Workhouse and poor law Timeline
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1344
A Royal Ordinance stated that lepers should leave London.

1349 
The Black Death reached England. The Ordinance of Labourers prohibited the public giving of relief to 
able-bodied beggars, "that they may be compelled to labour for their necessary living." 

1350
The purpose of the 1350 Ordinance of Labourers was to supplement and reinforce certain points of the 
1349 Ordinance which had been left vague.

1388 
The Statute of Cambridge:
This restricted the movements of all labourers and beggars and made county "Hundreds" responsible for 
their own "impotent poor". It prohibits any labourer from departing from the hundred, rape, wapentake, 
city, or borough where he is dwelling, without a testimonial, showing reasonable cause for his going, 
to be issued under the authority of the justices of the peace. Any labourer found wandering without 
such letter, is to be put in the stocks till he find surety to return to the town from which he came. 
Impotent persons are to remain in the towns in which they be dwelling at the time of the Act; or, if 
the inhabitants are unable or unwilling to support them, they are to withdraw to other towns within 
the hundred, rape, or wapentake, or to the towns where they were born, and there abide during their 
lives.

1494 
The Vagabonds and Beggars Act threatened "vagabonds, idle and suspected persons" with three days in 
the stocks on a diet of bread and water. However, beggars too infirm to work could stay in their Hundred 
and be allowed to beg.

"Vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and 
have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town. Every beggar suitable 
to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain 
upon the pain aforesaid".

1536 
Dissolution of smaller monasteries by Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.

1539 
Dissolution of the remaining monasteries.

1547 
The Statute of Legal Settlement provided for the branding or enslavement of sturdy beggars. 
The impotent poor were to receive relief and have cottages erected for their use.  

This enacted that a sturdy beggar could be branded or made a slave for two years (or for life if he 
absconded). The Act condemned "...foolish pity and mercy" for vagrants. On a more positive note, 
cottages were to be erected for the impotent poor, and they were to be relieved or cured. 

1576 
An 'Act For Setting of the Poor on Work, and for the Avoiding of Idleness' stipulated:
Every town to set up stocks of materials for the poor to work on.
Every county to set up a House of Correction for anyone refusing to work.

1597-8 	
An 'Acte for the Reliefe of the Poore' required Churchwardens and four overseers in each parish to:
Set children and poor to work.
Relieve the impotent.
Bind out pauper children as apprentices.
Tax 'every inhabitant and occupier of lands' in the parish for above purposes.

From this, some poorhouses were built where paupers could be set to work with materials purchased for 
this purpose, whilst poor children were to be apprenticed from the age of seven.

1601 	
An 'Acte for the Reliefe of the Poore' consolidated and replaced a variety of previous legislation and 
aimed at:
Establishment of parochial responsibility, with churchwardens or overseers (from two to four in number, 
depending on the size of the parish) allocating relief.
Suppression of begging.
Provision of work.
Use of county Houses of Correction for vagrants.
Setting to work and apprenticeship of children.

This 1601 Act was built on the Poor Relief Act 1597 and 1958. These Acts now gave Justices of the Peace 
responsibility for the administration of poor relief on a local level. Local poor rates were defined, 
although preference was given to assisting people within their own homes. 

The act of 1598 allowed for the setting up of workhouses in urban areas. The Acts of 1598 and 1601 
remained the main provision for the poor in England until the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Every 
parish was ordered to levy a tax on householders to raise a fund. Overseers of the poor were appointed 
to spend the money on the sick and aged and on establishing workhouses where the able-bodied adults 
could work. Orphaned children came under the care of the overseers, who were to apprentice the children 
to suitable trades. 

1647
The name "Work-House" first used on official documents.
	
The London Corporation of the Poor was set up to:
Erect workhouses and houses of correction.
Enforce laws against vagabonds.
Set the poor to work.

The London Corporation of the Poor was established for the Relief and Employment of the Poor, and the 
Punishment of Vagrants and other disorderly Persons whose provisions included the erection of 'work-houses'. 
This is one of the first pieces of legislation to employ the word. The Corporation was given two 
confiscated royal properties, Heydon House in the Minories, and the Wardrobe building in Vintry, in 
which it established workhouses. By 1655, up to a hundred children and a thousand adults were receiving 
relief although residence was not a prerequisite. Adults could perform out-work in their own homes, or 
carry it out each day at one of the workhouses. As well as basic literacy, children in Corporation care 
were taught singing.

