Two Old Buildings………Part Two

On the outskirts of Southwell is another old building, certainly not as old as the Minster but also founded to provide care and welfare for the wider community of Southwell and adjoining parishes…..

At first glance you would think it was just another stately home but look more closely……the high walls and many small windows, the austere look very much like a prison.   This is Southwell Union Workhouse….

The very word ‘Workhouse’ still has a stigma attached to it, conjuring  up visions of dark, harsh places with tough regimes….at the best thoughts of Oliver Twist at the worst places of punishment and no escape…..a place you avoid at all costs.

Yet the original concept of the Workhouse is based upon what was thought to be a fair and just way to look after the poor, unemployed and homeless. In fact there had been a system to care for the poor since early Elizabethan times becoming more formally defined in the 16th century becoming what was known as the Poor Law.  In simple terms each Parish was responsible for its own destitute folk with funds raised from local ratepayers.  Just as to to-day there are those who felt that whilst it was right and proper to support the needy there were others who were just workshy and lazy who gained unjust benefit.

The solution to what was a national problem was proposed by the Rev. J.T.Belcher and his colleagues of the Thurgaton Hundred Incorporation who founded and built Southwell Workhouse in 1824.  The concept was that instead of each Parish raising and distributing funds to the poor that this should be done collectively.  The poor would then be offered places in the Workhouse….safe living accommodation, regular meals, clothes and all in return for regular work.   There were of course rules to be followed, we would think them harsh, no doubt those in the care of the Workhouse thought so at that time.

The first of those rules came when new arrivals were offered a home.  They first entered the Wash House, were cleaned and their clothes removed (stored for when/if they left) from there they left the Wash House by one of 3 doorways…..

Men through one, children another and women the third…..and that was the way things were to be from then on in.  A life of segregation.  Men lived in the east wing, women the west wing and children in there own section.  Certainly mothers could see their children but this was limited to a short time on Sundays.  The whole building was designed to ensure that the sexes could not mix.

 

On leaving the Wash House, now clothed in Workhouse uniform the new residents would get their first glimpse of where they were to live….   it might indeed look bleak but remember for the homeless it perhaps did offer hope of somewhere safe and sound to live.  But they had first to digest the strict rules by which they now had to live.

 

 

 

 

The living accommodation was modest, it was also a place of work for indoor duties.   Work outside was indeed hard labour from mostly breaking stones, the more fortunate got to tend the vegetable gardens. Exercise was in the yard below.  Again a yard for men and another for women and another as play area for the children. Note the circular walls at the end of the yard, yep, these are the privies!

It was a tough regime.  Think back to the opening image of the building. Note the semi circular bay in the centre. This is where the Governor or Master lived and worked.  Importantly from any of his windows he could see into all the yards including the privies.  Perhaps comparison to prison is not unjust.  Here on a wall some resident has marked out his days…..it should be mentioned that this short section of wall was one of only two places the governor could not observe…..

 

The Governor of course enjoyed a better life style,  His apartments had wood floors large windows and by all accounts well furnished including and ‘inside W.C.!

 

The Workhouse cellars was one place of work.  It is here that the vegetables and cereals were stored.  A damp and dark place. Note the holes in the wall.  They are to let what little light that enters the small windows into the inner windowless cellars….

 

The Dormitories were equally sparse but no doubt a welcome relief from the days labours

Apart from segregating the men, women and children the ‘aged and infirm’ were also segregated (again by sex but also from the others).  They were excused work duties but still provided with food and clothes.  Children did do a little better  and perhaps better than most of those in the outside world as one of the key members of staff was a School Mistress.

Lesson were provided everyday in the Workhouses own Class Room so the children did enjoy a form of education…..

 

 

 

For the number of residents the kitchen does not look over large.  Meal preparation was usually under the supervision of the Governors wife but was one of the duties of the residents.

The Workhouse is now in the care of the National Trust who have carried out much restoration work on the building.  What furniture remained was removed being beyond care.  This makes the rooms look clean and as bright as they can be.  Some visitors think it too clean.  however as one of the guides pointed out labour was not an issue…

 

 

….they had plenty of it and amongst other tasks cleaning, scrubbing and painting was at the top of the list. The room below was not renovated but left with the distemper painted walls as found, no one I think has yet counted the number of coats of paint on the wall…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southwell Union Workhouse as it became know was used as a model for others across the country.  The principle was perhaps a just one.  The principle was incorporated in the New Poor Law…..but a great deal depended upon the individual Governor and the harshness of his regime, some exploited their positions. The original concept allowed for vagrants to obtain shelter for the night and a meal, all that was asked in exchange was some labouring task to fulfil. Residents were free to leave at any time but returning was not usually a possibility. But tales of hardship grew and with it the stigma of Workhouse life

We like to think we left the days of the Workhouse many years ago.  Not so.  This building was still in use until 1977.  It had since the 2nd World War been used by Nottinghamshire County Council as ‘temporary’ accommodation for homeless women and their children.  Some of the rooms were converted to self contained apartments to house several families at a time.  A room furnished with a settee, radio, coal fire, cooker and sink…then packed with beds with barely a space to move between.  The room below has been restores to as it was…..

 

 

Progress…..I am none too sure  Nor can we say that our Welfare system is just or even sustainable.  But at least the Rev. Belcher and his colleagues did try to make a difference and perhaps they did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For many though entering the Workhouse was like leaving the world behind, and for many it was just that a place to end their years in ‘ relative ‘ comfort and peace….

16th OCTOBER