Introduction

The Oxford Dictionary's first record of the word workhouse dates back to 1652 in Exeter — 'The said house to bee converted for a workhouse for the poore of this cittye and also a house of correction for the vagrant and disorderly people within this cittye.' However, workhouses were around even before that — in 1631 the Mayor of Abingdonreported that "wee haue erected wthn our borough a workehouse to sett poore people to worke"

State-provided poor relief is often dated from the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in 1601 when the passing of an Act for the Relief of the Poor made parishes legally responsible for looking after their own poor. This was funded by the collection of a poor-rate tax from local property owners (a tax that survives in the present-day "council tax"). The 1601 Act made no mention of workhouses although it provided that materials should be bought to provide work for the unemployed able-bodied — with the threat of prison for those who refused. It also proposed the erection of housing for the "impotent poor" — the elderly, chronic sick, etc.

Parish poor relief was dispensed mostly through "out-relief" — grants of money, clothing, food, or fuel, to those living in their own homes. However, the workhouse gradually began to evolve in the seventeenth century as an alternative form of "indoor relief", both to save the parish money, and also as a deterrent to the able-bodied who were required to work, usually without pay, in return for their board and lodging. The passing of the Workhouse Test Act in 1723, gave parishes the option of denying out-relief and offering claimants only the workhouse.

Parish workhouse buildings were often just ordinary local houses, rented for the purpose. Sometimes a workhouse was purpose-built, like this one erected in 1729 for the parishes of Box and Ditteridge in Wiltshire.

Parish workhouse, Box, Wiltshire.
© Peter Higginbotham.

In some cases, the poor were "farmed" — a private contractor undertook to look after a parish's poor for a fixed annual sum; the paupers' work could be a useful way of boosting the contractor's income. The workhouse was not, however, necessarily regarded as place of punishment, or even privation. Indeed, conditions could be pleasant enough to earn some institutions the nickname of "Pauper Palaces".

Gilbert's Act of 1782 simplified and standardized the procedures for parishes to set up and run workhouses, either on their own, or by forming a group of parishes called a Gilbert Union. Under Gilbert's scheme, able-bodied adult paupers would not be admitted to the workhouse, but were to be maintained by their parish until work could be found for them. Although relatively few workhouses were set up under Gilbert's scheme, the practice of supplementing labourers' wages out of the poor rate did become widely established. The best known example of this was the "Speenhamland System" which supplemented wages on a sliding scale linked to the price of bread and family size. By the start of the nineteenth century, the nationwide cost of out-relief was beginning to spiral. It was also believed by some that parish relief had become seen as an easy option by those who did not want to work. There was also growing civil unrest during this period, culminating in the Captain Swing riots whose targets included workhouses. In 1832, the Government set up a Royal Commission to investigate the problems and propose changes.

In 1834, the Commission's report resulted in the Poor Law Amendment Act which was intended to end to all out-relief for the able bodied. The 15,000 or so parishes in England and Wales were formed into Poor Law Unions, each with its own union workhouse. A similar scheme was introduced in Ireland in 1838, while in 1845 Scotland set up a separate and somewhat different system.

Each Poor Law Union was managed by a locally elected Board of Guardians and the whole system was administered by a central Poor Law Commission. In the late 1830s, hundreds of new union workhouse buildings were erected across the country. The Commission's original proposal to have separate establishments for different types of pauper (the old, the able-bodied, children etc.) was soon abandoned and a single "general mixed workhouse" became the norm. The new buildings were specially designed to segregate the different categories of inmate. The first purpose-built workhouse to be erected under the new scheme was at Abingdon in 1835.

Abingdon Union workhouse, 1835.
©Peter Higginbotham

Under the new Act, the threat of the Union workhouse was intended to act as a deterrent to the able-bodied pauper. This was a principle enshrined in the revival of the "workhouse test" — poor relief would only be granted to those desperate enough to face entering the repugnant conditions of the workhouse. If an able-bodied man entered the workhouse, his whole family had to enter with him.

