"Please Sir, I Want Some More" (The Workhouse (Southwell))

Member Name: helencb

Product:	The Workhouse (Southwell)
Date:	21/08/06 (1653 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent insight into the Workhouses of England and Wales

Disadvantages: None

The Workhouse, in the wonderful village of Southwell in Nottinghamshire, is the best surviving example of these 19th century institutions in the UK. Southwell itself is situated 13 miles East of Nottingham and about 8 miles from the town of Newark.

The Workhouse institutions were linked with the Poor Laws which date back over 400 years. The Old Poor Law made every local parish responsible for its own poor, and the cost was passed on to property owners in the parish. While public opinion, just like today, varied enormously, the cost was getting out of hand with a doubling of costs to £8million in the fifteen year period until 1818.

Rev John Thomas Becher, in Nottinghamshire, had experimented with a small workhouse in Southwell and after reducing the poor rates by 75% he gained the support of surrounding parishes to pool their resources and copy his workhouse ideas on a grander scale, gaining the economy of scale. The scheme involved 49 surrounding parishes and the Southwell Workhouse was built in fields in 1824. It went on to be the model and influenced the new national system, finally leading to amendments in the Poor Law Act (1834), or the New Poor Law.

These workhouses were in place right up until the move to the modern welfare state in 1948, after the Second World War. While some institutions remained, they were taken over by different public bodies e.g. converted to State Hospitals. The local authority in Southwell used Southwell Workhouse until the late 1970s to house homeless families. It was finally purchased by the National Trust in 1997 to protect it from being potentially developed into luxury flats. The National Trust had recognised that it was in the best condition of all Workhouses across England and Wales and acquired it, with the intention of carrying out repair where necessary and creating a very interesting historical place of interest with regards to the Poor Laws and 19th century life as a result. The Workhouse was finally opened to the public in 2002.

Entrance fees are an affordable £4.90 for adults, with concessions for children and families. There are even lower entrance fees available for those who arrive on greener modes of transport and not their own car (although I am not sure how they would know this!). There is a large parking area at the entrance to the grounds, which was unmanned midweek. A level pathway running at the side of the substantial front grounds and vegetable plots leads to the very small shop and reception area for tickets. (Note there are no eating facilities at the Workhouse, visitors should plan on eating in the nearby village if necessary). There was a small amount of potatoes, grown at the site, simply bagged available for sale at the reception for very reasonable prices.

Visitors tour the Workhouse via a self guided tour, and with the aide of an Audio Guide. You are also provided with a small information pamphlet showing a layout of all floors of the workhouse, and for a further £3 you can purchase a NT guide to the property. I joined the NT on the day of my visit, and received my NT guide as a free gift for membership (as well as immediate free entry). You will see there are guides in some of the rooms as you tour the property, who are happy to discuss different aspects of the Workhouse, and you can also pre-book a guided tour, for an additional fee.

The Workhouse itself is a triumph of architecture and design. There are three wings to the property, all spanning from a central tower, which included the Master’s living quarters and offices. This ensured that Men, Women, were all housed separately, and did not routinely meet in the course of carrying out their duties.

The tour itself begins with a short introductory film giving history and background information to the Workhouses, what life was like within them, and why people ended up in them. The writings of Reverend Becher are used as the narrative to much of this film.

The Paupers who entered the workhouse fell into different categories, namely, the old and infirm who could not work, and children, both deemed to be the “deserving poor” and adults who were poor because they chose not to work, or did not have the skills to do paid work, or the undeserving poor. As the tour begins, with the Men’s wing, you can get to visit the different sections of the property, with the able bodied and infirm having separate exercise yards, day rooms and dormitories. A clever overlapping architectural feature of two opposite staircases for each wing ensures that the two groups never meet, despite the fact they could be in almost adjoining rooms. The able bodied are given gruelling menial tasks as work, which is unpaid, while the elderly and infirm did not have such demands placed on them.

The audio tape tells a story, with the recreation of a visiting Poor Law Inspector, getting a tour of the Workhouse and meeting various paupers along the way. This is combined with general information on the audio recording and works well, although can be a little too long in places. The tour itself is extensive, and will take well over 1 hour minimum as you wander through the yards, day rooms, dormitories of the segregated groups and visit both the staff areas and Master’s offices and rooms, and the kitchens, scullery and cellars.

Very little furniture survives from the time, and it takes some imagination to form images of how the various rooms may have been laid out, with information gathered by the Trust from old pictures, surviving staff or paupers and the clues that the rooms themselves can offer e.g. the position of hooks on the walls might indicate the layout of the dormitories, as indeed do the wear marks on the floor.

The Workhouse is in strikingly good condition. The National trust has carried out some restoration on the exterior, based on Becher’s plans. The layers and layers of paint have been peeled back and most rooms have been repainted to show how they might have looked in the mid 19th century, when most of England and Wales’ 600 Workhouses were complete and being ran under the new Poor Law Act. As very little furniture survived the Trust did make a conscious decision not to use reproduction furniture, but it is possible to see the differences between the areas, for example the simple painted brick of the pauper areas compared with the plastered walls and fireplaces of the Master’s areas. Painting the walls every year would have been carried out by the paupers themselves. By contrast, one man’s dormitory has been left in the exact condition that the National trust found it, and one of the women’s dormitories HAS been recreated using beds and bedding which were typical of other institutions of the times.

I felt the tour gave an excellent insight into the lives of the paupers and indeed the staff. Workhouses were ran with very few staff, typically a Master and Matron, and Schoolmaster to around 135 paupers, although as the 20th century came, more staff were added and there were usually less inmates. Despite the fact that many may have been better fed on the very basic diet compared with what they might have received outside its walls, being admitted to the Workhouse was a last resort for many.

I felt that the 1970’s bed-sit towards the end of the tour was particularly interesting, for the reason that the audio tape is a recording of a woman who lived there at that time, at the same time I myself would have been in my childhood. This one room housed the entire families’ beds, fireplace, sofa and cooking area and shows very clearly what life would have been like for the desperate and homeless even in relatively modern times.

The whole tour is extensive, and the advantages of the audio system are realised as you can spend as little or as much time at each particular point on the tour, with additional information stored on the tape for those who want to access it. The tour ends with a display room, charting a timeline of life, legislation and the workhouse around its walls, together with some hands on displays. Unfortunately the upper floors are not accessible for wheelchair users, but there is a virtual tour available.

The Workhouse is most certainly worth a visit, especially for National Trust members visiting or living in the area, but represents good value for money even for non members.

The Workhouse
Upton Road
Southwell
Notts
NG25 0PT

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/workhouse

Tel 01636 817250

Open 12-5 every day except Tuesday during the summer months. Restricted opening hours apply during September, and the winter, check website for latest information before planning a trip. Guided tours available between 11-12 on opening days, subject to advance booking and groups welcome.

Summary: A fantastically well preserved 19th Century Workhouse