The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #29770   Message #378909
Posted By: GUEST,JTT
21-Jan-01 - 07:12 AM
Thread Name: Help: Great Britain 1947
Subject: RE: Help: Great Britain 1947
I don't think a vicarage would necessarily look prosperous - after all "poor as a church mouse" is a proverb taken from the idea that church people didn't have a lot to spare.

Vicars often had big families, and made do by a lot of scrimping and stretching; the image is respectable (very!) but not well-off.

For instance my own great-great-grandmother, who had 23 children in an Irish country vicarage, bought an oxtail at the beginning of the week, and made oxtail stock; the first day was stew, the second was risotto, and so on through the week, with the stock going through many incarnations.

If it's any help, here's a site with some British wartime documents:

http://www.polarbear-enterprises.co.uk/Paperwork/page14.html