_workhouses_

the workhouses A workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. The Oxford Dictionary's earliest reference to a workhouse dates to 1652 in Exeter. There is, however, some written evidence that workhouses existed before this date. Records mention a workhouse in 1631 in Abingdon. The vagrants' and casual workers' ward of a workhouse was colloquially known as a spike, from the tool used to unpick oakum. The workhouse master could implement rules in order to create a system of rewards and punishments which aimed to instil discipline. For breaking rules paupers could be punished with the type of job they had to do that day. There were specific punishments which are set out by the Poor Law Commission. Examples were beatings on the hands and backs(for all male inmates), cells and reductions in rations. Inmates could leave with three hours notice. Workhouse conditions were deliberately harsh to deter the able-bodied idle poor from relying on them. Men and women were segregated and children were separated from their parents. Aged pauper couples who by definition were neither idle nor criminal were not allowed to share a bedroom. By entering a workhouse paupers were held to have forfeited responsibility for their children. Education was provided but pauper children were often forcibly apprenticed without the permission or knowledge of their parents. Inmates surrendered their own clothes and wore a distinctive uniform. In order to save money the Poor Law Commissioners in England and Wales paid poorly. For example, the Governor of a Victorian prison received £600.00 per annum. A workhouse master and matron running a similarly sized organization received on average £80.00 per annum between them. Often the posts of master and clerk were combined on the one salary. the abolition of the workhouses The workhouse system underwent several administrative reforms and was abolished on 1st April 1930, being replaced by other social legislation for the unemployed and retired. Despite abolition, many workhouses continued into the 1950s under the local County Council. David Johnston describes the East Preston workhouse in the 1950s in 'City Streets to Sussex Lanes' " - Two hours later and there we stood, looking up at the massive grey building that was the main block of the Victorian workhouse at East Preston. Our rooms were in the one time stable block belonging to that institution, then converted to chalets for homeless families. Entering through a large pair of shabby green doors, we walked into a cobbled yard where, above, stretched a series of clothes lines, each attached to the eaves of the old loose boxes that enclosed the yard. Sheets and shirts flapped in the chill breeze, each garment stained with blotches of purple, as if with blackberry juice. "Iodine," my mother explained, a remedy dabbed on the sores of the impetigo that plagued the family in the chalet opposite. Closing the door on the bitter wind, we lit the tiny oil stove heater and drank hot tea to warm our insides. The woven hemp carpet that covered the floor, and the bare, green walls were of no matter to us then, as we sipped from our steaming cups. That night we pulled back the sheets that covered our iron beds with expectations of luxurious sleep. But it was not to be, for the institution's fleas more than welcomed the new arrival of the incoming flesh. The hemp carpet was host to an infestation of the pests that consistently plagued our beds, forcing a nightly ritual of flea killing before we could retire. As dawn broke that first morning in the workhouse I scratched furiously at the rash of bites that covered my body. My eyes wandered with despair over to my mother, who was busy lighting the tiny stove that stood in the centre of the room-." Un Workhouse (foyer de travail), était un lieu qui accueillait au Royaume-Uni les personnes incapables de subvenir seules à leur besoin. Ils pouvaient y vivre en échange de leur travail. L'objectif était d'arrêter de payer de l'aide sociale à ceux qui vivaient chez eux. Si on voulait une aide, on devait vivre dans le workhouse. Le conditions de vie dans ces lieux furent extrêmement dur, la politique annoncée étant d'assurer qu'on vivait moins bien que toute personne salariée, car l'élite craignait que les pauvres paresseux y viendraient. A l'entrée du workhouse, les familles étaient séparées, les hommes et les femmes n'ayant pas le droit de séjourner ensemble.