Half an hour after sounding the bell
A Parliamentary report of 1777 recorded that parish workhouses in the south of the Black Country had the following level of inmates; Stourbridge (up to 40), Old Swinford (40), and Halesowen (260).
Kingswinford had a parish workhouse at a site about a mile to the south of the village on Stream Road, and Cradley had a workhouse on Oldnall Road. This situation was to remain until the Stourbridge Poor Law was formed on October 13 1836, an operation that was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 24 in number, representing its 14 constituent parishes of Cradley, Lutley, Old Swinford and Stourbridge in Worcestershire; Cakemore, Halesowen Borough, Hasbury, Hawne, The Hill, Illey and Ridgacre in Shropshire; and Amblecote and Kingswinford in Staffordshire.
When the Poor Law Amedment Act 1834 came into effect it completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Law of 1601 and attempted to fundamentally change the poverty relief system in England and Wales. This meant relief would only be given in workhouses, and conditions in workhouses would be such as to deter all but the truly destitute from applying for relief.
The origins of the workhouse can be traced to the Poor Law Act of 1388 which attempted to address the labour shortages following the Black Death in England by restricting the movement of labourers, and ultimnately led to the state becoming responsible for the support of the poor.
Harsh
Life in a workhouse was intended to be harsh, to deter the able-bodied poor and to ensure that only the truly destitute would apply. Labour intensive work was introduced such as breaking stones, crushing bones to produce fertiliser, or picking oakum using a large metal nail known as a spike. But in areas such as the provision of free medical care and education for children, neither of which was available to the poor in England living outside workhouses until the 20th century, workhouse inmates were advantaged over the general population, a dilemma that the Poor Law authorities never managed to reconcile.
The daily routine for workhouse inmates prescribed by the Poor Law Commission in 1835 was governed by the clock which in turn had the workhouse bell to alert the inmates. The hour of rising was 6am, or 7am depending on the time of year, and half an hour after the sounding of the bell the master or matron performed a roll-call in each section of the workhouse. The bell also announced meal breaks during which the rules required that silence, order and decorum were maintained. After 1842 adherence to silence was dropped. Work began at 7am or 8am depending on the time of year, dinner was from noon till one, and work for the day ended at 6pm. Bedtime was strictly 8pm.
As the 19th century wore on workhouses increasingly became refuges for the elderly, infirm and sick rather than the able-bodied poor, and in 1929 legislation was passed to allow local authorities to take over workhouse infirmaries as municipal hospitals., Astonishingly it wasn’t until the National Assistance Act of 1948 that the last vestiges of the Poor Law disappeared and with them the workhouses, an institution firmly associated with the Victorian era.
After the Stourbridge Poor Law Union was created the Poor Law Commissioners authorized expenditure of £1,500 to enlarge the original Kingswinford parish workhouse. The architect was Mr Griffiths. Further additions and alterations were made over the next half a century and in 1858-9 additional land was purchased to eventually provide for infection wards, a children’s block, and a detached boardroom, circa 1874.
At this juncture we turn the clock back to December 1857 to learn a little about the preperations the Guardians of the Stourbridge Workhouse were making for the Christmas period. The information published in the Brierley Hill Adverttiser on Saturday December 5 for articles required for the workhouse give us an insight into how much material including food, clothes and other miscellaneous items, was needed to provide the average workhouse for approximately 3 months. In a public notice on the front page of the paper the following was printed:
“Stourbridge Union, contracts for bread flour, provisions, etc., etc. The Guardians of the Stourbridge Union will, at their meeting on Friday, Dceember 18, at the Workhouse at Kingswinford, receive tenders from persons willing to contract for the supply of the undermentioned articles from December 25 to March 25 next, who are requested to send tenders, accompanied with samples, addressed to the Clerk of the Guardians of the Stourbridge Union at the Workhouse at Kingswinford, properly sealed, free of expense, and endorsed ‘Tender for...’ on or before December 17.”
How many inmates there were at the Stourbridge Workhouse in 1857 isn’t known, but by 1900 the workhouse could accommodate 460 persons. However, judging by the amount of food that had been requested via the tenders, an estimate of 450 is possibly not far off the mark.
Bushel
Flour (seconds), presumably not the best, was required per bushel with an estimated quantity of