1662 	
An 'Act for the better Relief of the Poor of this Kingdom' (The Settlement Act) stipulated that all 
newcomers to a parish who were deemed "likely to become chargeable" could be removed upon the orders 
of two Justices of the Peace if a complaint was made against them within 40 days of arrival, provided 
they had not rented a house worth at least £10 a year.

In the previous 1601 Poor Law Act, administration of the poor rates was placed in the hands of each 
local parish. Since some parishes were more generous than others, many poor people moved to where 
relief was higher. This led to objections by payers of the poor rate, and in 1662, the Settlement Acts 
were passed to prevent such movements. These had the unfortunate side-effect of reducing mobility of 
labour, and made it difficult for those without work to seek it elsewhere. 

The laws stated that, following any complaint made by the church wardens or overseers of the poor to 
a justice of the peace, "any person or persons that are likely to be chargeable to the parish" could 
be removed and conveyed to "such parish where he or they were last legally settled either as a native 
householder, sojourner, apprentice or servant". It remained legal for migrant harvest workers and 
others to work elsewhere if "they carry with him or them a certificate from the minister of the parish 
and one of the churchwardens and one of the overseers of the poor that he or they have a dwelling 
house or place in which he or they may inhabit". If they fell "sick or impotent" they should be removed 
to their parish of origin.

1696 	
Bristol Incorporation formed by a local Act giving it powers to erect a workhouse etc.

1697 	
An 'Act For supplying some Defects in the Laws for the Relief of the Poor' stipulated:
Newcomers with certificates to be removed only when chargeable.
Those receiving relief to wear identifying badges.
Fines for those who refuse to take pauper apprentices.

The "Badging of the Poor" - those in receipt of poor relief were required to wear in red or blue cloth 
on their right shoulder, the letter "P" preceded by the initial letter of their parish - in order to 
make life more humiliating for the poor. Badging was taken up by some parishes and not by others, and 
the procedure was eventually discontinued in an Act of 1810.

1723 	
Sir Edward Knatchbull's Act (The Workhouse Test Act) Enabled workhouses to be set up by parishes either 
singly, or in combination with neighbouring parishes. In addition, relief was to be offered only to 
those willing to enter the workhouse. The workhouse test was introduced, whereby the workhouse, a place 
of asylum for the poor, would serve as a deterrent: relief and would be available only to those willing 
to submit to its rigorous regime.

1741 	
The Foundling Hospital was founded by Captain Thomas Coram.

1762 	
An Act "for the keeping regular, uniform and annual Registers of all Parish Poor Infants under a certain 
Age, within the Bills of Mortality" required Metropolitan parishes to maintain proper records of children 
admitted into their workhouses.

It stipulated that parish officers within the Bills of Mortality (the City of London, urban Middlesex, 
Westminster and Southwark) should keep a precise register of all children in parish care under the age 
of four years, and that an annual summary of these registers should be published by the Worshipful 
Company of Parish Clerks. This act legislated for the creation of the registers reproduced here, and 
stipulated the size ("Royal Paper", 25" x 20"), layout and content of each register. It also stipulated 
that the registers should be approved annually by the vestry, and laid down a series of fines for 
failure to comply. 

1766 	
Hanway's Act, promoted by Foundling Hospital governor Jonas Hanway, required that all pauper children 
under six from Metropolitan parishes be sent to school in the countryside at least three miles from 
London or Westminster. The nursing and maintenance of each child was to cost at least two shillings 
and sixpence per week.

1767
An 'Act for the better Regulation of the Parish Poor Children' extended that of 1762.
The registers were extended to include children up to the age of 14, and the creation of a separate 
Register of Parish Apprentices (RA) was mandated. This act also required that London parishes put 
their children to nurse in the countryside at least three miles from London. However, the 1767 Act 
excluded the ninety-seven parishes within the City of London, along with four Westminster parishes, 
from its provisions, leaving the parish of St Dionis Backchurch subject to the provisions of the 1762 
act alone. As a result, the equivalent register for the parish of St Dionis Backchurch has been 
categorised as a Register of Infants rather than under this (RC) category. 

