Shropshire Routes to Roots

4. Workhouse life begins

The story continues ...

The workhouse was often very overcrowded and cramped. People were only allowed to have a bath once a week and men were only allowed to have a shave once a week.

A report on workhouse accommodation from 1848 said that in the Old Man's Yard there were 16 beds occupied by 32 people, whilst in the male infirmary there were 22 beds occupied by 19 men with only one nurse in attendance.

A report on the conditions of the Cross Houses workhouse by the Workhouse Visiting Committee in 1848 Larger image, in a new window [49kb] [Shropshire Archive reference: PL1/2/2/3]

The men who ran the workhouses were always worried about outbreaks of violence between the inmates. The situation in the workhouse was tough; people were separated from their families, living in dirty and cramped conditions. As a result, the workhouse was the place you went when there was nowhere else to go.

Extract from the Atcham Poor Law Union Minute Book explaining an outbreak of violence in the workhouse Transcript opens in a new window [Shropshire Archive reference: PL1/2/2/3]

The workhouse wasn't a place where you could be lazy; everyone had to work hard, children had to go to lessons, women worked in the laundry or on the vegetable patch and the men had to carry out hard manual labour.

How do you think May and David Davies (the mother and father of the family) feel living in this workhouse? Do they miss seeing one another?
How are the children coping with life in the workhouse?
Does David miss seeing his children?
Did he even make it into the workhouse in the first place?

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