 Starter activity

1.  Starter activity This is Thurgarton Workhouse in Nottinghamshire. Remembering that most working class people lived in cramped, overcrowded houses with poor sanitary conditions, how do you think people might have felt when they were told they were going to work and live in a workhouse similar to this one?

2. Were workhouses so bad?

3.  Your task As you find out about the Poor Law and workhouses in Victorian England you will note down any information that a supporter would agree with or any information that a critic would agree with in a table similar to the one below.

4. 1834 Poor Law • Previously poor had been looked after by parish • Now poor looked after by Poor Law Unions with Boards of Governors to administer them • Established 100s of workhouses across the country • Anyone claiming (old, sick or unemployed) outdoor relief had to work in workhouse • Conditions inside workhouses must be worse than the lowest-paid worker A typical workhouse of the nineteenth century

5. Regulations • 1847, commissioners issued detailed regulations • Everyone entering a workhouse needed a medical examination • Unwell paupers would be isolated in infirmaries • Paupers would be cleaned and made to wear a special uniform • Men and women were separated

6. Punishments

7. Evidence from Gressenhall Workhouse

8. Punishment John Craske & Anne his wife were brought before the Board for stealing bread. They shall be put in the dungeon for 24 hours and their diet shall be bread and water for the remainder of the week.

9. Daily routine Click to compare with daily routine of working girl in 1820s Lancashire • Hour of rising 5.45pm • Interval for breakfast 6.30-7-.00am • Time for work 7.00-12.00pm • Interval for dinner 12.00-1.00pm • Time for work 1.00-6.00pm • Interval for supper 6.00-7.00pm • Time for going to bed 8.00pm

10. The schools I have this day inspected the schools. The boys answered remarkably well in the Scriptures. Indeed, their religious knowledge would do any school credit. Their arithmetic is fair and they possess greater knowledge of geography than is usually the case in schools of this description. Their reading is still much below their other attainments and their writing might be improved.

11. Artists 1 Army 8 Carpenters 2 Gentleman’s service 11 Harnessmaker 1 Printers 1 Shoemakers 5 Tailors 4 Schoolmasters 4 Farm service 12 Other employments 26 No known 12 Destinations of boys from Gressenhall Workhouse, 1845-53 Employment on leaving the workhouse

12. Public reactions • Improved morals of the poor, public houses and beer shops are much quieter • The New Poor Law has saved huge sums of public money • People who could not be made to work have now become good labourers • Families should not be separated • The workhouse is held in great dread

13.  Your task Work in groups of 5 or 6. Imagine you have been invited to dinner by your new neighbours. As the evening goes on it appears that the guests around the table are divided over issue of the New Poor Law and workhouses. Create a role play using your notes to demonstrate the division. Try to bring as much historical detail into your argument as possible. Click here for an example

14. Outdoor relief Money given to poor people in parishes where there was no poorhouse or other form of accommodation. The money was given to poor people so they could stay in their own homes even if they were sick or out of work.

15. Infirmary A sort of hospital, where the sick could be cared for away from everyone else until they were better.

16. Commissioners Government officials who are given a specific job to do such as gather information on a particular problem and write up a report.