1780 	
Sunday School movement begins with opening of a school in Gloucester by Robert Raikes.

1782 
An 'Act for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor':	
Thomas Gilbert's Act permitted unions of parishes to construct a workhouse for the old, the sick and 
infirm, and orphans. Able-bodied paupers were to be found employment with farmers, landowners and other 
employers, who would receive an allowance from the parish to bring up their wage to subsistence levels. 
(However, not much was achieved along these lines until after the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act).

This foreshadowed the (1795) Speenhamland system of outdoor relief, whereby the parish would supplement 
wages according to the price of bread and the number of children in a family. It led to a widespread 
belief that out-of-work able-bodied labourers might get relief and abuse the system: the precursors of 
today's "welfare cheats".

1795
An Act to Amend so much of an Act... as prevents the distributing occasional relief to poor persons in 
their own houses, under certain circumstances and in certain cases:
Sir William Young introduced this Act which repealed some of the provisions of Knatchbull's Act and 
gave greater powers to local magistrates to order outdoor relief. This was not a universally popular
measure and may have encouraged some parishes to form Gilbert's Unions (see 1782) which were exempt 
from such measures.

Speenhamland system (Speen, Berkshire):
The guaranteed minimum income provisions introduced in England in 1795, and known generally as the 
Speenhamland system. They felt that 'the present state of the poor law requires further assistance 
than has generally been given them' and decided to bring in an allowance scale whereby a labourer 
would have his income supplemented to subsistence level by the parish, according to the price of 
bread and the number of children in his family. Unfortunately, it tended to aggravate the underlying 
causes of poverty in any particular parish. The immediate impact of paying this poor rate fell on the 
landowners of the parish concerned. They then sought other means of dealing with the poor, such as 
the workhouse. (It is named after the hamlet of Speen, near Newbury, where this was first tried).

1800 	
Act of Union makes Ireland part of Great Britain.

1810 	
First British School set up by British and Foreign Schools Society.

Badging of the Poor abolished (see 1697).

1811 	
First National School set up by The National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles 
of the Established Church.

1818 	
First Ragged School opened by John Pounds.
The idea of ragged schools was developed by John Pounds, a Portsmouth shoemaker. In 1818 Pounds began 
teaching poor children without charging fees. Thomas Guthrie helped to promote Pounds' idea of free 
schooling for working class children. Guthrie started a ragged school in Edinburgh and Sheriff Watson 
established another in Aberdeen. 

1819 	
Sturges Bourne's Act allowed parishes to appoint:
Select vestries to scrutinise relief-giving.
A salaried assistant overseer.

1824 	
Passing of 'The Vagrancy Act'.
This Act was introduced in 1824 as a measure to deal with specific problems in England following the 
Napoleonic Wars. The large numbers of soldiers who arrived, and who were discharged on to the streets 
with no job and no accommodation, were joined by a massive influx of economic migrants from Ireland 
and Scotland who travelled to England, and especially London, in search of work. The ancient pass laws 
were ineffective in dealing with the increased numbers of homeless and penniless urban poor. The Vagrancy 
Act was introduced as a method of dealing with a specific early 19th-century problem. Punishment for 
the wide definition of vagrancy (including prostitution) was up to one month hard labour.

Although the Act originally only applied to England and Wales, Section 4 of the Act, which deals mainly 
with vagrancy and begging, was extended to Scotland and Ireland by section 15 of the Prevention of 
Crimes Act 1871. The Vagrancy Act 1898 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912 further extended provisions 
of the Vagrancy Act 1824 to Scotland and Ireland.

The Vagrancy Act 1824 made it an offence to sleep on the streets or to beg. In essence, it became a crime 
in England and Wales to be homeless or to cadge subsistence money. When the Act was passed, criticism of 
it centred on the fact that it created a catch-all offence. To sleep on the streets or to beg subsistence 
became a crime, whatever reason an individual might have had for being in such a predicament. 

That provision still applies today.

1831 	
The passing of 'The Adoptive Vestries Act' (Houbhouse's Act) allowed parishes to adopt a procedure 
for the management of the parish, particularly in relation to poor relief, based on a vestry elected 
from the ratepayers. In populous parishes it obtains by custom in some, and by the "Adoptive" 
Vestries Act 1831 in others, to choose yearly a select number of parishioners, called a "select vestry," 
to manage the concerns of the parish.

