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Oooh, the subtle distinctions of the English class and geography systems! My childhood was in middle-class west London (Ealing). There 'Tea' was (a) the drink made with tea leaves, preferably hot, iced tea permitted, tea allowed to get cold was anathematised; or (b) the earlier (and lighter) evening meal, specifically for small people who had to go to bed before 'dinner' which was the main evening meal with a hot main course.
Generally, the received wisdom was that everybody had breakfast, but sophisticated people had lunch and dinner (in that order) whilst the working classes had dinner and supper, except if you were very working class, your 'supper' transformed into an earlier 'tea' because you had to get up early the next day.
In case you thought this was too simple, there was the counter-example where my mother invited the parish priest over for...'tea', in a more elegant formulation with a strict absence of small children, who were then relegated to having a late 'supper'.
Nowadays I just settle for having an 'evening meal'.
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