Life inside the workhouse was was intended to be as off-putting as possible. Men, women, children, the infirm, and the able-bodied were housed separately and given very basic and monotonous food such as watery porridge called gruel, or bread and cheese. All inmates had to wear the rough workhouse uniform and sleep in communal dormitories. Supervised baths were given once a week. The able-bodied were given hard work such as stone-breaking or picking apart old ropes called oakum. The elderly and infirm sat around in the day-rooms or sick-wards with little opportunity for visitors. Parents were only allowed limited contact with their children — perhaps for an hour or so a week on Sunday afternoon.

By the 1850s, the majority of those forced into the workhouse were not the work-shy, but the old, the infirm, the orphaned, unmarried mothers, and the physically or mentally ill. For the next century, the Union Workhouse was in many localities one of the largest and most significant buildings in the area, the largest ones accommodating more than a thousand inmates. Entering its harsh regime and spartan conditions was considered the ultimate degradation.

Union workhouse, Newtown, Montgomeryshire
© Peter Higginbotham.

The workhouse was not, however, a prison. People could, in principle, leave whenever they wished, for example when work became available locally. Some people, known as the "ins and outs", entered and left quite frequently, treating the workhouse almost like a guest-house, albeit one with the most basic of facilities. For some, however, their stay in the workhouse would be for the rest of their lives.

In the 1850s and 60s, complaints were growing about the conditions in many London workhouses. Figures such as Florence Nightingale, Louisa Twining, and the medical journal The Lancet, were particularly critical of the treatment of the sick in workhouses which was frequently in insanitary conditions and with most of the nursing care provided by untrained and often illiterate female inmates. Eventually, parliament passed the Metropolitan Poor Act which required workhouse hospitals to be on sites separate from the workhouse. The Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) was also set up to look after London's poor suffering from infectious diseases or mental disability. The smallpox and fever hospitals set up by the MAB were eventually opened up to all London's inhabitants and became the country's first state hospitals, laying the foundations for the National Health Service which began in 1948.

Holborn Union Infirmary, 2003
© Peter Higginbotham.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, conditions gradually improved in the workhouse, particularly for the elderly and infirm, and for children. Food became a little more varied and small luxuries such as books, newspapers, and even occasional outings were allowed. Children were increasingly housed away from the workhouses in special schools or in cottage homes which were often placed out in the countryside.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Cottage Homes, Ponteland, 2001
© Peter Higginbotham.

The workhouse era ended, officially at least, on 1st April 1930; the 643 Boards of Guardians in England and Wales were abolished and their responsibilities passed to local authorities. Some workhouse buildings were sold off, demolished, or fell into disuse. Many, however, became Public Assistance Institutions and continued to provide accommodation for the elderly, chronic sick, unmarried mothers and vagrants. For inmates of these institutions, life often changed relatively little during the 1930s and 40s. Apart from the abolition of uniforms, and more freedom to come and go, things improved only slowly. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, many former workhouse buildings continued to house the elderly and chronic sick. With the reorganisation of the NHS in the 1980s and 90s, the old buildings were often turned over for use as office space or demolished to make way for new hospital blocks or car parks. More recently, the survivors have increasingly been sold off for redevelopment, ironically, in some cases, as luxury residential accommodation.

Increasingly little remains of these once great and gloomy edifices. What does survive often passes unnoticed. But even now, more than seventy years after its official abolition, the mere mention of the workhouse can still send a shiver through those old enough to remember its existence. In Kendal, the location of a long-gone workhouse is modestly marked in a now renamed side-road. However, some local residents clearly feel this is an institution they would rather not commemorate...

Kendal road signs, 2004
© Peter Higginbotham.

For more information about every facet of the workhouse, please explore the rest of this web-site. If you can't find what you need, try typing a word or a phrase (in quotes) into the "Find" box at the top-left of the screen.

Workhouse Glossary

Almshouse

An establishment, usually funded by a charitable endowment, providing free or subsidised accommodation for the elderly poor of good character, and typically constructed as a row of small self-contained cottages. A wealthy person might bequeath money for the setting up of some almshouses in the hope that the residents might then regularly pray for his soul. (See also Poorhouse, Workhouse.)

Badging of the Poor

An Act of 1697, amending the Settlement laws, required that anyone receiving poor relief wear a badge on their right shoulder. The badge, in red or blue cloth, consisted of the letter "P" together with the initial letter of the parish, for example "AP" for Ampthill parish.