1832 	
Royal Commission on the Poor Laws appointed.
This commission, appointed by Earl Grey, Prime Minister, conducted extensive investigation into the 
operation of the poor laws. The report influenced the 1834 "new" Poor Law. Note that the basis for 
workhouses already existed. (Knatchbull's Act, Gilbert's Act, etc). They were not invented by the 
1834 Report and Act. 

Allotment's Act - authorised Vestries to let small portions of land, from a quarter of an acre up to 
an acre, to industrious cottagers for cultivation. The rental income was to be used to buy winter fuel 
for the poor.

The 'Employment of Labourers Act' gave sanction to the labour rate: the Act expired on 25 March 1834 
and coincided with the implementation of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The 1832 Act allowed a majority 
of 75% of the landowners in a parish, voting in accordance with Sturges-Bourne's plural voting system, 
to adopt the labour rate, provided that the JPs at the Petty sessions approved of the plan.

The total labour bill for the parish was worked out by multiplying the number of settled able-bodied 
labourers by their 'supposed' market value and requiring each employer to hire a quantity of labour 
based on his rateable value or acreage. Those refusing to hire their quota of workers paid the 
difference in value into the poor rates.

The labour rate was preferred to the 'demoralising' roundsman system by both landowners and tenant 
farmers who employed lots of men. However, the labour rate was denounced by the Royal Commission of 
Inquiry into the Poor Laws on the grounds that it did not distinguish between free and pauper labour.

1834 	
Report of the Royal Commission published in March.

Poor Law Amendment Act received royal assent on August 14th.

Poor Law Commissioners sworn in on August 23rd.
This cut off completely all relief-money to the able-bodied. (In fact, it revised pretty well the 
whole system of poor relief that had operated so far). The aged, sick, or child paupers were compelled 
to enter work-houses where they were forced to perform degrading labour. The abolition of outdoor 
relief in 1834 inflicted a trauma of upheaval on thousands of people. Chartism, the campaign for 
popular democracy, drew support from anti-Poor Law sentiment.

1835 	
Abingdon declared as first new Poor Law Union on January 1st, its new workhouse received its first 
inmates in November of the same year.
Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes 
in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions, each Union being administered by a local Board of Guardians 
according to the directions issued by the Commission. According to the Act, relief was only to be given 
to able-bodied paupers through the workhouse and central to the formation of a Union was the provision
of a workhouse building. 

By the time of the Poor Law Commission's fifth annual report in 1839, a total of 583 unions (covering 
some 95 percent of parishes) were operating in England and Wales. 

1836 	
Report of the Royal Commission on Ireland published. George Nicholls tours Ireland.

1838 	
An 'Act For the more effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland' was  passed on July 31st.

'The Vagrancy Act', which introduced a number of new public order offences that were deemed at the time 
to be likely to cause moral outrage. This amended the Vagrancy Act 1824 to provide that any person 
discharged from custody pending an appeal against a conviction under that Act who did not then reappear 
to prosecute the appeal could be recommitted. It also provided that the penalty established by that 
Act for exposing indecent prints in a street or highway would extend to those who exposed the same 
material in any part of a shop or house.

1840 	
The 'Vaccination Extension Act' provided for the vaccination of infants to be made free to all. It was 
locally administered via Poor Law Unions and their Medical Officers.

1841
The Ragged Schools begin to open in Scotland.
The movement started in Scotland in 1841, when Sheriff Watson established the Aberdeen Ragged School, 
initially for boys only: a similar School for girls opened in 1843, and a mixed School in 1845. From 
here the movement spread to Dundee and other parts of Scotland, mostly due to the work of the 
Rev Thomas Guthrie. (for details See 1844).

1842 	
The 'Outdoor Labour Test Order', issued by the PLC in April, allowed relief (at least half of which 
was to be in food, clothing etc.) to be given to to able-bodied male paupers satisfying a Labour Test.
 
The order was issued after there was some opposition to the Commission's previous order stating that 
only indoor relief should be used. During times when the manufacturing industries were performing poorly 
this became impractical - however the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 had aimed to prevent the use of outdoor 
relief and replace it with indoor relief.

