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Life in a Victorian Workhouse
The word 'workhouse' has a grim resonance even today, conjuring up a vision of the darker side of Victorian Britain. Almost every town had at least one workshouse, and most people dreaded ending up there. Here we examine how workhouses came into being, what life was like for men, women and children on the wrong side of the poverty line, and how social attitudes evolved through the momentous events of Victorian Britain into the 20th century. Illustrated from contemporary and modern sources, this fact-filled guide presents an intriguing picture of a world of steam engines, self-help, service and salvation - where workhouse life, and workhouse reform, influenced attitudes and services we now take for granted.
- GenresHistory
32 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 9, 2013
My love of James Joyce, Steve Reich, the chess games of Mikhail Tal and the films of Pasolini predispose certain people to roll their eyes when I tell them I come from the working class, but it's quite true. My father had two jobs in his entire life, he was a manual labourer on the railways and a maintainance man at the local coalmine; and my mother was a factory worker and shop assistant. So you don't have to go very far back in my family's history, back to my grandparents, in fact, before you come upon a very British working class dread : fear of the workhouse.
The legendary horror of The Workhouse was universal. In a way, workhouses were the British gulag. You went in, and you didn't come out except in a box.
This is a great little guide to the whole thing. So - where did they come from?
In the beginning the monasteries had looked after the poor but jolly King Henry VIII abolished all of those in 1536. The relief of the poor was given over to the small local communities called parishes (hence the phrase "living off the parish"). It all became chaotic. Some parishes established their own workhouses, some didn't. In 1834 an organised workhouse system was introduced.
It is a universal fact of human affairs that some poor people are deserving of help and others are not deserving, because they are idle and workshy and have morally corrupt characters. There is a folk song which sums up this attitude:
Of all the trades in England the beggin' is the best
For when a beggar's tired, he can sit him down and rest.
The point of the workhouse was to deter the undeserving poor. Life within the workhouse was contrived to that in all cases, unless you really were entirely resourceless and destitute, life on the outside would seem far preferable.
How was this contrived? First, separation of people into five categories : able bodied men, infirm men, able-bodied women, infirm women, and children. Each category was housed and worked in different parts of the workhouse and did not mingle. Second, there was a rigid timetable :
Rising and roll call : 6 am
Breakfast and prayers : 6.30
work : 7
Dinner : noon
Work : 1 pm
Supper and prayers : 6 pm
Bedtime : 8 pm
Then, there was a rigid diet, the main component of which was bread. So:
Breakfast : bread and porridge
Dinner : Bread and cheese, or bread and broth. Two or three times a week, potatoes and mutton included.
Supper : Bread with cheese or broth (a type of vegetable soup).
But note that because food supply was put out for competitive tender amongst local suppliers, the supplier with the lowest price got the contract, and the lowest price was achieved usually by adulterating the food, so, milk would be watered down, flour would have chalk or alum added, oatmeal replaced by cheaper and less nutricious barley meal.
In the workhouse you worked. For able bodied men it was often strenuous but with little practical value and was intended to add to the deterrent character of the institution. Some of the most common tasks of this type were stone breaking, corn grinding, oakum picking and bone crushing.
In 1839 a survey found that just under half of the inmates of British workhouses were children (under 16). Famous one-time resident of a London workhouse : Charlie Chaplin, aged 7.
Inmates could, in theory, discharge themselves at any time. That they usually didn't, and exited in the standard pine box, speaks to their utter demoralisation. Although, it is true, that some paupers were called in-and-outers as they would be constantly checking themselves out for a few days, then back in. Like modern homeless people use overnight shelters.
The fascination of the horror of the workhouse impelled some middleclass Victorians to enter a workhouse in disguise, just like undercover reporters do these days.
There were scandals - workhouse inmates in Andover were found to be starving to death, for instance. Well, things are better these days. We don't starve people when we put them into institutions, but we might sexually abuse them. That's progress, isn't it?
The workhouses were abolished in 1930 and many of the grim buildings became part of large hospitals when the National Health Service was formed in 1948. A few miles from my house there is the Nottingham City Hospital, and the central building of that used to be the Sherwood Workhouse. My daughter Georgia was born within sight of it.
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
The legendary horror of The Workhouse was universal. In a way, workhouses were the British gulag. You went in, and you didn't come out except in a box.
This is a great little guide to the whole thing. So - where did they come from?
In the beginning the monasteries had looked after the poor but jolly King Henry VIII abolished all of those in 1536. The relief of the poor was given over to the small local communities called parishes (hence the phrase "living off the parish"). It all became chaotic. Some parishes established their own workhouses, some didn't. In 1834 an organised workhouse system was introduced.
