A spartan regime for desperate people
1
The workhouse was 19th
century England’s attempt
to solve the problem of
poverty.
England at this time was a
thriving industrial centre,
but there was still a huge
growth in the population
that meant thousands of
people lived in poverty.
Hunger, disease and
squalor were a part of
everyday life for so many.
The government decided to
try to stop this and make the
country a better place for
the poor to live in.
2
Following on from the 1601 Poor Law
Act, the 1834 Poor Law Act was passed.
In it was the instruction to all unions to
build a place in which all their poor could
be housed.
Workhouses were originally meant to be
places where the poor could work in
return for food and board but the
workhouse was not a place of comfort for
those who were forced to enter them.
Instead they were institutions of terror,
in which inmates were harshly treated, put
to work and made to suffer for being a
burden. They were essentially being
punished for being poor, and the
workhouse served as a deterrent to
being poor.
3
There were several pieces of legislation created to provide relief to the poor,
but only two made any real impact upon the lives of the poor
The 1601 Poor Law Act gave local
parishes the responsibility of providing for
their poor. The parish was also able to
claim assistance to enable them to fulfil
their duty of poor relief. The poor relief
was given out the poor in their homes,
they were still able to remain at home and
attempt to gain employment.
The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act was
a complete turn around, and a shock to
those who had been quite happy with the
1601 Act. The 1834 Act replaced the "Old
Poor Law", dating from the time of
Elizabeth I. The act required the
amalgamation of local parishes into
larger poor law unions. These unions
were then responsible for the construction
and running of their workhouse.
4
The Poor Law Amendment
Act of 1834 also decreed
that external relief for the
poor was to be stopped
within two years, leaving
these unfortunates with the
choice of the workhouse
or starvation.
It was a deliberately
ruthless measure, intended
to wipe out "pauperism",
which was judged to be
caused by the idleness,
fecklessness, drunkenness,
and over-dependence on
poor relief of "the lowest
class".
5
The workhouse was the main objective of this new act.
Those claiming relief from their union could now only do so if they gave up
their home, lodgings, and all personal property they had.
Their relief would be the provision of basic shelter, food and clothing
in return for their hard labour.
6
The poor were no longer pitied, so all dignity the poor had once held was
stripped away.
It was the belief that only the real poor would degrade themselves to such a
level, and that the vast majority of poor who had claimed relief before had only
done so out of idleness. A sin in the eyes of Victorian society.
7
However this was not the case
and society was faced with a
huge number of inmates.
Society and the landscape of
the country was now to
change forever.
The workhouse had arrived.
By 1926 there were some
226,000 inmates in the 600
workhouses.
In 1929 the Local
Government Act
abolished workhouses
and their unions
passed their
responsibilities to
county boroughs and
local councils.
8
The Cincinnati Workhouse:
As it was …
as it is
9
People ended-up in the workhouse for a variety of
reasons. Usually, it was because they were too poor,
old or ill to support themselves. This may have
resulted from such things as a lack of work during
periods of high unemployment, or someone having no
family willing or able to provide care for them when
they became elderly or sick.
Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by
their families and the workhouse was the only place
they could go during and after the birth of their child.
For many people the workhouse was the place of last
resort. Inmates were generally classed as two different
groups:
The "impotent poor" were those unable to look after
themselves, like the very old, the very young, the sick,
crippled, unmarried mothers, the blind and insane.
The "able bodied poor" were those who had no work
and therefore did not have any money to live on.
10
Life within the workhouse
was meant to be harsher
than normal. The workhouse
itself was built to be grim
and intimidating - designed
to look and function like a
prison. It was the belief that
such an environment would
act as a deterrent leaving
only those in absolute
poverty to enter.
As the number of inmates entering grew rapidly,
the workhouse became a place of overcrowding
and disease.
Admittance to the workhouse was also made a
degrading experience. Initially inmates were
segregated into specific groups eg. Men, Women,
Girls, Boys, Elderly, Infirm, Sick.
11
This saw families being
divided, often never to be
reunited or have contact with
each other again.