1844 	
A further 'Poor Law Amendment Act' improved numerous details of the 1834 Act. One of its most significant 
changes was a revision to the bastardy laws whereby mothers were granted the civil right of claim against 
the putative father, regardless of whether she was in receipt of poor relief.
'
The 'Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order issued by the PLC in December, prohibited all outdoor relief to 
able-bodied men and women apart from in exceptional circumstances. This was actually aimed at finally 
ending the distribution of outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor.

Hanway's Act of 1766 repealed.

Ragged School Union.
Lord Shaftesbury formed the Ragged School Union in 1844 and over the next eight years over 200 free 
schools for poor children were established in Britain. This helped to establish 350 ragged schools 
by the time the 1870 Education Act was passed. Over the next few years ragged schools were gradually 
absorbed into the new Board Schools. The Ragged Schools were charitable schools dedicated to the free 
education of destitute children. 

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury was president for 39 years, in which time an estimated 
300,000 destitute children received education. At the zenith of the movement, there were 192 Schools, 
with an average attendance of 20,000 pupils. As well as giving very elementary education, the Ragged 
Schools engaged in a wide variety of social welfare activities such as running Penny Banks, Clothing 
Clubs, Bands of Hope, and Soup Kitchens. 

However, despite their alternate name of Industrial Feeder Schools, only 3 Ragged Schools gave trade 
instruction, the only form of education for which Government grants were available. With the advent 
of the board schools as a consequence of An Act to provide for Elementary Education in England and 
Wales [9 August 1870], the curricula of which did qualify for such grants, the number of pupils at 
Ragged Schools gradually declined.

1845 	
An 'Act For The Amendment and better Administration of the Laws Relating to the relief of the Poor in 
Scotland' proposed keeping poor relief in Scotland primarily at the parish level. Parishes, particularly 
in urban areas, could unite and build poorhouses for the old and infirm.

The Andover Workhouse Scandal.
Conditions were so bad that inmates were revealed to be fighting over scraps of rotten meat left on 
bones they were crushing. A succession of witnesses revealed the grim and gory details of bone-crushing 
- it was heavy work with a 28-pound solid iron "rammer" being used to pummel the bones in a bone-tub. 

Apart from the appalling smell, it was back-breaking and hand-blistering work, yet even boys of eight 
or ten were set to it, working in pairs to lift the rammer. Men also suffered scarred faces from the 
flying shards of bone. Bone crushing could, however, make a good profit for the workhouse with old 
bones being bought in at 20 shillings a ton and the ground bone dust fetching up to 23 or 24 shillings 
a ton. It was embarrassingly revealed during the inquiry that the some of Andover Guardians had themselves 
bought the ground bones at a bargain price of 17 to 19 shillings a ton. 

The witnesses at the subsequent inquiry included former workhouse inmates such as 61-year Samuel Green:
"I was employed in the workhouse at bone-breaking the best part of my time, we looked out for the fresh 
bones; we used to tell the fresh bones by the look of them, and then we used to be like a parcel of 
dogs after them; some were not so particular about the bones being fresh as others; I like the fresh 
bones; I never touched one that was a little high; the marrow was as good as the meat, it was all 
covered over by bone, and no filth could get to it... I have picked a sheep's head, a mutton bone, and 
a beef bone; that was when they were fresh and good; sometimes I have had one that was stale and stunk, 
and I eat it even then; I eat it when it was stale and stinking because I was hungered, I suppose. 
You see we only had bread and gruel for breakfast, and as there was no bread allowed on meat days for 
dinner, we saved our bread from breakfast, and then, having had only gruel for breakfast, we were hungry 
before dinner-time. To satisfy our hunger a little, because a pint and a half of gruel is not much for 
a man's breakfast, we eat the stale and stinking meat. If we could get a fresh bone we did not take the 
stale and stinking meat. The allowance of potatoes at dinner on meat days is half a pound, but we used 
to get nearly a pound, seven or eight middling sized potatoes. The food we got in the workhouse was 
very good; I could not wish better, all I wanted was a little more, I have seen a man named Reeves eat 
horse-flesh off the bones." 

Colin McDougal, the master of the workhouse, was also revealed to have been regularly drunk and having 
had violent and bloody fights with his wife who had threatened suicide. McDougal had also attempted to 
seduce some of the young women inmates (as, too, had his 17 year-old son who had been taken on as a 
workhouse schoolmaster).

