What was the purpose of workhouses?
Q: What was the purpose of workhouses?
A: Workhouses were places which offered housing and work to people who did not have any. They were designed to help solve a shortage of workers after the Black Death, and to provide welfare for the poor.
Q: When did workhouses first appear?
A: The first use of the word workhouse was in a report by the mayor of Abingdon in 1631 on the building of a workhouse in the town. However, their beginnings go back to the Poor Law Act of 1388.
Q: What caused an increase in unemployment during this period?
A: After the Napoleonic Wars there was a lot of unemployment, as well as unemployment caused by machines taking over work from farm workers. In addition, there were several bad harvests during this time period which put too much pressure on existing ways of looking after poor people.
Q: How did life in a workhouse differ from life outside it?
A: Life in a workhouse was not meant to be easy; it was made hard so only those with no hope of finding other employment would seek help there. Workhouse inmates had no rights and were subjected to strict rules and harsh punishments, but they did receive free medical care and education for children - something that wasn't available outside the system.
Q: When did laws change regarding how people received assistance?
A: Towards the end of 1800s, laws changed such that instead of unemployed poor people filling up most spaces within workhouses, they became filled with old and sick individuals instead. In 1929 further changes occurred when these institutions became hospitals known as Public Assistance Institutions, finally disappearing when National Assistance act passed 1948.
Q: What type of jobs would inmates do at a workhouse?
A: Most inmates didn't have skills necessary for normal jobs so their tasks included breaking rocks into small stones, breaking bones to make fertilizer or pulling apart old rope to reuse its fibre (known as oakum). This old rope was used to pack joints in shipbuilding projects keep them watertight using metal spikes for unpicking purposes.
