Your Projects
Rosemary Collins talks to the organiser of an oral history project uncovering the stories of former workhouse residents
Uncovering the history of a Nottinghamshire workhouse
The Workhouse in Southwell in Nottinghamshire was built in 1824, with an infirmary added in 1871, and is one of the best-preserved workhouses in the country. The overhaul of the Poor Law system resulting from the 1929 Local Government Act saw it become a public assistance institution, as happened with many other workhouses. Then, after the 1948 National Assistance Act, the workhouse was used as residential accommodation, housing the elderly, homeless families and former beneficiaries of the workhouse system until the 1980s.
Since the National Trust bought the workhouse in 1997, volunteers have been interviewing individuals with a connection to the workhouse, including former residents, staff and visiting professionals such as nurses. So far they’ve assembled more than 80 interviews.
Katherine Onion, the project’s leader, says that the interviews show a balance “between the things that were horrifying, and the things that were kind and fun – along with the mundane, repetitive and boring reality that life in the workhouse represented for most people at most times”.
She adds that many of the staff bent the rules to try to sneak people out to the cinema, or let them go to the pub. Over the years some members of staff even adopted children from the workhouse.
Last Resort
However, the often bleak reasons why people remained in these institutions until the 1980s were inescapable: “There were people who were homeless, had some kind of mild mental-health problem or were senile, or just had nowhere else to go financially. Long-term geriatric care was never part of the remit of the National Health Service – it was always the responsibility of the local authority. There was nothing physically or mentally wrong with many of the elderly women in the infirmary, but they’d been institutionalised their whole lives after having a baby out of wedlock, for example, or spending time in an asylum years ago.”
In July 2019 the National Trust opened the infirmary to the public, with a new library containing the workhouse archives. The oral history recordings are available by appointment only.
“The recordings we made are used throughout the workhouse, and at talks,” Katherine says. “Many of them are sealed for a certain length of time or have their access restricted to educational use, but we make an exception for anyone conducting research – not just university academics.”
Katherine is glad that the workhouse project is shedding light on an overlooked part of British social history: “It’s a topic that has been debated vociferously in this country for the past 600 years, since the Old Poor Law – people are always talking about benefits and welfare. Our project can help visitors understand the history of the issue, so that they’re properly informed.”
‘People are always talking about project can benefits and welfare. Our issue’ help visitors understand the