Upon entering the workhouse,
paupers were immediately
stripped, searched, bathed
(under supervision), and
given a severe haircut. Their
belongings and clothes
were taken away. Their
own clothes would be washed
and disinfected and then put
into store along with any other
possessions they had and
only returned to them when
they left the workhouse.
Few, if any personal
possessions were permitted.
Interior of 1889 Male Vagrants Block,
showing cell doors, Stoke-upon-Trent Union
Workhouse
12
Women’s ward , Hackney workhouse 1900
Inmates were then given a workhouse uniform, it was
often coarse, dull, simple and as cheap as possible.
From here inmates would then be sent to their block.
13
Originally, the Poor Law Commissioners expected that workhouse
inmates would make their own clothes and shoes, providing a useful
work task and a cost saving. However, they probably failed to realise
the level of skill required to perform this and uniforms were more
usually bought-in. Uniforms were usually made from fairly coarse
materials with the emphasis being on hard-wearing rather than on
comfort and fitting.
For many people the workhouse was the place of last resort. Inmates
were generally classed as two different groups:
The "impotent poor" were those unable to look after themselves, like
the very old, the very young, the sick, crippled, unmarried mothers, the
blind and insane.
The "able bodied poor" were those who had no work and therefore
did not have any money to live on.
14
In later years, the
uniform for ablebodied women
was generally a
shapeless,
waistless, blueand-white-striped
frock of cotton
material reaching
to the ankles,
with a smock
over. (Some
wore white
aprons and some
did not.)
15
Old women wore a bonnet or
mop-cap, shawl, and apron over .
They had woollen material shawls
to wear, and red flannel petticoats
tied around the waist, thick black
stockings and black shoes or
boots.
16
Glasgow
The men wore
thick corduroy
trousers, thick
black jackets and
black hats, grey
flannel shirts,
black thick socks
and hobnailed
boots.
For many years, certain categories of inmate were marked out by clothing
or badges of a particular colour, for example, yellow for pregnant women
who were unmarried. In 1839, the Poor Law Commissioners issued a
minute entitled "Ignominious Dress for Unchaste Women in Workhouses" in
which they deprecated these practices. However, more subtle forms of such
identification often continued.
17
Prior to the
establishment of
public mental
asylums in the
mid-nineteenth
century (and in
some cases even
after that), the
mentally ill and
mentally
handicapped
poor were often
consigned to the
workhouse.
Workhouses, though, were never prisons, and entry into them was generally a
voluntary although often painful decision. It also carried with it a change in
legal status — until 1918, receipt of poor relief meant a loss of the right to
vote. The operation of workhouses, and life and conditions inside them, varied
over the centuries in the light of current legislation and economic and social
conditions.
18
With such an intimidating building and
brutal routine, aversion to the 'house'
became extremely strong.
The jobs inmates were forced to do was
deliberately made to be tedious.
Householders within the union area
surrounding a workhouse did not wish to
pay to keep idlers, so work was seen as a
means of keeping them busy, as well as
subsidising the cost of relief provided by
the union.
A strict timetable was adhered to within
the house to ensure everything ran
properly.
Rise………………….at 5:45am
Breakfast…………...at 6:30am - 7am
Work…………………7am till 12 noon
Lunch.………………from 12 to 1pm
Work…………………from 1pm – 6pm
Supper and wash….6pm - 6:30pm
Bed…………………..at 8pm
Southwell Workhouse
19
Half an hour after the workhouse bell was rung for rising, the Master
or Matron performed a roll-call in each section of the workhouse. The
bell also announced meal breaks during which the rules required that
"silence, order and decorum shall be maintained" although from
1842 the word "silence" was dropped.
Communal
prayers were read
before breakfast
and after supper
every day and
Divine Service
performed every
Sunday, Good
Friday and
Christmas Day.
20
Inmates were given a variety of work to perform, much of which was
involved in running the workhouse. The women mostly did domestic
jobs such as cleaning, or helping in the kitchen or laundry. Some
workhouses had workshops for sewing, spinning and weaving or other
local trades. Others had their own vegetable gardens where the inmates
worked to provide food for the workhouse.
