As I remember from my own grandmother, even in the early 20th century, the word ‘workhouse’ would put fear into people’s eyes. They or their parents or grandparents would remember the stigma of having been in there It must be remembered that the Workhouse system continued right up to the formation of the Welfare State by the Labour Government in 1948.
Dickens's comments in the postscript to Our Mutual Friend express the contempt many Victorians shared about the Poor Law. He wrote
"But that my view of the Poor Law may not be mistaken or misrepresented, I will state it. I believe there has been in England, since the days of the Stuarts, no law so often infamously administered, no law so often openly violated, no law habitually so ill-supervised."
The symbol of this moralistic, short-sighted legislation remains the image of the workhouse -- a gaunt, grim building offering meagre food and shelter at the expense of human dignity and hope.
By the 1830s most parishes had at least one workhouse, Helpston certainly did. It was situated on the left of the Maxey road at Nunton. Often these rural 'poor houses' would be simple farms with the occupants dividing their times between working the farm and employed on maintaining local roads and other parish works. From his earliest days, the spectre of the workhouse hung over Clare.
He leans on nature's offerings for supply
Like a sick child upon a mothers breast
He feebly watches her unheeding eye
& takes her givings with no vain request
To urge them better he with aught is blest
For the to-morrow he neer feels a fear
His hopes upon today have all their rest
When labour fails the workhouse fare is near
& thus on miserys edge he potters round the year
(The Mole Catcher (lines 33-41)
'Workhouse' is priced at £5 inc. P&P
Drop me a line : arborfield (at) pm (dot) me
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