Now when I was growing up in the 1950s, the shadow of the Workhouse continued to unsettle many elderly people, despite the fact that this hated and feared system of public relief had been abandoned two decades earlier and been replaced by the Welfare State.
And yet for those entering retirement age, or who were infirm, the fear of living out their final years in an institution predicated on the idea that poverty was the result of fecklessness, idleness or a lack of foresight for the future remained a real one.
The Workhouse with its underlying idea that anyone seeking help must be subjected to a harsh and unrelenting system of tedious work, basic meals and accommodation dated back to the New Poor Law of 1834.
This replaced the old system of assistance for the poor, the sick and unemployed with one based on the principle of less eligibility, which sought to make the conditions for accepting help worse than conditions outside, thereby acting as a deterrent to all but the most desperate.
Although some parishes had already adopted a harsher approach to those receiving support.
On entering the workhouse, families were separated by gender and age, with only the youngest children being allowed to stay with their mother.
Many working class families used the "workhouse" as one of a number of strategies to cope with sudden illnesses or seasonal unemployment.
Over the course of the next century improvements were made, including first, the provision of hospitals, and then the quality of care, but the Workhouse remained the workhouse, with all it stigma and institutionalized petty routines and regulations.
All of which is an introduction to these pictures from Andy who wandered over the site of the Stockport Workhouse which dates from the 1840s, and subsequently became Shaw Heath Hospital and then from 1954 was known as St Thomas’ Hospital, “finally closing in 2004 when the site was acquired by Stockport College as part of their campus expansion.*
And for those who want more including the attack on the workhouse in 1842, I suggest you follow the link and read the excellent article by Peter Higginbotham who is an expert in the field having written many books on the subject.
Location; Stockport
Pictures; Stockport Workhouse, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson
*Stockport Workhouse; http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockport/
The Workhouse with its underlying idea that anyone seeking help must be subjected to a harsh and unrelenting system of tedious work, basic meals and accommodation dated back to the New Poor Law of 1834.
This replaced the old system of assistance for the poor, the sick and unemployed with one based on the principle of less eligibility, which sought to make the conditions for accepting help worse than conditions outside, thereby acting as a deterrent to all but the most desperate.
On entering the workhouse, families were separated by gender and age, with only the youngest children being allowed to stay with their mother.
Many working class families used the "workhouse" as one of a number of strategies to cope with sudden illnesses or seasonal unemployment.
Over the course of the next century improvements were made, including first, the provision of hospitals, and then the quality of care, but the Workhouse remained the workhouse, with all it stigma and institutionalized petty routines and regulations.
And for those who want more including the attack on the workhouse in 1842, I suggest you follow the link and read the excellent article by Peter Higginbotham who is an expert in the field having written many books on the subject.
Location; Stockport
Pictures; Stockport Workhouse, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson
*Stockport Workhouse; http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Stockport/
An interesting feature of the inauguration of the workhouse system is that it was a response to belief that employers were being subsidised by taxpayers by the previous system. This has a modern resonance, where similar allegations are being levelled against big employers, that they can get away with paying less because welfare makes up the difference.
ReplyDeleteMy Great Grandmother went missing from her home in Newton Heath, where she lived with my Granny and her family. After three days they were giving up hope of finding her when a policeman came to tell them that she was in Stockport Workhouse. She had dementia and they never found out how she had got there. When she got back to the house she didn’t recognise anyone, but said to the budgie “How’s tha been Tommy?”.
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