In rural areas, inmates were sometimes used for agricultural labour.
Other more menial work included:
Stone-breaking — the results being saleable for road-making
Corn-grinding — heavy mill-stones were rotated by four or more men
turning a capstan (the resulting flour was usually of very poor quality)
Bone-crushing — this was abolished after the Andover scandal)
Gypsum-crushing — for use in plaster-making
Oakum-picking
Wood-chopping
21
From 1882 all workhouses were
given a list of tasks that inmates
were supposed to undertake.
Stones were crushed by pounding
with a long heavy bar of iron about
four feet long (1.2 metres). The
stones had to be broken into small
enough pieces to pass through the
metal grille in the window shown in
this drawing.
Oakum picking (unravelling lengths
of rope) was commonly done by
small children, and the very old. Both
tasks left the hands covered in
blisters and bleeding.
22
Stone-breaking was a task often given to male inmates.
It was physically demanding, the amount performed could be readily
measured, and the results could be sold for road-mending.
23
Oakum-picking
involved teasing
out the fibres
from old hemp
ropes — the
resulting material
was sold to the
navy or other
ship-builders —
it was mixed with
tar and used to
seal the lining of
wooden ships.
24
Apart from stone crushing (for
road building) and oakum
picking, other types of work were
gardening, sewing, corn milling,
sack making. They were all
typical jobs done within the
workhouse.
Bone crushing had also been
done until it was banned in 1845
following a scandal whereby the
inmates of a specific workhouse
were forced to eat the flesh from
the non-animal bones to satisfy
their starvation.
In 1858 the St Marylebone workhouse (London)
hosted the trial of a new invention — Stevens's
bread-making machine — which claimed to to
make dough more efficiently and hygienically
than by using manual labour.
25
However it was
typically cooking
that was the
main job
performed by the
able-bodied
inmates, whilst
the aged and
infirm were
expected to care
for and teach
the children.
This in-house
regime being a
great part of the
foundation of the
workhouse.
26
The operation of workhouses, and life and conditions inside them, varied over
the centuries in the light of current legislation and economic and social
conditions.
The General Workhouse Act of 1723 gave parishes the authority to build their
own workhouses or join with other parishes to do so.
The aims of many pre-1834 workhouses are well expressed in this 1776 sign
above the door of Rollesby workhouse in Norfolk.
The emphasis in
earlier times was
more towards the
relief of
destitution rather
than deterrence
of idleness which
characterized
many of the
institutions set up
under the 1834
Poor Law
Amendment Act.
27
Whatever the regime
inside the workhouse,
entering it would have
been a distressing
experience.
New inmates would often
have already been
through a period of
severe hardship.
It was for good reason
that the entrance to the
Birmingham Union
workhouse was through
an arch locally known as
the "Archway of Tears".
28
Admission into the workhouse first
required an interview to establish the
applicant's circumstances. This was most
often undertaken by a Relieving Officer
who would visit each part of the Union on
a regular basis.
However, the workhouse Master could
also interview anyone in urgent need of
admission.
Formal admission into the workhouse
proper was authorised by the Board of
Guardians at their weekly meetings. In
between times, new arrivals would be
placed in a receiving or probationary
ward. There the workhouse medical
officer would examine them to check on
their state of health.
Those suffering from an illness would be
placed in a sick ward.
29
After 1834, workhouse inmates were strictly segregated into seven
classes:
• Aged or infirm men.
• Able bodied men, and youths above 13.
• Youths and boys above seven years old and under 13.
• Aged or infirm women
• Able-bodied women and girls above 16.
• Girls above seven years old and under 16.
• Children under 7 seven years of age.
Each class had its own area of the workhouse. Husbands, wives
and children were separated as soon as they entered the
workhouse and could be punished if they even tried to speak to
one another. From 1847, married couples over the age of sixty
could request to share a separate bedroom. Children under seven
could be placed (if the Guardians thought fit) in the female wards
and, from 1842, their mothers could have access to them "at all
reasonable times". Parents could also have an "interview" with their
children "at some time in each day".
