Were workhouses so bad

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? Starter activity
This is Thurgarton Workhouse in Nottinghamshire.
Remembering that most working class people lived
in cramped, overcrowded houses with poor sanitary
conditions, how do you think people might have
felt when they were told they were going to work
and live in a workhouse similar to this one?
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Were workhouses so bad?
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? Your task

• As you find out about the Poor Law and
  workhouses in Victorian England you will note
  down any information that a supporter would agree
  with or any information that a critic would agree
  with in a table similar to the one below.

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1834 Poor Law

• Previously poor had been looked after by parish
• Now poor looked after by Poor Law Unions with
  Boards of Governors to administer them
• Established 100s of workhouses across the country
• Anyone claiming (old, sick or unemployed) outdoor
  relief had to work in workhouse
• Conditions inside workhouses must be worse than
  the lowest-paid worker

A typical workhouse of the nineteenth century
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Regulations

• 1847, commissioners issued detailed regulations
• Everyone entering a workhouse needed a medical
  examination
• Unwell paupers would be isolated in infirmaries
• Paupers would be cleaned and made to wear a
  special uniform
• Men and women were separated

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Example of workhouse regulations
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Evidence from Gressenhall Workhouse
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Punishment

• John Craske Anne his wife were brought before
  the Board for stealing bread. They shall be put
  in the dungeon for 24 hours and their diet shall
  be bread and water for the remainder of the week.

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Daily routine
Click to compare with daily routine of working
girl in 1820s Lancashire

• Hour of rising 5.45pm
• Interval for breakfast 6.30-7-.00am
• Time for work 7.00-12.00pm
• Interval for dinner 12.00-1.00pm
• Time for work 1.00-6.00pm
• Interval for supper 6.00-7.00pm
• Time for going to bed 8.00pm

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The schools

• I have this day inspected the schools. The boys
  answered remarkably well in the Scriptures.
  Indeed, their religious knowledge would do any
  school credit. Their arithmetic is fair and they
  possess greater knowledge of geography than is
  usually the case in schools of this description.
  Their reading is still much below their other
  attainments and their writing might be improved.

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Leaving the workhouse

• Artists 1
• Army 8
• Carpenters 2
• Gentlemans service 11
• Harnessmaker 1
• Printers 1

• Shoemakers 5
• Tailors 4
• Schoolmasters 4
• Farm service 12
• Other employments 26
• No known 12
• Destinations of boys from Gressenhall Workhouse,
  1845-53

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Reactions

• Improved morals of the poor, public houses and
  beer shops are much quieter
• The New Poor Law has saved huge sums of public
  money
• People who could not be made to work have now
  become good labourers
• Families should not be separated
• The workhouse is held in great dread

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? Your task

• Work in groups of 5 or 6. Imagine you have been
  invited to dinner by your new neighbours. As the
  evening goes on it appears that the guests around
  the table are divided over issue of the New Poor
  Law and workhouses. Create a role play using your
  notes to demonstrate the division. Try to bring
  as much historical detail into your argument as
  possible.

Click here for an example
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Outdoor relief

• Money given to poor people in parishes where
  there was no poorhouse or other form of
  accommodation. The money was given to poor people
  so they could stay in their own homes even if
  they were sick or out of work.

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Infirmary

• A sort of hospital, where the sick could be
  cared for away from everyone else until they were
  better.

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Commissioners

• Government officials who are given a specific
  job to do such as gather information on a
  particular problem and write up a report.

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