Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume VII. Minutes of evidence (111th to 122nd days) with appendix. England. (This volume contains the oral and written evidence of witnesses from various rural centres, especially in the south western, western, and eastern counties ; from the Parish of Poplar Borough, and from the National Conference of Friendly Societies.).

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume VII. Minutes of evidence (111th to 122nd days) with appendix. England. (This volume contains the oral and written evidence of witnesses from various rural centres, especially in the south western, western, and eastern counties ; from the Parish of Poplar Borough, and from the National Conference of Friendly Societies.). 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.

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    lOf 73999. You are always some things over and some things under ?—There is always a slight difference, you are bound to have it. That is why I go on about it, because in issuing matches out, and so on, you are bound to do it by taking your stock every now and again. 74000. {Mr. Gardiner.) You book it out so as to square up the stock ? — Yes, such things as necessaries you do. 74001. (Dr. Doumes.) The Creed Register has to be kept under a special Act of Parliament, has it not ?—Yes. 74002. With regard to the other books, you are aware probably that a committee of the Local Government Board went into the cpestion some two or three years ago ?—Yes. 74003. There have been representations made, I think, by the Workhouse Masters' Association, have there not ?—Yes. 74004. And the matter is under consideration ?— Yes, it is imder consideration. 74005. You approve of the boarding out of the London paupers, I gather, with the exception that you feel that they are so far away from their friends and relatives in case of emergency; is that in case of sickness, or what emergency do you refer to ?—I mean they are so far away from their friends ; that is the only thing that is against it. 74006. You say in case of emergency ?—Sometimes they are taken suddenly ill and you write to their friends, and the Hammersmith Board always allow them their expenses if they apply to them afterwards. 74007. Do the friends visit them from London ?—Yes. 74008. At their own expense ?—Yes. 74009. Are there special arrangements by which they get cheap tickets ?—No, but if anyone is ill, if they apply to the Hammersmith Board they will pay their expenses down. We have several come down from London to visit inmates there. I have had them ride down on bicycles and all ways. 74010. You have mentioned, as being within your knowledge, as much as £1 a week having been paid in one instance for boarded-out paupers ?—That is Margate or Southend, I think. 74011. Are those places private ventures ?—Yes, not workhouses. 74012. {Mr. Lansbury.) They would be people that were ill, I suppose ?—They had to take them away, they were dissatisfied. 74013. Are you thinking of Sandgate ?—No, not Sandgate. They had some at Margate. 74014. {Dr. Dowries.) Are you thinking of Rochford ? —No, it was down by Gravesend way ; I know they had a bother about it. 74015. Do you remember the imion that sent them ?—■ Hammersmith. They had to take them away, they were entirely dissatisfied. 74016. In dealing with the funerals, do you send any bodies to schools of anatomy anywhere ?—No. 74017. Do your guardians prohibit that ?—We neve • send any. I have never had an application to send tliem any. We never send them to my knowledge. 74018. What happens with regard to the bodies of the unclaimed ?—They are buried in our own private cemetery. 74019. Would the London unclaimed go back to Hammersmith ?—Yes, and be buried in Hammersmith Cemetery. 74020. Do you serve the bread to appetite in your workhouse, or do you give each inmate the full allowance under the scale ?—We give out 6 ounces first and take 2 ounces round afterwards, and anyone who wants the 2 ounces can liave it. 74021. Do you find six ounces is sufficient ?—For a lot of them. I suppose last half year there was a saving of about four tons of bread through that, which amounts to nearly £30. 74022. What do you keep your pigs on ?—Wo buy stuff, and the refuse from the gardens and anything we can get from the House. We spend, I suppose, £40 or £60 a quarter in pig's food and food for the horse. 74023. Have you had forty-five acres of land all the time you have been there, or have you hired more ?— That includes all the pasturage. A lot of it is grass. I suppose we have got about twenty-five acres under cultivation. 74024. Is it the guardians' own property ?—Yes. 74025. I did not know whether you had acquired any in order to employ these London paupers ?—No. 74026. Could you do with more ?—I should not want to do with any more land, it is quite enough now. 74027. [Mr. Booth.) Have you any of the Ipswich paupers now ?—No. 74028. Did they end before you began the Hammer- smith boarders ?—No, we kept them on for years ; it is only just lately. We had so many when we took on Woodbriclge and had all the Woodbridge in, and the Hammersmith men too, that we had no room on the men's side. They never sent us women. 74029. Do you know whether Ipswich is managing her own or boarding them out ?—They are keeping them at their own place ; it is very overcrowded in the winter time. In the winter time we shall be full up again, because we get about 120 from Woodbridge then, and I expect Hammersmith will be sending us down a lot mor^^. At the present time they can take their people. 740.30. Woodbridge is in another union ?—Yes. 74031. Of which the house has been removed ?—Yes, it used to be at Nacton, now it has been done away with. 74032. Tliey are merely your boarders ?—Yes. 74033. So that you have great experience in the board- ing of paupers ?—I have a little. Mr. John F. C'heesmaii. 24 July 1907. The disposal of bodies of paupers. Arrange- ments for serving bread in Bosniere workhouse, and economy of serving according to appetite. Pig keeping and farming at Bos mere workhouse. liOndon, etc., pauf ers boarded-out ill Bosnieio workhouse. The Rev. Maurice Byles Cowell, called ; and Examined. Jiev. Maurice B. Cowell. 74034. {Mr. Booth.) You are a member of the Bosmere and Claydon Board of Guardians ?—I am. 74035. You have prepared a statement, which we will treat as your evidence-in-chief, if you will kindly hand it in ?—Certainly. {The Witness handed in the following Statement.) 1. I have been Vicar of Ash Booking, in Bosmere and Claydon Union, since 1862 ; Guardian for the Parish of Ash Booking, since 1872 ; and Rural Dean of Claydon (Suffolk), since 1895. 2. Mj' own experience of the social and industrial con- ditions in this union has been a hapjjy one, especially in my own parish. Ash Bocking is almost all included in the : important estate of Lord Tollemache of Helmingham. nt During my forty-five years of residence, and in the first Lord Tollemache's life, the old cottages were replaced ^ by brick and tile, well-built, model cottages, each supplied 429.—VII. with half an acre of allotment land adjoining. \Mien I first came here, in 1862, there were still a variety of wretched thatched tenements, now burnt or fallen or pulled down, and happily gone. Through the improve- ment of the homes, a superior class of labourer has been attracted to the farms, and in Ash Bocking, Helmingham, Framsden, etc., I believe we are, on the whole, a thrifty, self-respecting, industrious and sober community. Bad weather still brings its privations, in the shape of lost time and no pay. But with these drawbacks, where no casual accidents or afflictions occur, life is bright and happy. Since the Education Act, 1870, wo have had our well-managed board school for this parish, which has been a source of interest and education to all classes'. The children have been v.ell trained, and many have gone from us and done well as school teachers, emigrants to Canada, New Zealand, AustraUa, or have served with credit in army, navy and police, and other useful employ- ments. 2 F 21July 1907.