Trenchers and Teapots: Food at Winchester College

Thomas and Douglas, two Winchester College boys specially recorded this 'Edible England' podcast for the Heritage Open Days 20221 festival. In it, they share the history of 'school food' at the Winchester College. They have delved into the school archives to discover fascinating insights into banquets organised by the school founder, and have also interviewed Old Wykehamists (former pupils) for more recent memories of the College's menus and food traditions.

Winchester College are delighted to be able to offer additional information to accompany this excellent podcast. We do hope you enjoy reading.

School Shop

Below are photos that show what was the school shop – located where Cornflowers now is. Downstairs was a traditional shop and upstairs was used as a café where boys could get hot meals.

Beer for the Boys

As mentioned in the episode, Winchester College brewed all their own beer until 1904, and in 1932/33 the old brewery was converted to house the school library, known as Moberly Library. The college continued to serve beer to the boys – and this was only abandoned when rationing was introduced during World War I in 1915.

The November 30th 1901 issue of Country Life included an article about the college’s “Brew-House”. The article, titled ‘Wykehamists’ Beer. The Brew-House at Winchester College’, describes the brewery and the brewing process, overseen by the Brewer of the College at the time, Mr A. Chamberlin.

In this next gallery you will find images of the Winchester College brewery and were taken in 1900.

The Language of Food at Winchester College

You may have heard some rather unusual words and phrases during the episode as Winchester College has developed its own language around its food over the years. They refer to these as food-related notions and here are a few more examples:

Cargoes - boys supplemented the food provided by the school with supplies sent from home.

Cat’s head – the end of a shoulder of mutton.

Chandler’s finger – notion c1920 for a long roly-poly pudding, named after a butler called Chandler who’d sliced off a finger in a bread machine.

Fat flab – a cut of the fat part of a breast of mutton.

Fleshy – a thick cut out of the middle of a shoulder of mutton.

Gobbets – a roly-poly pudding cut in slices and covered with treacle. c1920s. The name was inspired by a ballad rendering of the Cyclops’ indigestion in the Odyssey after eating too many hunks of meat.

Husky – gooseberry fool with the husks in.

King’s daughter – a roly-poly pudding with jam in the middle. Inspired by a passage from Psalm 45.13: ‘the King’s daughter is all glorious within’.

Egg-flip - hot spiced beer, with egg and lemon added, particularly served in School in the mid 19th century.

Open cesspool – an open jam-tart served once a week in College Hall in the 1920s

Porges or small Porges – small squares of fried bread served in College Hall with soup once a week from 1919.

Rokeby – blancmange and jam, served in College Hall in the 1920s and was named after its resemblance to one of the scholars.

Squish – weak tea.

Suction – sweets.

Tug bun – currant bun.

Verdigris – custard served with prunes.

For Further Information and Additional Links

To find out more about Winchester College visit:

You can still enjoy many of our other Heritage Open Days events including our Edible England Exhibition and some of the festival films, interviews and tour. Click here to visit our YouTube channel.

Credits: Additional information was provided by Suzanne Foster, Archivist at Winchester College. Winchester College also provided us with the photos used for this episode.