Workhouse Records

The History

Workhouses are also called Poorhouses or Union Houses often has an infirmary or asylum attached.

From the 1700's Parishes accepted that they had some responsibility to the poor, old and sick people who were unable to take care of themselves.

In some cases this led to the establishment of hostels and in some cases financial or material support to people living in their homes.

Fortunately for family historians this care needed expenditure from the public purse and this required entries into ledgers of public accounts and minutes of meetings or Overseers or the Public Union management.

Records are particularly good after 1834 when the Poor Law was improved and Parishes were required to establish  Boards of Guardians to operate workhouses and  provide  standardised care for the poor,old and sick people.

In 1930 the next major change saw the abolition of Boards of Guardians and the transfer of responsibility to County Council via their Social Services department.

What records can you find?

Many of these records have been preserved and are accessible today.

Online sites such as ancestry have some poor law records such as London  available for search but most poor law rceords are to be found in Country Records Offices or occasionally in local museums.