Pauper's badge for Ampthill parish

Bastille (or Bastile, or "Old Basty")

One of the slang names for the workhouse, along with Spike, Grubber etc. probably reflecting the prison/fortress-like nature of some early workhouse designs. GR Wythen Baxter's book The Book of the Bastiles was an early polemic against the post-1834 workhouse system.

Board of Guardians

The local management committee for each Poor Law Union. They were elected annually by the rate-payers in each parish in a Union. In addition, local magistrates could act as ex officio Guardians. The Board met at a fixed time either weekly or fortnightly, usually in a board-room at the workhouse.

Boarding Out

Boarding out was the practice of placing workhouse children in the long-term care of foster parents who usually received a weekly allowance for each child staying with them. (See also scattered comes, cottage homes,children and education)

Bone Crushing

The pounding of old bones into dust for use as fertilizer. In the 1840s, there was a public scandal when it was discovered that malnourished inmates at Andover workhouse had been fighting over scraps of rotting meat left on some bones they were supposed to be crushing.

Bone-crushing equipment, 1840s. © Peter Higginbotham.

Brabazon Scheme

The Brabazon Scheme was initiated in 1880 by Lady Brabazon who later became the Countess of Meath. It was intended to provide interesting and useful occupation such as knitting, embroidery or lace-making for non-able-bodied workhouse inmates who spent long hours confined to bed or in day rooms. Training in the various crafts was provided by outside volunteers and the costs were initially borne by Lady Brabazon. The scheme was slow to take off, with Kensington being the first to adopt it in 1883. However, it gradually spread, particularly when it was found that the goods produced were saleable and made the scheme self-financing. By 1897, there were over 100 branches.

Bully's Acre

Originally the graveyard adjoining the Royal Hospital in Dublin, where no payment of fees was exacted. Later used more generally as an informal term for a paupers' or famine graveyard, especially associated with workhouse burial grounds.

Captain Swing Riots

In the autumn of 1830, agricultural labourers across southern England protested against low wages, expensive food, and the growing mechanization of farms. Threatening letters sent to land-owners and farmers were signed 'Swing' — the supposed, although probably fictitious, leader of the protests. Workhouses were amongst the rioters' targets — on 22nd November, a mob assailed the Selborne parish workhouse, turned out the occupants, burned or smashed the fittings and furniture, and pulled off the roof. The following day, an even larger mob, including the Selborne rioters, did the same to the workhouse at nearby Headley. The ringleaders were later transported to Australia. (See also Rebecca Riots.)

A typical 'Swing' letter. © Peter Higginbotham.

Casual Poor ("Casuals")

The Casual Poor (usually known just as "Casuals") were those to which a workhouse gave temporary accommodation for one or two nights. Casuals — typically vagrants, tramps, or the "houseless poor" — did not need to be settled in the union. They were required to perform a task of work such as stone-breaking or oakum-picking being allowed to leave. Casuals were housed in a separate area of the workhouse, usually near the entrance, known as the casual ward.

Casual Ward

Part of a workhouse for the accommodation of the casual poor. In London and a few other large cities, casual wards were sometimes erected on separate sites.

Class Room

A smaller room in a school used for accommodating infants, or where a lesson was given to a particular class or group of pupils. A class room typically had three rows of seats around the outside all facing in to the centre, and was often fitted with a gallery containing further seats. (See also School Room.)

Elementary School - Keeping Warm, c.1890

Children in a class-room - taking turns doing exercises for warmth in winter, c.1890. © Peter Higginbotham.

Cottage Homes

Introduced in the late 1860s, and modelled on similar schemes in France, Germany and Switzerland, cottage homes were often set in rural locations away from the often poor conditions and malign influences of the union workhouse. Groups or "families" of pauper children lived in 'villages' of purpose-built houses often set along a street or around a green. Each house would have a house 'parent' looking after twenty or thirty children. (See also scattered homes, boarding out, children and education.)

Aston Union Cottage Homes. © Peter Higginbotham.

County Home or County Institution

County Home or County Institution was another name for a Public Assistance Institution.

Creed Register

From 1869, the workhouse master had to record the religious creed of each new inmate so that appropriate arrangements could be made in respect of their education (in the case of children), serious illness, or death.

