[39] Vagrants who presented themselves at the door of a workhouse were at the mercy of the porter, whose decision it was whether or not to allocate them a bed for the night in the casual ward.


Although workhouses were formally abolished by the same legislation in 1930, many continued under their new appellation of Public Assistance Institutions under the control of local authorities. [17][a] The large number of those seeking assistance was pushing the system to "the verge of collapse".

In some cases, the overseer … Where possible, each building was separated by an exercise yard, for the use of a specific category of pauper. The Poor Law Act of 1388 was an attempt to address the labour shortage caused by the Black Death, a devastating pandemic that killed about one-third of England's population. Shoes were also provided. [106], As of 1997, around 10% of the British population had a genealogical connection to the workhouse system.[107].

An overseer of the poor was an official who administered poor relief such as money, food, and clothing in England and various other countries which derived their law from England such as the United States.

To do this they treated the poor with incredible savagery. [33] Some critics of the new Poor Law noted the similarities between Kempthorne's plans and model prisons, and doubted that they were merely coincidental - Richard Oastler went as far as referring to the institutions as 'prisons for the poor'. [28] They complained in particular that "in by far the greater number of cases, it is a large almshouse, in which the young are trained in idleness, ignorance, and vice; the able-bodied maintained in sluggish sensual indolence; the aged and more respectable exposed to all the misery that is incident to dwelling in such a society".

As well as the overall administration of the workhouse, masters were required to discipline the paupers as necessary and to visit each ward twice daily, at 11 am and 9 pm.

The bedding on offer could be very basic: the Poor Law authorities in Richmond in London in the mid-1840s provided only straw and rags, although beds were available for the sick. [39] Also not to be overlooked were destitute, unfortunate sufferers of mental health disorders, who would be ordered to enter the workhouse by the parish doctor. [citation needed], Relief was obtained when the state took over welfare in 1968.[3]. [9] Relatively few Gilbert Unions were set up,[10] but the supplementing of inadequate wages under the Speenhamland system did become established towards the end of the 18th century.

Alternatively they might be offered any necessary money or goods to tide them over until the next meeting of the guardians, who would decide on the appropriate level of support and whether or not the applicants should be assigned to the workhouse. Workhouses also had links with local industry; in Nottingham, children employed in a cotton mill earned about £60 a year for the workhouse.

Many workers lost their jobs during the major economic depression of 1837, and there was a strong feeling that what the unemployed needed was not the workhouse but short-term relief to tide them over. Simkin, J. Edwin Chadwick, Spartacus Educational, 1997, retrieved 27 November 2014, available: Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union, http://www.llangynfelyn.org/dogfennau/tloty_reseitiau.html, "The Workhouse in Guisborough, Yorkshire, N. Riding", "Instructional Letter Accompanying the Consolidated General Order", http://spartacus-educational.com/PHchadwick.htm. [2], The workhouse system evolved in the 17th century, allowing parishes to reduce the cost to ratepayers of providing poor relief. [1] Overseers of the poor were replaced in the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, and replaced with boards of guardians, although overseers remained in some places as a method of collecting the poor rate.[2].

According to historian Derek Fraser, the fear of social disorder following the plague ultimately resulted in the state, and not a "personal Christian charity", becoming responsible for the support of the poor.

Simon Fowler has commented that "it is clear that this [the awarding of contracts] involved much petty corruption, and it was indeed endemic throughout the Poor Law system". [14] Writing in 1854, Poor Law commissioner George Nicholls viewed many of them as little more than factories: These workhouses were established, and mainly conducted, with a view to deriving profit from the labour of the inmates, and not as being the safest means of affording relief by at the same time testing the reality of their destitution. In Shrewsbury, the boys were placed in the workhouse's workshop, while girls were tasked with spinning, making gloves and other jobs "suited to their sex, their ages and abilities". [15], By 1832 the amount spent on poor relief nationally had risen to £7 million a year, more than 10 shillings (£0.50) per head of population,[16] up from £2 million in 1784. [69] Children often had no say in the matter, which could be arranged without the permission or knowledge of their parents. [87], As early as 1841 the Poor Law Commissioners were aware of an "insoluble dilemma" posed by the ideology behind the New Poor Law:[25], If the pauper is always promptly attended by a skilful and well qualified medical practitioner ... if the patient be furnished with all the cordials and stimulants which may promote his recovery: it cannot be denied that his condition in these respects is better than that of the needy and industrious ratepayer who has neither the money nor the influence to secure prompt and careful attendance. By 1838, 573 Poor Law Unions had been formed in England and Wales, incorporating 13,427 parishes, but it was not until 1868 that unions were established across the entire country:[23] the same year that the New Poor Law was applied to the Gilbert Unions. [73], As the 19th century wore on non-conformist ministers increasingly began to conduct services within the workhouse, but Catholic priests were rarely welcomed.