30
The workhouse was like a small self-contained village. Apart from the basic
rooms such as a dining-hall for eating, and dormitories for sleeping,
workhouses often had their own bakery, laundry, tailor's and shoe-maker's,
vegetable gardens and orchards, and even a piggery for rearing pigs. There
would also be school-rooms, nurseries, fever-wards for the sick, a chapel,
and a dead-room or mortuary. You can get a good idea of the complexity of a
workhouse from old maps or plans. Once inside the workhouse, an inmate's
only possessions were their uniform and the bed they had in the large
dormitory.
31
Irish workhouses were particularly cramped, with the narrow attic space pressed
into service as sleeping space for children as shown here at Londonderry.
For vagrants and casuals, the 'bed' could be a wooden box rather like a coffin,
or even just be a raised wooden platform, or the bare floor. In some places,
metal rails provided a support for low-slung hammocks.
32
In some workhouses beds were simply constructed with a wooden or ironframe, and could be as little as two feet across. Bedding, in the 1830s and
1840s at least, was generally a mattress and cover, both filled with straw,
although blankets and sheets were later introduced.
Bed-sharing, particularly amongst children, was common although it became
prohibited for adult paupers.
Londonderry
33
Londonderry
The inmates' toilet facilities were often a simple privy — a cess-pit with a simple
cover having a hole in it on which to sit — shared perhaps by as many as 100
inmates. Dormitories were usually provided with chamber pots or, after 1860,
earth closets — boxes containing dry soil which could afterwards be used as
fertiliser. Once a week, the inmates were bathed (usually superintended —
another assault on their dignity) and the men shaved.
34
Each ward had an open fireplace; a lavatory and water-closet in a recess
or lobby; in some instances the latter served for two or three wards. In
several cases the grossest possible carelessness and neglect were
discovered in some of these wards.
Thirty men had used one closet, in which there had been no water for more
than a week, and which was in close proximity to their ward; and in an
adjoining ward so strong was the ammoniacal smell that we had no doubt
respecting the position of the cabinet, which we found dry. In No. 4 ward
(female), with 17 beds, the drain-smell from a lavatory in a recess of the
room was so offensive that we suspected a sewer-communication, and soon
discovered that there was no trap; indeed it had been lost for some
35
considerable time.
The lists of rules under
which workhouse
operated were often
printed and
prominently displayed
in the workhouse, and
also read out aloud
each week so that the
illiterate could have no
excuse for disobeying
them.
They outlined the daily
regime.
36
ART. 119.—No written or printed paper of an improper tendency, or
which may be likely to produce insubordination, shall be allowed to
circulate, or be read aloud, among the inmates of the Workhouse.
ART. 120.—No pauper shall play at cards, or at any game of
chance, in the Workhouse ; and the Master may take from any
pauper, and keep until his departure from the Workhouse, any
cards, dice, or other articles applicable to games of chance, which
may be in his possession.
ART. 121.—No pauper shall smoke in any room of the Workhouse,
except by the special direction of the Medical Officer, or shall have
any matches or other articles of a highly combustible nature in his
possession, and the Master may take from any person any articles
of such a nature.
37
After 1834, the breaking of
workhouse rules fell into two
categories: Disorderly conduct,
which could be punished by a
withdrawal for food "luxuries"
such as cheese or tea, or the more
serious Refractory conduct, which
could result in a period of solitary
confinement. The workhouse
dining hall was required to display a
poster which spelt out these rules:
Workhouse punishment books
record the severity of punishments
meted out to inmates.
Offences against property, for
example breaking a window,
received particularly harsh
punishment.
38
Being "lock'd up" might well mean a spell in the "refractory
cell" — this was often underground in one of the workhouse
cellars, such as the one at Keighley workhouse
39
This notice set out the
strict rules for "casual
paupers", who were
people without jobs staying
for a short period in the
workhouse.
After 1850 the workhouses
mostly contained the
"deserving poor", plus a
shifting population of
vagrants and "casual
paupers" kept apart from
the others.