Creed Register Form

Dietary

The fixed (and often basic and monotonous) diet prescribed for workhouse inmates. The dietary specified the food to be served to each class of inmate (male/female, adult/children etc.) for each meal of the week, often including the exact amount to be provided. After 1834, the Poor Law Commissioners devised a set of six slightly different standard dietaries from which each union could select the one it preferred, based on the local availability of various foodstuffs. The "No. 3" diet is shown below.

Earth Closet

A small outbuilding, room, or room-fitting used as a toilet, where dry earth is used to cover and deodorise deposits. (See also Privy, Water Closet, Water Closet, Lavatory, Laundry.)

Diagram of an earth-closet. © Peter Higginbotham.

Ex Officio Guardians

Ex officio is a Latin phrase meaning "by virtue of one's office". Ex officio members of a union's Board of Guardians were people, usually local Justices of the Peace, who were entitled to a seat on their local Board without needing to be elected.

Foul Wards

Workhouse wards for those suffering from venereal diseases.

Grubber

One of the slang names for the workhouse, along with Spike, Bastille etc. perhaps derived from grub — a slang term for food, or from a term used to describe a person who works hard, especially in a dull, plodding way.

Hospital

An establishment originally offering a wide range of care, not only medical but also non-medical provision such as shelter and food, the education of children, and sanctuary for those incapacitated by old age or chronic infirmity. (See also Infirmary.)

House of Correction

An early form of disciplinary institution dating back to the 16th century. In addition to its function of a gaol for the rogue, it might also include a workhouse for the poor, hospital for the old, and industrial school for the young. Some small "lock-ups" were also called Houses of Correction - an example survives in Hawarden, Flintshire:

House Of Industry

The name often used for the workhouse established by a Local Act Incorporations, also the "Hundred" institutions set up in Norfolk and Suffolk unions in the eighteenth century.

Idiots and Imbeciles

Idiots and imbeciles were two commonly used categories of mental subnormality. Definitions varied over the years but in broad terms:

Idiots, the most deficient, were unable to protect themselves against basic physical dangers.
Imbeciles, a less severely deficient group, were unable to protect themselves against moral and mentaldangers.

Incorporation

A group of parishes joined by a special Local Act of Parliament and empowered to regulate a variety of local matters including poor relief.

Indoor Relief

Poor relief provided via the workhouse. (See also Outdoor Relief.)

Industrial Schools

Originally applied to workhouse schools where industrial training was given to pauper children. After 1856, the term was more commonly applied to schools set up to detain vagrant, destitute and disorderly children who were considered in danger of becoming criminals. From the 1930s, the latter were known as Approved Schools.

Infirmary

An establishment offering treatment for the sick and injured, usually for a defined community. Thus, the medical provision in a workhouse was normally described as an infirmary. (See also Hospital.)

Ins and Outs

"Ins and Outs" were people who frequently entered and left the workhouse. Workhouses were never prisons, and inmates could leave with "reasonable notice", so long as they had been given back their own clothes — leaving the premises while wearing the workhouse uniform constituted theft of union property. "Ins and Outs" were a great irritation to workhouse staff since, upon readmission, they had to undergo all the administrative formalities required of new inmates, even though they may have only been absent for a few hours. For an example, see the episode involving Charlie Chaplin's family at the Lambeth workhouse.

Itch

"The Itch", or scabies, was a common medical condition caused by a small parasite, similar to lice, which burrows under the skin casuing severe itching. The conditiuon was often contracted through occupying a bed with an infected individual. Most workhouses had specially designated "itch wards" for such cases.

Laundry

An out-building where newly washed clothes were processed, for example mangled, folded, pressed, ironed, starched etc. (See also Wash-house, Lavatory, Privy, Water Closet.)

Lavatory

In workhouse times, a room in which inmates washed (as opposed to the modern usage meaning toilet). (See also Privy, Water Closet, Wash-house, Laundry.)

Less Eligibility

The principle that conditions in the workhouse should never be better than those of "an independent labourer of the lowest class."

Local Act

A special Act of Parliament granting a group or incorporation of parishes the powers to regulate local matters such as poor relief, lighting, watching etc.