McDougal's treatment of the dead was no better than that of the living. On one occasion, a dead baby 
was buried with an old man to save on the cost of a coffin. Babies born in the workhouse were rarely 
baptised as this cost a shilling a time. Any that subsequently died in infancy were declared to have 
been stillborn to avoid any awkward questions arising about their lack of baptism.

The Select Committee's report, published in two huge volumes in August 1846, criticised virtually 
everyone involved in the scandal. The McDougal's were found to be totally unfit to hold such posts; 
the Guardians had failed to visit the workhouse and had allowed the inmates to be underfed; Assistant 
Commissioner Parker, although competent in his everyday duties, had placed too much confidence in the 
Andover guardians; the Poor Law Commissioners had dismissed Parker and Day in an underhand manner and 
had mishandled the whole affair. Although no direct action was taken against the Commissioners as a 
result of the report, it undoubtedly led to its abolition the following year when the Act extending 
its life was not renewed. In its place, a new body "the Poor Law Board" was set up, which was far 
more accountable to Parliament.

The Andover Guardians appear to have come out of the affair little the wiser. The master appointed as 
successor to McDougal was a former prison officer from Parkhurst gaol. After only three years in the 
post, he was dismissed for taking 'liberties' with female paupers. 

1845-50 	
The Great Famine in Ireland.

1846 	
An Act granted settlement after five years' residence in a parish.

Start of annual government grant of £30,000 towards the salaries of teachers in pauper schools.

1847 	
The 'Poor Law Board' replaced the 'Poor Law Commission'.

1848
The Huddersfield workhouse scandal.
Concerned the conditions in the workhouse at Huddersfield. On full investigation the conditions were 
considered to be worse than those in Andover which had hit the headlines in Britain two years earlier. 
The ratepayers in Huddersfield resisted the establishment of a workhouse for as long as they could, 
on the grounds that outdoor relief was more sensible in an industrial area.
 
Once the workhouse was built, further problems ensued, as the following extract demonstrates: 

Overseers Report:
The overseers of the poor of the township of Huddersfield, having received it in instruction from a 
vestry meeting of the township (assembled on the 23rd day of March last, to nominate fit and proper 
persons to fill the said office of overseers), to institute an inquiry into certain allegations then 
and there made, as to the general treatment of the sick poor had received in the Huddersfield workhouse, 
beg to say that they have complied with the request contained in the resolution of the said vestry 
meeting, and have thereupon to report as follows:--

The overseers have had before them the medical officer of the northern division of the township, (in 
which district the workhouse is situate), and also several of the parties who have acted as nurses to 
the sick poor, both in the workhouse and in the temporary fever hospital. They have also made it their 
business to prosecute certain inquiries at the workhouse itself: and the result of all is, that they 
are forced to the conclusion that the sick poor have been most shamefully neglected; that they have 
been and still are devoid of the necessary articles of clothing and bedding; that they have been suffered 
to remain for weeks at a time in the most filthy and disgusting state; that patients have been allowed 
to remain for nine weeks together without change of linen or of bed clothing: that beds in which patients 
suffering in typhus have died, one after another, have been again and again and repeatedly used for 
fresh patients, without any change or attempt at purification; that the said beds were only bags of 
straw and shavings, for the most part laid on the floor, and that the whole swarmed with lice; that 
two patients suffering in infectious fever, were almost constantly put together in one bed; that it 
not unfrequently happened that one would be ragingly delirious, when the other way dying; and that it 
is a fact that a living patient has occupied the same bed with a corpse for a considerable period after 
death; that the patients have been for months together without properly appointed nurses to attend to 
them; that there has been for a considerable time none but male paupers to attend on female patients; 
that when the poor sick creatures were laid in the most abject and helpless state - so debilitated 
as to pass their dejections as they lay, they have been suffered to remain in the most befouled state 
possible, besmeared in their own excrement, for days together and not even washed; that the necessary 
stimulants ordered by the medical officer have been withheld; that when patients' lives even depended 
on the free administration of wine, the fever hospital has been left without for more than forty-eight 
hours at a time; that death occurred amongst the patients from which such stimulant was withheld, which 
the medical officer attributes to this very cause; that the party whose duty it was to have provided 
such wine, was repeatedly applied to for it, both by the nurses at the hospital and the medical officer.
(printed as a supplement to the Leeds Mercury)

Despite the outcry that this report produced, problems appear to have persisted. In 1857, a special 
commission found that lack of classification at Huddersfield resulted in 'abandoned women' with 
diseases of a 'most loathsome character' being mixed together with idiots, young children, and lying-in 
cases. After the subsequent opening of the new workhouses at Deanhouse (1862) and Crosland Moor (1872), 
the old Huddersfield town workhouse became an infectious diseases hospital known as Birkby Hospital. 
The hospital closed in the early 1900s and was replaced by a school. 

