3.4 Life in the workhouse
The design of workhouses was to made to act as a deterrent to prospective paupers.
-SAMPSON KEMPTHORNE was appointed the Architect to the Poor Law Commission in 1835 and he proposed two designs.
-These designs were ideal for splitting up familiies.
Architecture
Y shaped workhouses. Chapel and Kitchen was on one wing of the Y and dormitories and day rooms on the other wing of the Y.
The Master's rooms were at the centre of the Y and could see the 3 exercise yards.
- Could accommodate 300 paupers.
Cruciform workhouses, divided the space into 4 exercise yards.
Had capacity for 200-500 paupers. No sunlight would go into the building.
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On entrance to the workhouse pauper families were given an inspection and then split up wives and husbands. Often mothers stayed with their children until 7 years old.
Routine, rules and regulation.
Children were sent to the workhouse school and apprenticed to a trade at the age of 9 or 10.
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Paupers were stripped of all personal belongings and had to wear a uniform that fit sometimes and other times did not.
Men were given a razor to shave and given a weekly bath, which they were watched.
The daily routine was designed to be monotonous and boring. Work with intervals of eating in between.
-Bed time was at 8pm.
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The aim was to make paupers ready for employment on the outside.
WORK
The work had to be available in the locality of the workhouse and could not diminish employment on the outside.
Women and children worked to maintain the conditions of the workhouse: Laundries, Kitchens and Sick Rooms.
The main jobs consisted of: Unravelling ropes for fibres, smashing limestone and grounding bones for fertiliser. These tasks were similar as that of convicts.
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The supply of food was designed to keep the pauper alive and degrade them. The Poor Law Commissioners issued 6 different meal plans that were designed to sustain life but make meal times as void of pleasure as possible.
DIET
DISCIPLINE
Staff and paupers often hurled physical abuse to each other. There were disturbances that ranged from Riots to foul language. There were recorded instances of sexual abuse between pauper and staff and pauper and pauper
REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT SYSTEM:
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In the same way, paupers could be rewarded with food, clean jobs and pocket money
Paupers could be punished for being in the wrong side of the building, making too much noise, working too slowly or checking a member of staff
CHILDREN AND WHO WERE THE PAUPERS
Children were not seen as responsible for their own poverty. However, they still had to be held against the less eligibility rule.
In reality, Pauper children were given a better quality of life (including medical inspections). This is because they were given an education until 9 or 10 and then they were apprenticed to a trade.
However, children did not have the free will to leave the workhouse and if they tried to escape they would be returned.
This caused pauper children to become institutionalised and unable to cope with work outside the walls of the workhouse.
-Education was rudimentary and they were taken far to become apprentices.
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Young people- the workhouse provided a temporary solution for them and they moved in and out of the workhouse.
Vagrants- They were given overnight accommodation, and in the better workhouses they had a bath and clothing disinfected.
The aim of workhouse staff was to get rid of them as fast as possible as they were seen as the lowest of the low.
Elderly- were provided shelter and sustenance until death by the workhouse. Elderly men were more prominent than elderly women.
Children- Made up 25% to 40% of all admissions, they were both long and short stayers of the workhouse.
Single Women- made up a significant proportion of the workhouse population included widows, abandoned wives, single mothers and prostitutes.
Mentally ill- went from 1 per 100 to 1 in 8 as the century progressed
WORKHOUSE STAFF
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There was a master and a matron. The master was in charge of the discipline and economy of the workhouse. The matron was responsible for the domestic side of the workhouse.
IN Ashford (Kent) the Workhouse was run by a Naval Officer and his wife. It was renowned for its efficiency and compassion. When the two left the paupers wept.
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George Catch was an ex-policemen who moved from workhouse to workhouse inflicting terror wherever he went. Poor Law boards gave him great testimonials so they could get rid of him.
The master of Cerne Abbas workhouse in Wiltshire only lasted two weeks as he had no education and could not keep up with the level of paperwork.
The Winchester union adopted this Y shape.
Watford union used the cruciform shape.
Until 1842 meals had to be eaten in complete silence
The oatmeal, bread and cheese that formed the meals was often adulterated.
In 1830s some workhouses did not allow paupers to use cutlery and they had to scoop out food with hands.
An Average male at the stafford
-Under the old poor law inmates were at the mercy of the overseer.
-There were some exceptions with girls and women could not be beaten but they could have reduced rations.
-Some workhouses had punishment cells that they would be locked in for misdemeanours.
-Some overseers made them spend the night in the workhouse mortuary.
SPECIFIC PUNISHMENT
-A proportion of the pauper population was mobile.
-These transient paupers brought tensions, petty crime and stresses.
-Paupers were free to come and go as they pleased: only three hours noticed was needed.
-Paupers could leave when they wanted and they could not readmit them.
-It was not until 1871 that an act of parliament could limit how many times they could leave.