Lock Cases/Wards/Hospitals

"Lock" was a synonym for "venereal". Some large workhouses had a "lock ward" where those with venereal diseases (i.e. lock cases) were treated. (See also Foul Wards)

Money

Prior to the decimalization of UK currency in 1971, a system of pounds, shillings and pence (£.s.d.) was in use:

a pound was divided into twenty shillings, and the shilling was divided into twelve pennies (or pence) — there were thus 240 (20 times 12) pennies in a pound
an amount such as fifteen shillings was usually written as 15s. or 15/-
an amount such as fivepence was written as 5d. (the "d" originally stood for denarius — a small Roman coin); two shillings and nine-and-a-half pence was usually written as 2s.9½d. or 2/9½ — and read as "two and ninepence ha'penny"
For some business purposes, a unit called the guinea (21/-) was used
Coins in use included: the farthing (¼d), the half-penny or ha'penny, the penny, the threepenny bit, the sixpence, the shilling, the florin (2/-), the half-crown (2/6), the crown (5/-), and the sovereign (£1).

A Victorian half-penny and half-crown

(See also Workhouse Tokens, and Weights and Measures)

Oakum

Loose fibres obtained by unpicking old ropes which were then sold to the navy or other ship-builders - it was mixed with tar and used for caulking (sealing the lining) of wooden ships. Picking oakum was done without tools of any sort and was very hard on the fingers.

Picking oakum in the East End of London, 1906. © PRO (PRO 30/69/1663).

Outdoor Labour Test

A provision whereby out-relief could be given to able-bodied applicants, in return for their performing manual labour such as stone-breaking. No more than half the relief could be given as money.

Outdoor Relief (or Out-Relief)

Poor relief provided outside the workhouse, either in cash or in kind. (See also Indoor Relief)

Out-relief Unions

Out-relief unions originated in 1873 as a result of a proposal by Local Government Inspector Andrew Doyle. He suggested that where parts of a union fell in different counties, the creation of an out-relief union within each county area could simplify the administration of out-relief and also allow different counties to adopt differing out-relief policies if they wished. The existing poor law union would still operate the workhouse for indoor relief across the whole union. Formal provision for out-relief unions came in section 58 of the 1888 Local Government Act and section 36(b) of the 1894 Local Government Act. Out-relief unions were formed on 28th December 1894 at Malton and Norton (bopth members of the Malton poor law union); Belvoir and Grantham (Grantham union); Bishopthorpe, Escrick, Flaxton and York (York union); and on 31st March 1895 at Keynsham and Warmley (Keynsham union).

Overseers

Officials of a parish, between two and four in number, appointed by the Vestry. The duties of this unpaid post, first established in 1572, were primarily financial - to supervise the collection and distribution of the poor rate.

Poorhouse

The term poorhouse was often used in England prior to 1834 for parish establishments housing paupers where there was no resident master or matron, no prescribed dietary, and where there little or no work was required of the inmates. Pauper establishments in Scotland were also invariably known as poorhouses (or poor's houses), perhaps reflecting that fact that they did not cater for the able-bodied and therefore imposed no requirement for deterrent work. However, the words poorhouse and workhouse were often used fairly interchangeably. After 1834, the institutions established by Poor Law Unions were always known as workhouses and always required the able-bodied inmates to perform work. In other countries, e.g. the USA, there was a similar distinction between the poorhouse (for the destitute, old and sick) and the workhouse (a place where hard labour was required of able-bodied paupers, including petty criminals serving a short sentence there). (See alsoAlmshouse, Workhouse.)

Poor Law Institution

The official name for a workhouse after 1912.

Poor Rate

A compulsory local tax, dating from 1597, based on an official assessment of the value of the property in which one lived. It was collected by Parish Overseers and distributed under the jurisdiction of the Vestry.

Privy

A room or small outbuilding used as a toilet, usually an earth closet rather than a water closet. (See also Privy,Water Closet, Earth Closet, Lavatory, Laundry.)

Public Assistance Institution

After the formal abolition of the workhouse system in 1930, many former workhouses were redesignated as Public Assistance Institutions (PAIs). These establishments were administered by local Public Assistance Committees set up by county or county borough councils and were sometimes known as County Institutions or County Homes. PAIs provided accommodation for the elderly, chronic sick, single unmarried mothers and, in many cases, vagrants. The Institutions inherited many staff and inmates from the workhouse era and were not that different from their predecessors except that there were no uniforms, and the residents (rather than "inmates") could come and go as they pleased.

