British and Irish Workhouses

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About British and Irish Workhouses

This is a group to gather together all pictures relating to workhouses, poorhouses and houses of industry built between 1722 and 1900 in Great Britain and Ireland and their fates after the abolition of the poor law in 1929-48.

Schools, cottage homes and isolation hospitals built by Poor Law Unions are also most welcome.

HISTORY
England and Wales

Workhouses were public institutions which housed people who were too poor to support themselves or their families. Apart from the sick, expectant mothers and the elderly, everyone was expected to do 'useful' work - often picking rope for caulking ships or breaking stones for roads. Because they were run on a tight budget, workhouses were often grim, depressing places and the lot of their inmates has been made infamous by contemporary writers such as Charles Dickens and George R. Sims.

The Workhouse Test Act of 1722-3 (9 Geo. I c.7) was the first act to allow the construction of workhouses rather than poorhouses as a part of the Poor Law provision established in 1601. Later, Thomas Gilbert's Act — For the Better Relief and Employment of the Poor (22 Geo. III c.83) was passed in 1782 and allowed the creation of workhouses by unions of parishes to 'relieve' poverty. Because it was only optional, it was not met with great success and few workhouses were built at this early stage.

It was not until the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834 (4 & 5 Will IV c. 76) that the building of workhouses was actually mandated. Each workhouse served an area of approximately 10,000 inhabitants (called a Union if made up of more than one parish) and was paid for by local taxation.

Over the years, many unions created further buildings to deal with the specific needs of the local poor. These included cottage homes and schools for children and infirmaries for the sick.

Although officially abolished by the Local Government Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo V c.17), many workhouses continued in use well into the 1940s, renamed Public Assistance Institutions. The Poor Law system was finally abolished in 1948 with the introduction of the modern welfare state and the NHS.

Scotland

In Scotland, workhouses were usually termed Poorhouses. The Scottish Poor Law Act was significantly different from the English and Welsh one. Under the Act, introduced in 1845, relief was not to be confined to the poorhouse, and the operation of poorhouses was voluntary not compulsory. Adjacent Scottish parishes could join together to form "Combinations" and operate Combination poorhouses. Approval for such arrangements had to be given by the Board of Supervision.

Although the Scottish poorhouse system was not intended to accommodate able-bodied paupers, poorhouses such as Glasgow later set up small "test wards" for inmates who judged to be "bad characters" or who were suspected to be able to support themselves outside the poorhouse. Test ward inmates were kept separate from other inmates and given a stricter regime. Men could be required to do stone-breaking or wood-cuuting, while women were given knitting to do.

After the 1929 Local Government Act, the Poorhouses shared the same fate as their English and Welsh counterparts.

Ireland

Although workhouses had existed before 1838, their use was on a much smaller scale than was the case in England and Wales. These early Workhouses were termed Houses of Industry. The Poor Law Act of 1838 mandated the construction of workhouses and forbade dispensing relief to paupers at home so that all relief was to be given in the workhouse.

During the Irish War of Independence, many workhouses were burnt down or destroyed as a hated symbol of British occupation. Following indepencence, all workhouses and Boards of Guardians were abolished in 1921-2 and replaced by Boards of Health or Public Assistance. Of those remaining workhouse buildings which were not destroyed in the ensuing Civil War, most became care homes or hospitals.

Workhouses in Northern Ireland were, of course, unaffected by this and carried on in line with those in England and Wales.