a hot meal to be eaten with a knife and fork.

Afternoon tea, on the other hand, was taken in the sitting room, with the tea and finger food - sandwiches and cakes -served on a low, occasional table.

My older Scottish relatives made high tea when we visited and my mother sometimes did it at weekends. I didn't know anyone else who made high tea in the south. I've not come across it for years and wasn't aware it still existed. I never had it or seen it advertised in a restaurant or hotel.
I've never had afternoon tea at home either, it was only for the upper class originally, and is a fairly new development at hotels.

As a child. tea was what we had everyday, bread and spread and one slice of cake.

'High' tea was just a more substantial tea meal that included something hot and savoury like something on toast and probably a second cake. We did not have it at home but did sometimes get it when we went out. It my experience it was mainly served on Sundays.

wotnot I so agree re Americans calling afternoon tea high tea!!

I should have said a cooked dinner at dinner time ( midday)

Same for me, bluebelle.
I've no idea what's high or low.

Well we never called it high or low it was just tea and school nights it would be cooked but weekends when we had a cooked dinner tt was sandwiches and maybe fruit and cream or a piece of cake

Restaurants by me tend to offer High Tea between about 4pm and 6:30/7pm. Then they move on to a dinner menu.

Yes wotnot, a substantial cold tea, served of course, with tea. We’d have ham, cheese or egg sandwiches, salad (my mother was ahead of her time), home made fruit cake and sometimes, cheese with a sliced apple and brown bread. Scones of course. I love high tea and sometimes we have it before we go to see the national theatre, live, at the cinema - fabulous

Cold, that's how I think of high tea, a more substantial late afternoon, early evening meal. I think it came from when
labourers came home from the fields and needed something fairly substantial, hence the cakes and bread. Afternoon tea a lighter afternoon affair with cucumber sandwiches and (in our case, fish paste sandwiches) with crusts cut off and lighter cakes and / or scones. We would have this when relatives came over or if away on holiday. Otherwise, tea was a cuppa with a biscuit. When I was small, my mother would sometimes just call dinner, tea though it was a typical evening meal.

I agree with Cold nothing to do with degrees of poshness
The description given is exactly right as I remember it.