Were all Workhouses a Bad Place?

A Workhouse

The Poor Law Act of 1834 was a legal act that completely stopped the poor from getting assistance unless they were in dire need of it. It labeled the poor as 'lazy' as well as saying that it was their own faults for becoming poor. Before the act, the poor had received charity from the wealthy but after the government passed this act, the rich began viewing the poor as lazy and dirty scum. From 1834 to the early 1900s, more and more people were being forced into various Workhouses. 

Charles Dickens writes negatively about Workhouses, saying that they are awful places run by greedy masters who starve the residents. In his book "Oliver Twist" he describes the fictional orphan- Oliver- pleading the the master for more food but receiving nothing but a harsh punishments. However James Howard, a resident of Swansea's cottage homes (a branch of the Workhouse), went on from the home with a scholarship, attended Cardiff University, later becoming a church minister. He wrote fondly to the matron of his cottage home in his later life. This post will explore whether or not Workhouses were bad and why.

Oliver Twist

The Workhouses would have branches of smaller less well known workhouses such as poor houses and Cottage Homes. For most people, the Workhouse was a last option because the Workhouse inmates were looked upon with disgust and as the lowest of the low in society. Normally the inmates would include: unmarried mothers, the unemployed, elderly people and orphans.

The Traditional Workhouse
For those who could not afford the basic necessities for whatever reason, and had been forced to move into the Workhouse, life was not as bad as it would have been if they had not moved. The government funded institutions provided the residents with free clothing, free medical care, accommodation, food as well as basic schooling for the children and they generally offered the youth and abled bodies apprenticeships. Although the food was not at all nutritious and it was basic and cheap as well as the same each day, it kept them alive. The inmates also completed very important jobs even if they were not the most pleasant, such as making gravel and also picking ropes, they did this without fuss, partly because they were desperate but also because they would more than likely be punished if they didn't. The Workhouse also gave the young people experience in occupations and in some cases actual jobs!  

On the other hand due to the huge amount of residents and also the lack of medicine in Victorian Britain, diseases spread quickly causing epidemics to break out. Living conditions were a lot of the time unhygienic and the clothing was basic and not very sanitary. As I have also mentioned, food was not very healthy, usually a broth of oats and water or potatoes and bread and water. Families were separated because men, women and children were accommodated in different sections in order to keep them concentrated on their work and not distracted by the opposite gender.

Cottage Homes

A Cottage Home

Cottage Homes were a branch of the Workhouse which cared for orphaned and abandoned children. It provided them with medicine, schooling, food and other necessities. Boys and girls would live in cottages but in groups. There would be a matron (an acting mother) who lived with them and the children behaved like a family, eating, praying and learning together. The cottages would be built resembling a town or village. Many had a shop, laundry, isolation unit and infirmary and some even had pools (baths)! One woman, a granddaughter of a pupil of one of these such places, remembered her grandmother fondly describing the Cottage Home where she lived, saying that she was shocked when she found out that it that it was a branch of the Workhouse! However one inspector recommended that the residents at Pontypridd's Cottage Home needed to learn more games.

Barnardo's
Dr. Thomas Barnardo did not like nor did he think that the Workhouses were suitable places for children to grow up in and so in 1867 onwards, he established children's homes with appropriate facilities and carers. Bernardo's is a children's charity that is still active today.

Whether you think that Workhouses were bad or not depends on what you have read and what you have been brought up to think. But to be absolutely honest, it more than likely depends on what institution you look at to whether it was bad or not, therefore saying that they were all bad is stereotyping Workhouses.

Sources:
~ BBC History Magazine March 2017 Issue: Victorian Pauper children p.g: 24- 27
~ Primary Homework Help: Victorian Workhouses