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What is a Union Workhouse?

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ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

maryjane-sue

maryjane-sue Report 3 Feb 2005 18:13

errrr Margaret - did you look at any of the links put here? Mine has a link to that website and maybe others have too? Sue

Sprack

Sprack Report 3 Feb 2005 19:10

my g.g.grandmother was living in the union workhouse warminster on the 1871 and 1881 census and listed as unmarried with 5 children, I have the birth certificates for 4 of the children, the 3 youngest were born there and my g.grandmother and her sister were born before she went in but none of them have a fathers name on there. jenny

Julie

Julie Report 3 Feb 2005 20:31

Margaret http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/ If you go to this site, and go to directoires you will find england, click on that and look for shorpshire. There you will find Whitechurch and all the info on that workhouse. good luck with your search Julie

Weynetta

Weynetta Report 4 Feb 2005 22:49

I've been taking an interest in workhouses recently, since I found out my own Dad was born in one, in 1916! I was surprised they were still in operation then. I've heard that non-inmates would go there to give birth, because of the medical facilities.

An Olde Crone

An Olde Crone Report 4 Feb 2005 23:50

Workhouses were still in operation in the 1940s! Although most of them changed their names after the War to something less threatening, they were still in effect the old workhouses and it wasnt until the Welfare State got into full swing in the 1960s that people didnt have to go there anymore. And of course, many Workhouses still contained inmates who had been there since the turn of the century...it was a dumping ground by then and many turned into long-stay hospitals or mental institutions. People who had entered the Workhouse at the turn of the century as children were often too institutionalised to be released by the time a more lenient view was being taken of the poor or disabled. It is difficult to imagine a woman in 1916 DECIDING to give birth in the Workhouse, rather than at home, which was the normal thing. Yes, they did have hospital facilities but they would only have been free to the destitute. Antenatal care was either basic or unheard of, and the first you knew of any problems was when you died in childbirth! Marjorie

Susan

Susan Report 5 Feb 2005 11:46

Thankyou to everyone for the website addresses. I have looked at them all and they all link to the same one but I do find this subject very interesting. Thankyou Marjorie for your replies. As I said before, I was unaware of what a workhouse was until I found my Ggggfather in one. Your replies have been very interesting and hopefully will help others too!!! Sue X