Volume 4

Annual report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales.

  • Great Britain. Poor Law Commissioners.
Date:
1835-1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    57/394 (page 39)
    Since that date the guardians have found that the state of the Union was sufficiently improved to admit of the shutting up of the carpenters' sheds and the workhouse belonging to the parish of St. Nicholas, and by the return of 2Ist July, 1838, it appears that there are now only 423 inmates in the workhouse, and the total out-door relief afforded is reduced to 67/. 146*. 7d, It is worthy of observation that the system of providing food for the applicants for relief in the building appropriated to the purpose, where such persons as were considered to be destitute were allowed to come twice a-day to eat of that food, did not prove satisfactory. It was wanting in that test of actual necessity which is afforded by a residence in the workhouse, and, to a con- siderable degree, also, by out-door labour at task-work. It was found that the most dissolute and abandoned did not hesitate to avail themselves of this mode of satisfying their hunger, or of obtaining food at the cost of the parish, which they had hitherto contrived to obtain for themselves, whilst the more orderly and better-disposed class of applicants considered it repulsive to their feelings to mix up their children with beggars and vagrants. This plan was, therefore, very shortly discontinued. We annex a Return, showing the classes of inmates in the Not- tingham workhouse, from March to December, 1837, the period during which the numbers of inmates were the greatest, and the average period of stay or residence in the workhouse of each class:— Number and Classes of Persons discharged from Nottingham Union Workhouse from March to December 1837, with the Period of Stay in the Workhouse. Period of Stay in the Workhouse. -d o o . o v; s » 2 ^ S ^ 2 « s ^ Classes. 5 o . tn ^ G O »■£ hs to iins ward ^ B CO |S CM i ^ a to 1 ^ ^ s i Total. CM 1—1 CO CO 051—t eS Able men married . 15 13 26 13 45 24 10 4 4 4 1 159 Able men single . . 23 38 14 26 44 21 16 10 2 7 6 207 Infirm men .... 5 4 2 5 11 8 2 1 5 8 51 Able women married 26 14 29 12 49 25 11 13 s 8 1 196 Able widows with) children ... J 2 3 4 7 4 2 1 3 1 27 Able women single . 16 14 18 9 29 10 6 6 3 2 3 116 Children of men-j discharged under > 30 13 45 21 73 23 19 10 13 8 4 259 12 years ... J Do. trom 12 to 16 . 1 5 1 8 6 5 1 3 1 31 Children of widows] discharged under? 4 7 10 14 7 2 2 ,1 6 3 56 12 years ... J Do. from 12 to 16 . 1 2 1 2 2 5 13 2 6 3 3 1 1 'i 17 11 4 17 s 22 6 5 3 3 *i 2 82 Deserted children . 24 27 19 7 27 29 6 14 2 16 3 174 Infirm women . . 2 3 3 3 5 2 4 1 1 2 1 27 162- 153 173 120 339 170 89 66 38 70 35 1415