It is a universal fact of human affairs that some poor people are deserving of help and others are not deserving, because they are idle and workshy and have morally corrupt characters. There is a folk song which sums up this attitude:
Of all the trades in England the beggin' is the best
For when a beggar's tired, he can sit him down and rest.
The point of the workhouse was to deter the undeserving poor. Life within the workhouse was contrived to that in all cases, unless you really were entirely resourceless and destitute, life on the outside would seem far preferable.
How was this contrived? First, separation of people into five categories : able bodied men, infirm men, able-bodied women, infirm women, and children. Each category was housed and worked in different parts of the workhouse and did not mingle. Second, there was a rigid timetable :
Rising and roll call : 6 am
Breakfast and prayers : 6.30
work : 7
Dinner : noon
Work : 1 pm
Supper and prayers : 6 pm
Bedtime : 8 pm
Then, there was a rigid diet, the main component of which was bread. So:
Breakfast : bread and porridge
Dinner : Bread and cheese, or bread and broth. Two or three times a week, potatoes and mutton included.
Supper : Bread with cheese or broth (a type of vegetable soup).
But note that because food supply was put out for competitive tender amongst local suppliers, the supplier with the lowest price got the contract, and the lowest price was achieved usually by adulterating the food, so, milk would be watered down, flour would have chalk or alum added, oatmeal replaced by cheaper and less nutricious barley meal.
In the workhouse you worked. For able bodied men it was often strenuous but with little practical value and was intended to add to the deterrent character of the institution. Some of the most common tasks of this type were stone breaking, corn grinding, oakum picking and bone crushing.
In 1839 a survey found that just under half of the inmates of British workhouses were children (under 16). Famous one-time resident of a London workhouse : Charlie Chaplin, aged 7.
Inmates could, in theory, discharge themselves at any time. That they usually didn't, and exited in the standard pine box, speaks to their utter demoralisation. Although, it is true, that some paupers were called in-and-outers as they would be constantly checking themselves out for a few days, then back in. Like modern homeless people use overnight shelters.
The fascination of the horror of the workhouse impelled some middleclass Victorians to enter a workhouse in disguise, just like undercover reporters do these days.
There were scandals - workhouse inmates in Andover were found to be starving to death, for instance. Well, things are better these days. We don't starve people when we put them into institutions, but we might sexually abuse them. That's progress, isn't it?
The workhouses were abolished in 1930 and many of the grim buildings became part of large hospitals when the National Health Service was formed in 1948. A few miles from my house there is the Nottingham City Hospital, and the central building of that used to be the Sherwood Workhouse. My daughter Georgia was born within sight of it.
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
November 27, 2024
Ένα σύντομο αλλά αξιοσημείωτο ταξίδι με λεπτομέρειες, εικόνες και δράματα σχετικά με τον τρόπο στέγασης και περίθαλψης της άπορης μεριδας πολιτών κατά τη Βικτωριανή εποχή. Αν και πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο μολις 32 σελίδων, παρέχει μια χρήσιμη και ικανοποιητική επισκόπηση της ανάπτυξης των πτωχοκομείων και του νομικού πλαισίου που τα περιέβαλε.
Ένα ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο για όποιον ενδιαφέρεται να μελετήσει τη βικτωριανή εποχή ή τις γραφικές περιγραφές του Charles Dickens. Τροφή για σκέψη.
Καλή Ανάγνωση!
Ένα ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο για όποιον ενδιαφέρεται να μελετήσει τη βικτωριανή εποχή ή τις γραφικές περιγραφές του Charles Dickens. Τροφή για σκέψη.
Καλή Ανάγνωση!
May 22, 2023
Researching the life of my grandfather
Well researched and as dry as his description of work house bread. I'll read his book that has testimonies from people who lived in these places if I can access his other works here in the U.S.
Well researched and as dry as his description of work house bread. I'll read his book that has testimonies from people who lived in these places if I can access his other works here in the U.S.
February 6, 2026
This is a really short book but gives a basic over view of the workhouse during Victorian Times. The author has many other books on the topic and I will seek them out.
August 6, 2015
I picked up this book for some research. Though it is filled with facts, it only gives the subject matter a cursory, surface-level glance. More depth would have been appreciated, or at least a proper bibliography to lead to more detailed sources.
October 27, 2017
The basis of nursing practices
Who would have imagined that the concept of workhouses and the need to manage the health of their occupants would be the basis of establishing modern nursing practices. A short yet remarkable view of the mode of housing is a great read.
Who would have imagined that the concept of workhouses and the need to manage the health of their occupants would be the basis of establishing modern nursing practices. A short yet remarkable view of the mode of housing is a great read.
August 13, 2019
This book is easy to read and gives an interesting insight into the life and times of the Victorian workhouse.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews