Shropshire Routes to Roots

Desperate times: The Workhouse

A report on the conditions of the Cross Houses workhouse by the Workhouse Visiting Committee in 1848 [Shropshire Archive reference: PL1/2/2/3]

The following report from the Workhouse Visiting Committee was presented and read - At a meeting of the Workhouse Visiting Committee held on the 9th day of November instant at the Union Workhouse for the purpose of considering several points to which their attention had been requested by the general Board of Guardians.
Present: Rev H. Burton, Rev H. Hursby, Mess John and Joseph Meire. They first proceeded to the consideration of the state of the accommodation for the sick.
In the old men's yard they found 16 beds occupied by 32 persons. In the Male Infirmary, 22 single beds occupied by 19 men and 1 nurse. In the Infections Ward 4 beds, no occupants. The Receiving wards 3 beds and 2 occupants. On the above statement, it appears to the committee that the accommodation in the Male Infirmary is barely sufficient, and inasmuch as there are many old persons in this ward, who are affected by no particular cases except such as are incidental to the advanced period of life.