What's the oldest thing in your kitchen/house that still gets used?

zcrat41

My great grandmothers decorative tea plate - must be around 1900!

fuddle

My grandma's Be-Ro cookery book. Of course it's not in metric but that doesn't matter. It's on it's last legs but can't bare to buy a brand spanking new one.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Lurking interesting things indeed from the OS Crew.:beer:

spike7451

My Moms old pyrex casserole dish & my Kenwood food processor.

lostinrates

Teasmade.....same model as my parents had in the 70s...older than dh and I, but dh hates the alarm on it so haven't used it very often.

Sofas: Victorian....but two have been recovered. There is also a really long edwardian one that the dogs sleep on. Our ''new'' wood burner is 1930sish model....I hope it works! Looking around, most of our furniture is antique or handme downs...things our families have no use for and we do...by default with handme downs, most of it is older than us.

DH has some vintage saxophones, once the tools of his trade: 1950s, and 1930s

Not everything lasts for ever: our central heating boiler was from the 60s/70s and gave up the ghost last winter! Our outdoor lights are about the same age and starting to degrade to the point of needing replacement. A lot were fited to council owned farms in the area, and when we drive round we can guess which were council owned farms like ours in the past by the lights over old outbuildings. My radio, the one I was given second hand from my dad when I was about 11 is decidely cranky now, you can press the buttons but they don't necessarily do what they say...eg changing the volume might actually result in retuning, or trying to retune can set the ''sleep'' function. I don't want to replace it until I find the perfect radio, which doesn';t exist (would have a slow light up function, a nice loud but not alarming alarm call, and be a teasmade and preferably an ipod dock!).

I once lived in a flat built and kitted out in the 60s or early seventies, all the original white goods...fridge, gas cooker etc etc...in fact, all the orginal light fittings and furniture too. It was very good quality beautiful stuff. It was a wonderful beautiful flat and a pleasure to live in.

I have a brilliant can opener from the sixties I think, maybe the fifties? which screws into the wall, but haven't unpacked it yet ,..but it works brilliantly.

edit: I don't think of them as ''tools'' but I forgot that our better cutlery is a partially complete silver one....before the the days of fish knives I think (or not swanky and modern enough to have them anyway) and only one set of spoons, no soup spoons for some reason. I'd buy more if I ever saw it, but never seen another one, though its a ''big'' name manufacturer and just an unpopular design I guess! our ''crockery'' ranges from mmodern and brand new to very, very old. I have an almost eggshell thin porcelain tea cup, which is the only thing I know longer use as its just too fragile. Otherwise everything else we use, because no point owning it if we get no joy from it. The other joy of beautiful mismatched sets is if a piece breaks it doesn't ruin a set. I'm also not to precious about using things for their proper use...a meat plate can make an excellent plate for fruit or fruit salads, or salads, or couscous or a huge kedgeree for friendly sunday brunches!

Eenymeeny

Loved reading this and just had a virtual rummage through my kitchen. Shocked to discover that the Prestige copper-bottomed saucepan and Wilkinson sword left-handed scissors (both in daily use) must be about 40 years old as I bought them for my bottom drawer!:eek::)

dandy-candy

ooo what a great thread! I have lots of old things in my house which are used regularly. One I love is a small Victorian cast iron elephant that has matches in his back and sits on my mantlepiece.
The things that are used the most are 2 blankets my granny made in the late 70's and kept in the car for us kids to put on our knees when they picked us up from school - i'm snuggled in one right now as I type!

csnann

I have a large fork that my gran nicked from an American soldier during the war. Its twice as big as a normal fork and I use it all the time for mashing and stirring .

spike7451

Actually,I've just remembered,I also have a Tefal saucepan that I bought in 1985,we had a little cooker & grill in the barrack block at RAF Kinloss when I was stationed there,so I used to like making beans on toast & re-heating soups.
The none stick coating has all but gone & it's down to the bare metal at the inside bottom,but it's still in daily use in chez spike.

irenee

My wooden spurtle

Turned by my grandfather in 1902 - a gift to Gran when my father was born

Still used to make porridge in the winter