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Grandad in the workhouse
| Profile | Posted by | Options | Post Date |
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Frances | Report | 5 Jul 2007 11:01 |
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I found this website which gives an interesting insight into life in the Workhouse:- www.workhouses.org |
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Clive | Report | 5 Jul 2007 09:59 |
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How work houses were used varied slightly by district and date. Basically they were to care for people able to work but who did not and for their dependants. No poor relief without going in to the workhouse. In practice it did not work like that in many areas. Single mums would be given grants rather than being taken in. However by the later 1800s the majority of workhouse inmates were the sick of the mentally lacking. They houses were run by the Poor Law Union. To reduce expense to the ratepayers the Union often subsidised fares to the colonies - it was cheaper to do a one off payment like that rather than pay out weekly! Clive |
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Frances | Report | 5 Jul 2007 08:21 |
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I've also found a g.grandfather as an 'Inmate' in West Ham Workhouse, 1861, age 17. Fortunately he was married 10 yrs later with a young family. Can anyone advise what exactly the Workhouse was? Was it for criminals or just people who were very poor? I believe this relative was illegitimate - perhaps his mother couldn't cope & sent him away? Were people inside the Workhouse for a fixed time or could they leave whenever they wanted to? I'm intrigued! |
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Clive | Report | 5 Jul 2007 08:10 |
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Worth remembering that by the 1890s in many areas the workhouse WAS the hospital for the area. If I remember rightly in Twickenham extra buildings and improvements to existing ones to make them more suitable for hospital use were approved in 1898. (There was a major overhaul of the council system in 1894. Much of what had been Poor Law Union was taken over by the new councils.) Clive |
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Tinalina | Report | 5 Jul 2007 00:08 |
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Thanks Kath , had a look but nothing came up for Thomas. Christine |
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KathleenBell | Report | 4 Jul 2007 23:47 |
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If you google Black Sheep Index for the website address, it has some records of railway accidents. UPDATE - just had a look and can't find a Thomas Griffiths accident on the GWR. Kath. x |
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Tinalina | Report | 4 Jul 2007 23:38 |
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Can anyone out there point me in the right direction? I have found my grandfather Thomas Griffiths born Wem 1868 in the Chapel en le Frith workhouse on the 1891 census, his age is a year out but occupation and birthplace are correct so I think it is him.Unfortunately the records for that time have been lost so I cannot get any more details. Family stories say that Thomas had a bad accident at some point trying to do something like stopping a runaway wagon whilst working for the Great Western railway as a platelayer and carried a bad scar on his neck all his life. I think that this may have been the reason why he was in the workhouse, are there any records anywhere of such incidents ? He continued to work for the railway but was based in manchester I think in a parcels depot , he married and lived out his life in Longsight Manchester. Any advice would be welcome. |
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