Rebecca Riots

In 1842-3, the 'Rebecca Rioters' carried out a campaign of protests across South Wales which included the storming of the Carmarthen workhouse on the 19th June, 1843. The rioters took their name from the Book of Genesis (Chapter 24, Verse 60): "And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them." The rioters often included one or more 'Rebecca' figures dressed in women's clothes and wearing a wig of ringlets. (See also Captain Swing Riots.)

Rebecca rioters, 1843. © Peter Higginbotham.

Removal

The process by which a person was returned to their parish of settlement from another parish where they had become a charge on the poor rates.

Roundsman System

A system where parishes sent unemployed labourers around local ratepayers to be provided with work, with their wages being subsidised from the poor rate. An alternative version used a weekly auction of pauper labourers, again with their wages being raised to subsitence levels by the poor rates. The Roundsman System often operated in conjunction with the Speenhamland System

Scattered Homes

Scattered Homes (or Isolated Homes) accommodated pauper children in ordinary houses, often rented for the purpose, which scattered around the suburbs of a town or city. Unlike cottage homes sites which usually had their own schools, the children in scattered homes attended ordinary local schools. (See also boarding out,children and education

School Room

The largest room in a school where all the pupils could be accommodated at once. (See also Class Room.)

Settlement

The principle by which a person could only claim poor relief from the parish under which they were officially "settled". Anyone trying to claim relief without correct settlement qualifications could undergo forcible removalto their own parish. A child's settlement at birth was taken to be the same as that of its father. Illegitimate children were granted settlement in the place they were born. If a boy became apprenticed his parish of settlement became the place of his apprenticeship. At marriage, a woman took on the same settlement as her husband. Settlement could also be acquired by various means such as renting a property above a certain value, or being continuously employed employed in a job for a year and a day.

Skilly

A thin oatmeal soup or gruel - a regular part of the workhouse diet.

Speenhamland System

A system named after the Berkshire parish where in 1795 local magistrates decided to supplement labourers' wages on a scale that varied with price of bread and number of children. It was formally expressed as follows:

When the gallon loaf of second flour weighing 8lb. 11oz. shall cost 1s., then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s. weekly, either produced by his own or his family's labour or an allowance from the poor rates, and for the support of his wife and every other of his family 1s. 6d. When the gallon loaf shall cost 1s.4d., then every poor and industrious man shall 3s. weekly for his own, and 1s.10d. for the support of every other of his family. And so in proportion as the price of bread rises or falls (that is to say) 3d. to the man and 1d. to every other of the family on every penny which the loaf rises above a shilling.

Thus, if the price of bread rose to 1s.3d., a married man with two children would be guaranteed a wage of 3s.9d for himself plus three times 1s.9d., giving a total of 9 shillings a week.

Spike

One of the slang names for the workhouse (or more specifically its casual ward) along with Bastille, Grubberetc. Theories abound as to the origin of the word including:

A short metal nail used in picking oakum.
A large metal spike fixed in the ground or a rock and used for stone breaking.
A small metal spike on which admission tickets (issued in some areas at local police stations) were placed after being handed over to the workhouse porter
The "spiky" nature of the beds
Spikes fixed to the top of the vagrants' yard wall to deter escape attempts.
An derivation of "spiniken", another tramps' name for a workhouse, originally based on "spinning house".
The spike or finial that sometimes crowned a workhouse roof.

Spikes in vagrants' yard wall at Ripon workhouse, 2000

The entrance to Dunmow features a large iron (ornamental?) "spike".

Stone Breaking

A task sometimes performed by workhouse inmates, although most often used as a task for casuals or anoutdoor labour test. Large blocks of stone had to be broken to pieces small enough to fit through a metal grid. The broken stones could then be sold for road-making.

Toke

A slang name for bread, often of poor quality.

Treadmill

A large wooden wheel or drum with steps on its outside, generally used in prisons rather than workhouses. It rotated as inmates trod from one step to another - rather like the wheel in a hamster cage.

Union

A grouping of adjacent parishes jointly administering poor law affairs. The "union" was one of the slang names for the workhouse.