40
The diet fed to workhouse inmates was often laid down in
meticulous detail.
From 1835 onwards, the Poor Law Commissioners issued
sample dietary tables for use in Union workhouses. Each
Board of Guardians then used one of these tables as the basis
for the particular diet in their own workhouse, subject to the
agreement of the Poor Law Commissioners.
Children and the aged or infirm had a slightly different diet,
usually with more meat-based meals, and with inclusion of milk
or tea. From 1856, special diets were also provided for children
aged from two to five, and from five to nine. Special or medical
cases might require extra or alternative food.
Thus, each workhouse had to cope with at least seven classes
of diet for the various categories of inmate, each carefully
measured to comply with the regulations.
41
The main constituent of the workhouse diet was bread. At breakfast it
was supplemented by gruel or porridge — both made from water
and oatmeal (or occasionally a mixture of flour and oatmeal).
Workhouse broth was usually the water used for boiling the dinner
meat, perhaps with a few onions or turnips added. Tea — often
without milk — was often provided for the aged and infirm at
breakfast, together with a small amount of butter. Supper was
usually similar to breakfast. The mid-day dinner was the meal that
varied most, although on several days a week this could just be bread
and cheese.
Although healthy in some respects,
for example sugar was rare in the
workhouse diet until the 1870s, it
was often created from the cheapest
ingredients. Milk was often diluted
with water.
Fruit was rarely included.
42
Dietary Table:
Breakfast, Supper (same as Breakfast)
Males above 15 years of age - 8 oz. (=gr. 227) of Bread or 6 oz
(=gr. 170) of Bread, and 1 pint (=l. 0,56) of Gruel or 1 pint of
Broth. Females above 15 years of age, Children from 7 to 15 years of
age - 6 oz of Bread, and 1 pint of Gruel or 1 pint of Broth. Children under seven years of age: For each child under the age
of seven months - half pint of Milk and half oz (= gr. 14) of Sugar.
For each child between the ages of seven months and two years
- half pint of Milk, half oz of Sugar, and 2 oz (= gr. 57) of Bread.
For each child between the ages of two years and seven years half pint (= l. 0,28) of Milk, 4 oz (= gr. 114) of Bread, and half oz
(= gr. 14) of Cheese.
43
Here is a table showing the diet of children aged two to three
in the Rhayader workhouse.
44
These menus had
been established in
the 1834 Poor Law
Amendment Act to
ensure that the
very basic levels
of nutrition were
met.
H.M. Prisons
official ration was
292oz (=8,28 kg.)of
food per prisoner
per week.
In the Workhouse
this ration was
only 137oz
(approx.) (=3,9 kg.)
of food per inmate
per week.
Bath Workhouse c.1900
The staples were bread, cheese, gruel (thin oatmeal),
soup, potatoes, and very rarely meat and bacon.
Food was also stripped of everything that might have
been attractive to inmates. Especially salt.
45
The Governor and Matron
shall allot the quantity of
provision for each day's
consumption agreeable to
the following Bill of Fare,
shall see them weighed,
and properly dressed and
distributed.
Sunday: Broth - meat and
potatoes -peas, soup.
Monday: Rice, milk - soup
and bread and cheese mashed potatoes.
Tuesday: Broth - pork and
peas pudding or bacon
broth.
Wednesday: Milk, porridge
- meat and potatoes or
bacon and vegetables
broth.
Thursday: Broth, porridge - soup and bread and
cheese - mashed potatoes.
Friday: Rice and milk - Ox cheek or legs of beef with
potatoes - broth.
Saturday: Milk porridge - a clearance of what has been
cooked made with bread and cheese - rice milk.
46
Meals were
usually eaten in
a large
communal
dining-hall
which often
doubled-up as a
chapel.
Until 1842 all meals were conducted in silence without cutlery. All
meals were basic and tasteless, following the same mundane weekly
menu.
47
In larger workhouses, inmates commonly sat in rows all facing the
same way, with separate men's and women's dining halls.