1848-50 	

Irish Poor Law Unions reorganised with creation of 33 new Unions.

1852 	
The Poor Law Board's Outdoor Relief Regulation Orders in August and December broadened the conditions 
under which outdoor relief could be provided.

1857 	
The 'Industrial Schools Act' aimed to make better provision for the care and education of vagrant, 
destitute and disorderly children who were considered in danger of becoming criminals.

1858 	
Workhouse Visiting Society founded by Louisa Twining.

1861 	
Another 'Industrial Schools Act' defined the classes of children who could be placed in an Industrial 
School: under-14s found begging; under-14s wandering, and not having any home or visible means of 
subsistence, or frequenting the company of reputed thieves; under-12s committing an offence punishable 
by imprisonment; under-14s whose parent claims he is unable to control him, and is prepared to pay for 
the child to be detained in an Industrial School.

1864 	
The 'Houseless Poor Act' made it obligatory for Metropolitan Boards of Guardians to provide casual 
wards for "destitute wayfarers, wanderers, and foundlings".

1865 	
The 'Union Chargeability Act' based each parish's contribution to the union's funds on its rateable 
value not how many paupers it had. The union also became the area of settlement and the period of 
residency required for irremovability was reduced to one year. Basically, the Act was passed so that 
the financial burden of paupers was shared on a union-wide basis rather than a parish-wide basis.

The Lancet exposed the terrible conditions that existed in many London workhouse infirmaries.

1866 	
A further 'Industrial Schools Act' required that children on remand for charges punishable by committal 
to an industrial school should be kept in workhouses rather than prisons.

1867 	
The 'Metropolitan Poor Act' set up a Common Poor Fund to finance the construction and operation of new 
fever hospitals and asylums for London's poor. It also gave the Local Government Board powers to abolish 
the Local Act status of many of London's parishes and to reorganise and dissolve unions.

The Metropolitan Asylums Board was set up to take over the provide care for paupers with infectious 
diseases such as smallpox or who were classed as 'harmless imbeciles'.

1869 	
Abolition of any 'Gilbert's Unions' still in existence.

1870 	
The 'Education Act' introduced compulsory elementary education administered by local School Boards.

The MAB's North-Western Fever Hospital opened in Hampstead, becoming England's first state hospital.

1871 	
The 'Local Government Board' replaced the 'Poor Law Board'.

1875 	
The 'Public Health Act' set up nationwide system of rural and urban sanitary authorities.

The first Woman Guardian is elected to the Kensington Union Board.

1876 	
The 'Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act' gave the Local Government Board many new powers to 
reorganise and dissolve unions.

1883 	
Once-a-week fish dinners allowed in workhouses. Woo hoo, yummy.

1885 	
Prior to 1918, receipt of poor relief disqualified the recipient from voting. The 1885 'Medical Relief 
Disqualification Removal Act' meant that anyone who was in receipt only of poor-rate-funded medical 
care no longer lost their vote.

1891 	
The Public Health (London) Law Consolidation Bill extended free access the MAB's fever hospitals to 
all Londoners (not just paupers) thus creating England's first free state hospitals.

1902 	
The 'Education Act' replaced School Boards by Local Education Authorities and raised school-leaving 
age to 14.

1904 	
The Registrar General requested that workhouse births be disguised by the use of euphemistic addresses.

1905 	
Royal Commission on the Poor Law and the Unemployed appointed.

1908 	
The 'Children's Act' gave local authorities new powers to keep poor children out of the workhouse.

1909 	
Old Age Pension introduced on January 1st.

Royal Commission Majority Report and Minority Report published by the Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb. 
This called for a system that was radically different from the existing Poor Law. She, amongst the 
others heading the report, who included George Lansbury, felt that it was shortsighted of society to 
expect paupers to be entirely accountable for themselves. However the report proved unsuccessful, most 
of its proposals being disregarded by the new Liberal Government of 1906 when implementing their Liberal 
reforms.

