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Our Dialect Report from 1962 (see it at https://devonassoc.org.uk/dvp62 – scroll down below the map) contains an interesting twist on the Devon vs. Cornwall, jam or cream first debate.
To quote:
“In South Devon the correct way to serve a chudley is to butter it, then use jam with a thick layer of cream on top. In North Devon the jam is placed on top of the cream.”This certainly accords with my experience as a child coming from Holsworthy – which I guess you could call North Devon. The ‘butter’ was the cream with the jam on top.
If you went into a cafe now and asked for a chudley, a tuff, or a cut-round, they wouldn’t know what you were talking about. I wonder when the change to the now ubiquitous scone took place?
I worked as a waiter in the Thatched Barn cafe in Croyde during my university summer vacations in 1966 and 1967, and I am fairly sure that the standard ‘Devon cream tea’ we offered then comprised scones and not cut-rounds. I wonder, was it that our market was tourists from well beyond Devon that caused scones to be offered and not the cut-rounds that I remembered from my childhood in the 1950s? If you pressed me, then I would put the change at around 1960. As point of interest, some of our customers were shocked that there was no butter on the tray we brought to the table!
Looking at the Murray Laver Devonshire Dialect Word Index I have found two references so far to the buns used for Devon team teas.
1. nubbies = saffron buns or the plain bread-buns eaten with cream and jam
2. hapuny buns = plain buns eaten with cream and jamA different slant on this – I was watching Julia Bradley’s walks the other day and she was in North Devon. She enjoyed a cream tea and was told that whortleberry jam was traditionally served with the scones and cream in North Devon. In South Devon I’ve only been served strawberry jam (which I’m not very fond of). So on Friday, June 27th (National Cream Tea Day) I baked some scones (sorry!) and bought some whortleberry jam – and it is much better than strawberry jam!!!
Pardon my ignorance, but what’s the difference between a whortleberry and a bilberry, please?
None at all I discover!
It used to be said that a pie baked from “wurts” that you had collected yourself from the moor tasted better than one made from shop-bought bilberries because you would always accidentally pick up a couple of sheep droppings too. A bit like the dead rat in scrumpy thing.
I’ve found another Dialect name for scones in the Murray Laver Devonshire Dialect Word Index –
nobbies = the plain bread buns eaten with cream and jam
This entry is followed by –
Nobby = 1. A small raisin bun or cake
2. A pet name to call a young colt
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