Vestry

The governing body of a parish. Its name derived from the room in a church building in which it usually met, which in turn came from its function as a room where the priest put on his vestments. Its membership comprised a chairman (the minister of the parish), the churchwardens, and a number of respected householders of the parish.

Wash-house

An out-building where clothes were washed. (See also Privy, Water Closet, Lavatory, Laundry.)

Water Closet

A small outbuilding, room, or sanitary-fitting used as a toilet, using water to flush deposits into a waste-pipe below. (See also Privy, Water Closet, Earth Closet, Lavatory, Laundry.)

Wayfarers' Reception Centre

The official name for a casual ward after 1930.

Way-Ticket

A certificate issued by a casual ward or police-station to casuals judged to be the "honest unemployed" giving them preferential admission or treatment at a workhouse casual ward.

Workhouse Test

The principle by which a pauper would only be granted poor relief through being admitted to a workhouse and being prepared to accept the terms of its harsh regime.

Weights and Measures

During the workhouse era in Britain, the "Imperial" system of weights and measures was in use as shown below, together with metric equivalents:

Weight

16 drams or drachms (dr.)	=	1 ounce (oz.)	=	28.35 grams
16 ounces (oz.)	=	1 pound (lb.)	=	454 grams
14 pounds (lbs.)	=	1 stone	=	6.35 kilograms
8 stones	=	1 hundredweight (cwt.)	=	50.8 kilograms
20 hundredweights	=	1 ton	=	1.016 tonnes

Length

12 inches (ins.) = 1 foot (ft.) = 30.48 centimetres

3 feet (ft.) = 1 yard = 0.91 metres

1760 yards = 1 mile (ml.) = 1.61 kilometres
Capacity

4 gills = 1 pint = 0.568 litres

2 pints = 1 quart = 1.136 litres

4 quarts = 1 gallon = 4.546 litres

Workhouse

An establishment offering relief for the destitute poor in an area, funded from the local poor rate, which — under the supervision of a Master and/or Matron — provided some combination of communal accommodation and a requirement for inmates, particularly the able-bodied, to perform work which was often deterrent in nature, e.g.stone-breaking or oakum-picking. Workhouses usually also had a prescribed dietary. (See also Poorhouse,Almshouse.)

Workhouse Tokens

Specially minted coins issued as poor relief. A number of these were minted by various organisations in the early 1800s when there was a national shortage of coins caused by scarcity of copper and silver. Tokens were produced in a number of denominations, the most common being 1d., 3d, and one shilling. The tokens could be spent locally and the trader who received them could redeem them at the workhouse. In 1817, such tokens were declared illegal although a temporary exception was made for those for the Birmingham and Sheffieldworkhouses. The first example below, from 1812, features a picture of the Birmingham workhouse, and the wording "ONE POUND NOTE PAYABLE AT THE WORKHOUSE FOR 240 TOKENS"

Another example, also from 1812, was manufactured in Birmingham for use by the Bradford workhouse.

Here is an 1813 penny token minted for the Halesowen Workhouse.

Finally, here is silver shilling token issued by the Leeds workhouse in 1812.

Tokens were also issued during the same period at Tunstead & Happing in Norfolk, and at Worcester.

For more information on early 19th century tokens, see British Copper Tokens 1811-1820 by P.J.Withers, (1999, Llanfyllin, Powys: Galata Print Ltd.)

In the late 1800s, the Social Wing of the Salvation Army made use of tokens, for example for paying men working at its "Elevator" factories.

Workhouse Visiting Society

Organization founded in 1858 by Louisa Twining. Its aims were "the promotion of the moral and spiritual improvement of Workhouse inmates" - especially "destitute and orphan children", "the sick and afflicted" and "the ignorant and depraved". The Society published a Journal from January 1859 until 1865.

Workhouses

Monday, 28 July 2014

Work houses

Introduction

Workhouse Glossary

12 inches (ins.)	=	1 foot (ft.)	=	30.48 centimetres
3 feet (ft.)	=	1 yard	=	0.91 metres
1760 yards	=	1 mile (ml.)	=	1.61 kilometres

4 gills	=	1 pint	=	0.568 litres
2 pints	=	1 quart	=	1.136 litres
4 quarts	=	1 gallon	=	4.546 litres