[90] By the end of the century only about 20 per cent of those admitted to workhouses were unemployed or destitute,[91] but about 30 per cent of the population over 70 were in workhouses.

Frequent requests for aid could result in the applicant being sent to a county poor farm where residents were not only expected to work to support themselves, but often to support handicapped or elderly residents, as well.

[92], Responsibility for administration of the Poor Law passed to the Local Government Board in 1871, and the emphasis soon shifted from the workhouse as "a receptacle for the helpless poor" to its role in the care of the sick and helpless.

[29] A common layout resembled Jeremy Bentham's prison panopticon, a radial design with four three-storey buildings at its centre set within a rectangular courtyard, the perimeter of which was defined by a three-storey entrance block and single-storey outbuildings, all enclosed by a wall. [86], By 1870 the architectural fashion had moved away from the corridor design in favour of a pavilion style based on the military hospitals built during and after the Crimean War, providing light and well-ventilated accommodation. [96] At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 almost 100,000 people were accommodated in the former workhouses, 5,629 of whom were children.

[36], Each Poor Law Union employed one or more relieving officers, whose job it was to visit those applying for assistance and assess what relief, if any, they should be given. However, in reality, destitute people suffering from mental illness would be housed in their local workhouse. Nicholls was a retired sea-captain and a former parish overseer in Southwell in Nottinghamshire where his introduction of a strict workhouse regime had dramatically reduced poor relief expenditure. [101], The Poor Law was not designed to address the issue of poverty, which was considered to be the inevitable lot for most people; rather it was concerned with pauperism, "the inability of an individual to support himself".

For more serious offences such as insubordination or violent behaviour the "refractory" could be confined for up to 24 hours, and might also have their diet restricted. [37], Workhouses were designed with only a single entrance guarded by a porter, through which inmates and visitors alike had to pass. [108] Another popular piece of workhouse literature was the dramatic monologue In the Workhouse – Christmas Day (1877) by George Robert Sims, with its first line of "It is Christmas Day in the workhouse".

A major feature of this new generation of buildings is the long corridors with separate wards leading off for men, women and children.


From the Jewish point of view ... was the virtual impossibility of complying with the Jewish ritual requirements; the dietary laws could have been followed, if at all, only by virtual restriction to bread and water, and the observance of the Sabbath and Festivities was impossible. Poorly paid, without any formal training, and facing large classes of unruly children with little or no interest in their lessons, few stayed in the job for more than a few months. Gilbert's Act was intended to allow parishes to share the cost of poor relief by joining together to form unions, known as Gilbert Unions, to build and maintain even larger workhouses to accommodate the elderly and infirm. Girls were punished in the same way as adults, but boys under the age of 14 could be beaten with "a rod or other instrument, such as may have been approved of by the Guardians". [56] Bone-crushing, useful in the creation of fertiliser, was a task most inmates could perform,[57] until a government inquiry into conditions in the Andover workhouse in 1845 found that starving paupers were reduced to fighting over the rotting bones they were supposed to be grinding, to suck out the marrow.

[40] In some establishments certain categories of inmate were marked out by their clothing; for example, at Bristol Incorporation workhouse, prostitutes were required to wear a yellow dress and pregnant single women a red dress; such practices were deprecated by the Poor Law Commission in a directive issued in 1839 entitled "Ignominious Dress for Unchaste Women in Workhouses", but they continued until at least 1866. [46], A typical early 19th-century casual ward was a single large room furnished with some kind of bedding and perhaps a bucket in the middle of the floor for sanitation.

The law required two overseers to be elected every Easter, and churchwardens or landowners were often selected. Those entering a workhouse might join anywhere from a handful to several hundred other inmates; for instance, between 1782 and 1794 Liverpool's workhouse accommodated 900–1200 indigent men, women and children.


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