Essex WorkHouses, Work Houses in Essex Uk, by John Drury

There are about 400 parishes in Essex when one includes those that were in Essex but now form part of the London Boroughs of Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Of this 400 or so 169 had a parish workhouse at some time or another. The Knatchbull General Workhouse Act of 1723 was the vehicle that allowed parishes to set up a parish workhouse or the parish could just continue to provide financial relief to the poor of the parish in their own homes. By building a workhouse or converting a property owned by the parish it was hoped that financial savings would be made by the parish and reduce the Poor Rate which was levied on the other households. The new Act allowed parishes to appoint a workhouse master, and usually his wife, to live in the workhouse and provide for the well-being of the resident paupers. During the eighteenth century many parishes owned cottages in their village into which they placed homeless and destitute individuals or families. In some cases the paupers would live in the cottage and in other cases the property would just be a location where paupers would come to undertake work in exchange for food and provisions. No resident workhouse master would be appointed in these cases but it does seem that some parishes referred to these properties as “workhouses” which may have confused later statistics.

Essex Workhouses traces the establishment of the parish workhouses in the county and of the known 169 parish workhouses 115 are mentioned specifically with their story being traced from their building to their demise in the latter 1830s. Information on the respective workhouses is limited to the records that have survived although there is enough information on each to build up a picture of its size and possible location. Of the 50 or so where there is no information it is only known that a particular parish did have a “workhouse” at some time and that it subsequently closed but it may have fallen into the category where in fact there was no workhouse master and it was only a property where work was carried out in return for sustenance. Essex Workhouses includes many interesting snippets concerning the various parish workhouses including details of the size of many of the workhouses and their inventories. The inventories show the layout of the rooms and their contents which invariably included spinning wheels.

Ingatestone Workhouse

Parish workhouse continued to function for over 100 years but it became clear in the 1830s, that due to their increasing size, the cost of running a workhouse was becoming a burden on the parish. The government decided to group parishes into Unions and build one workhouse to serve all the parishes in its group. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 established the Union Workhouse and as soon as the new workhouse was built the parish workhouses in the group closed.

When the Union Workhouses were established following the Act of 1834, Essex was divided up into 17 Unions. The whole set-up was very professional starting with the design of the workhouse where the government provided a range of recommended styles. These were either a cruciform or “X” design with the object being to separate the men, women and children who would all have their own exercise yard. Most buildings were at least two stories high and the exercise yards would be enclosed to alleviate the mixing of classes. The whole concept, as laid down by the government, was for the Union Workhouse to resemble as close as possible to a prison and to be a place where people did not go unless it was absolutely necessary. The workhouse had a salaried staff with the clerk being an important role and often held by a professional person. Each parish within the Union appointed a Guardian(s) relative to its size and the Guardians met every week or fortnight to vet the running of the workhouse and to deal with matters affecting individual inmates.

The minutes written up by the clerk to the Guardians form a major part of the sections on the 17 Union Workhouses and interesting stories are revealed about the inmates. The minutes show that, as well as there being problems with the paupers, the staff were often the subject of comment in the minutes with the turnover of staff being fairly high as working in a “prison” was often not to their liking. The Guardians considered requests to leave the workhouse, emigration, disputes between inmates, disputes with staff and there was always the problem of infectious diseases as in their early days Union Workhouses did not have separate infirmaries. The Union Workhouse lasted until 1930 when Essex County Council took them over and they became “Infirmaries” before being renamed “Hospitals” we know today. Many of the old Union Workhouses are on the site of present day hospitals.

Felsted Village in the Heart of Essex

Essex Workhouses by John Drury