Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
Workhouses of Wales and the Welsh Borders
Workhouses of Wales and the Welsh Borders
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Cyfrol ddarluniadol werthfawr yn cynnig canllaw i'r tlotai ar draws Cymru ac ar hyd y ffin yn swyddi Caer, Amwythig, Henffordd a Chaerloyw a weithredai hefyd ar dir Cymru.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
This copiously illustrated book provides a guide to the workhouses set up across Wales and in the border counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, some of whose unions straddled the Welsh border.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9780750994880
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9780750994880
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- Workhouses of Wales and the Welsh Borders
- Awdur / Author
- Higginbotham, Peter
- Current Price ex VAT
- £19.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £19.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Non-Stock Item - Ordered on request
- Availability Status (CY)
- Archebir yn ôl y galw
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2022-02-03
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- The History Press
- Media Type (EN)
- Hardback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr caled
- Pages
- 312 pages
- Size
- 235 × 155 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Hanes, Hanes Lleol, Arferion Gwlad, Llên Gwerin (yn Saesneg) | EN: History, Welsh Life and Customs, Local History, Folk Tales (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Bywyd ac Arferion Cymru (yn Saesneg) | EN: Welsh Life and Customs (in English)
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
This ground-breaking study which covers the whole of Wales, as well as the English border counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, throws new light on the historiography of modern Wales. For the first time we have a thoroughly researched, well-organized volume on the workhouse regimes, and the buildings in which they were housed, which dominated Welsh society mainly from the eighteenth century through to the beginning of the twentieth. All too often, our views on this subject have hitherto been prejudiced by the writings of Victorian novelists, in particular the works of Charles Dickens. Curiously, we are told, Wales lagged far behind England in its provision of workhouse accommodation. An official survey undertaken in 1776 revealed that, while England was home to nearly 2000 workhouses, Wales provided just nineteen. And even the provisions of the seminal Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which led to the setting up of an established network of poor law unions, were ruthlessly resisted in Wales, some areas having no such institution until well into the 1870s. A crucial distinction was always made by those in authority between paupers who were perceived to constitute the 'deserving' and the 'undeserving' poor and those termed 'vagrants'. A concise introduction surveys the subject of poor law provision from the late sixteenth century, pinpointing the effects of each piece of relevant legislation which impacted upon the provision of the earliest workhouses from about the 1620s. Due attention is paid to the provision of out-relief, and the 1834 act is also considered, its implications and the revised conditions which existed in the later workhouses. The main subsequent theme is the nature of the workhouse regime, their scanty food, casual wards and medical care. The separate provision sometimes made for children inmates is also described here. The end of the harsh regime was heralded by the impact of the First World War when many workhouse buildings were commandeered for use as convenient military hospitals for the casualties. Others became medical centres, tuberculosis and geriatric hospitals, and, like Hafan Deg at Lampeter, old peoples' homes. Today, many visitors are surprised to learn that a fair number of our public buildings once functioned as workhouses. The former Anglesey Union workhousewas converted into an art gallery in 2000, and others have been demolished. Thereafter the study has a gazeteer structure, arranged by individual counties and also by the singular poor law unions within the counties, which often straddled more than one county. Each chapter contains photographs, some of which are aerial depictions of the workhouse buildings discussed in the main text. A few helpful sketch maps of individual buildings are also provided. The dedication of the author to his research is outstanding. For the pre-1834 workhouses much of the information is clearly taken from a succession of detailed parliamentary reports which often contain a great deal of valuable information about the buildings and their successive inmates. Fascinating quotations from the detailed reports prepared by the poor law commissioners are included – Joseph Rowntree’s observations on both buildings and people were especially perspicacious. Apart from exhaustive reading among secondary sources, the author has searched meticulously through numerous issues of national and local newspapers, some published personal reminiscences, the successive decennial census returns, and the relatively few archival records which have survived. Evolving contemporary attitudes to the workhouse regime emerge strongly throughout the text which provides us with a large amount of fascinating information about how the buildings came to be constructed, their locations, how they were run by the workhouse masters, and how their inmates passed their tedious days within their walls. We are given details, too, of the (often severe) punishments which were meted out to inmates who misbehaved in some way. Chapter 18 in the book houses helpful notes on where their surviving records are to be located today in various archives and record offices. We are also given details of useful websites and, intriguingly, of eleven 'places to visit' – old former workhouses buildings which have been converted into museums, some now in the care of the National Trust, including Llanfyllin Workhouse History Centre in Powys.