48
The poor diet, contaminated water supplies, and unclean and overcrowded
conditions led to illness and disease. The most common of these being
measles, opthalmia, small pox, dysentery, scarlet and typhus fever, and cholera.
Cholera victims turned blue and had terrible sickness and diarrhoea. At least half
of those who caught cholera died. It was spread by unclean drinking water.
Dysentery was similar with many victims dying of dehydration.
The extract shown below lists the symptoms of Cholera as printed on a warning
notice from around 1840. The references to the "extremities of the body" means
fingers and toes. "Stagnant" means still or very slow moving, and if the flow of
blood around the body is slower than usual it causes the coldness mentioned.
Dehydration - loss of fluid from the body.
Typhus fever was carried by lice that lived in the hair and clothes. The patient
usually had a swollen face, smelt terrible and the skin often turned black.
Scarlet fever was common and recognised by headache, fever and a red rash
all over the skin.
Smallpox usually attacked babies and quite large number recovered.
Unfortunately the pus filled blisters often left survivors terribly disfigured.
Opthalmia was very common in workhouses. It affected the eyes and left
untreated it often led to blindness.
49
Virtually all workhouses had at least a
small infirmary block for the care of
sick inmates. However, with the
exception of the medical officer, early
nursing care in the workhouse was
invariably in the hands of female
inmates who would often not be
able to read — a serious problem
when dealing with labels on medicine
bottles.
Before 1863, not a single trained nurse existed in any workhouse infirmary
outside London. In the 1860s, pressure began for improvements in workhouse
medical care. Some of the most notable campaigners were Louisa Twining, a
prominent figure in the Workhouse Visiting Society, Florence Nightingale, and
the medical journal “The Lancet”. In 1865, “The Lancet” began a serious of
detailed reports about conditions in London's workhouse infirmaries.
50
In some places, the workhouse had a special coffin for
transporting bodies to the cemetery. This one at Londonderry had
a hole on top where a warning flag would be placed when the
coffin contained a body.
51
Any pauper could, on giving three hours notice, leave the
workhouse. In the case of a man with a family, the whole
family would have to leave if he left. Short-term absence
could also be granted to an able-bodied pauper seeking work.
It was not unknown for a pauper to discharge himself in the
morning and then return demanding re-admission the same
evening, possibly the worse for wear from drink. Various
attempts were made to deal with these "ins and outs", for
example by lengthening the amount of notice required.
52
There was actually little to prevent a pauper from walking out
of the workhouse, although delaying the return of his own
clothes could be used to achieve this — if he left wearing
workhouse clothes, he could be charged with theft of
workhouse property and brought before the magistrates. Many
inmates were, however, to become long-term residents of the
workhouse. A Parliamentary report of 1861 found that, nationwide, over 20 percent of inmates had been in the workhouse
for more than five years. These were mostly consisted of
elderly, chronically sick, and mentally ill paupers.
53
Changing attitudes towards poverty
Towards the end of the century, attitudes towards the ways in
which the poorest people in society were being treated were at last
changing, and conditions were slowly improving.
By that time it was common for children to be taken away from
workhouses and placed in children’s homes or in foster homes.
By 1900 the harshness of the workhouse system was under attack
from social reformers and charities. The poor were no longer being
thought of as being always responsible for their own circumstances
but seen more as victims of the economic and social conditions
of the times. The extension of the vote and the election of more
sympathetic MPs led to the beginning of the end of the unforgiving
treatment of the poor. Today’s alternative approach to social
welfare was to be set in train by 1911, with the introduction of old
age pensions and state benefits.
54
Some workhouses became "Public
Assistance Institutions" —
continued to provide care for the
elderly and infirm and the
destitute. In such establishments
(often given names such as "The
Laurels") this often meant little more
than the abolition of uniforms and
a little more freedom to come and
go.
For many years, the
"superintendent" of the Institution
would still be referred to as "Master"
by the former "inmates", now called
"residents".
Even when conditions did improve,
living in the workhouse was
something that would never lose its
stigma.
55
Suffolk, Bosmere and Claydon workhouse site, 1904
56