1911 	
Unemployment Insurance and Health Insurance began in a limited form.

1913 	
The 'Workhouse' now referred to as 'Poor Law Institution' in official documents.

1919 	
The 'Ministry of Health' replaced the 'Local Government Board'.

1921 	
The Irish Free State created - former workhouses become County Homes, County Hospitals, and District 
Hospitals.

1926 	
The 'Board of Guardians (Default) Act' enabled dismissal of a Board of Guardians and its replacement 
with government officials.

1929 	
The 'Local Government Act':
All Poor Law Unions were to be abolished by 1930 and their functions were transferred to the new 
Administrative County Councils. This led to the provision of relief for the unemployed (later called 
'public assistance') by the National Assistance Board (1934).

Under the Act all boards of guardians for poor law unions were abolished, with responsibility for public 
assistance transferred to county councils and county boroughs. The local authorities took over infirmaries 
and fever hospitals, while the workhouses became public assistance institutions. Later legislation was 
to remove these functions from the control of councils to other public bodies: the National Assistance 
Board and the National Health Service. 

The Metropolitan Asylums Board was also abolished, and the London County Council became responsible for 
its institutions.

1944 	
The 'Education Act' introduced primary and secondary schools; merged boys and girls schools at the 
primary level; raised school-leaving age to 15.

1946
The 'National Health Service Act'.
Came into effect on 5 July 1948 and created the National Health Service in England and Wales. Though 
the title 'National Health Service' implies a single health service for the United Kingdom, in reality 
one NHS was created for England and Wales accountable to the Secretary of State for Health, with a 
separate NHS created for Scotland accountable to the Secretary of State for Scotland by the passage 
of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947.

"...It shall be the duty of the Minister of Health - to promote the establishment - of a comprehensive 
health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England 
and Wales and the prevention diagnosis and treatment of illness and for that purpose to provide or 
secure the effective provision of services..."

1948 	
The 1946 'National Health Service Act' came into force on July 5th. The NHS was created.

The 'National Assistance Act' is a major Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour 
government of Clement Attlee. 
It formally abolished the Poor Law system that had existed since the reign of Elizabeth First, and 
established a social safety net for those who did not pay National Insurance contributions (such as 
the homeless, the physically handicapped, and unmarried mothers) and were therefore left uncovered 
by the National Insurance Act 1946 and the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946. 

It also provided help to elderly Britons who required supplementary benefits to make a subsistence 
living, and obliged local authorities to provide suitable accommodation for those who through infirmity, 
age, or any other reason were in need of care and attention not otherwise available. 

The legislation also empowered local authorities to grant aid voluntary bodies concerned with the 
provision of recreational facilities or meals. The National Assistance Board, which administered the 
National Assistance scheme, operated scale rates which were more generous than in the past. The rate 
for a married couple before the new service was launched, for instance, was 31 shillings (£1.55) a week, 
and 40 shillings (£2.00) a week when the new service was introduced, together with an allowance for 
rent. In addition, as noted by Denis Nowell Pritt, "In most cases where the applicant was a householder, 
the rent allowance was the actual rent paid."

Under Section 29 of the Act, the power was granted to local authorities to promote the welfare of 
physically handicapped individuals. The social needs of the mentally handicapped were to be the 
responsibility of mental health departments which, being part of the new National Health Service, 
were to provide its services to all those needed it, regardless of ability to pay.




Bibliography:

    Department of Employment and Productivity:
    Historical Abstracts from 1886-1968, 1971
    Hart, Roger:
    English Life in the Nineteenth Century, 1971
    Eden, Sir Frederic Morton: 
    The State of the Poor: A History of the Labouring Classes in England, with Parochial Reports, 1797.
    Hitchcock, Tim: 
    Paupers and Preachers: The SPCK and the Parochial Workhouse Movement in Lee Davison et al (eds)
    Alan Sutton: 
    Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems, 1688-1750.
    Slack, Paul:
    The English Poor Law, 1531-1782.

Sources:

www.genguide.co.uk
www.victorianweb.org/
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks3.html
www.british-history.ac.uk/
familysearch.org/
www.encyclopedia.com/
www.longparish.org.uk
www.projectbook.co.uk/
www.workhouses.org.uk
winsomegriffin.com/
en.wikipedia.org