A few of us were talking about the words used for various meal-times recently, and I came across this one - 'Forenoon-Drinkin' - I was actually aware of the word before, but here it is in the 18th century book of Sheffield dialect words I've been reading. However, I don't think its use was restricted to Sheffield.
I do like the idea of a second breakfast
I don't know if it's still the case, but when I first started work in the 70's, in the jobs where I started work early in the morning, we'd have a break anywhere between 8.00am and 10.00am for (second) 'breakfast', which could be anything from a hot drink and toast or a sandwich to a full cooked breakfast
The first place I worked we just had a basic cabin, and the old 'facility' was a hot-water boiler, but I worked at other places with full canteens.
Sorting out breakfast was traditionally one of the jobs apprentices were assigned in the cutlery trade, and this included 'mashing' the tea. Sheffield artist and writer (and relation of
donn
) George Cunningham, describes how, during WW2 (when there was strict rationing), each man would bring to work a twist of newspaper containing black tea, sugar, and a smear of condensed milk, and as 'breakfast' approached, the apprentice would boil the water, and deposit these packages directly into the kettle or boiler to make the tea. Even when I first started work, apprentices were sometimes expected to go and fetch sandwiches from a local shop or cafe, which was a pain in the backside, and could even leave you out of pocket