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The Workhouse

Upton Road
Southwell
Notts
NG25 0PT
United Kingdom

Tel: 01-636- 817-260

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What Happened Here?

The Workhouse in Southwell was built in 1824 by the Reverend John Becher. It introduced a revolutionary but harsh welfare system, based on the philosophy of caring for those who could not work, and acting as a deterrent for those, it was suspected, would not work.

People ended up in workhouses because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. Unmarried pregnant women went to the workhouse during and after the birth of their babies. The mentally ill and handicapped poor were sent there as well. Some inmates stayed a short while, others for years.

Over 150 people could be housed in The Workhouse at Southwell, managed by a paid Master and a Matron. Families were split up; children and adults, men and women were kept apart. Their lives were restricted, regimented and cut off from the community outside.

Work was expected to achieve a “moral improvement” in the attitudes of the poor. The men worked breaking stones and old bones, picking apart old rope, weeding and gardening. The women carried out the cooking, washing, milking, spinning, knitting, and needlework. Inmates were expected to work hard on a diet of milk, gruel, bread, meat broth and thin soup.

Bad behavior resulted in solitary confinement, food being withheld, or imprisonment. While paupers could apply to leave if they found paying work, those who simply escaped might end up in prison.

The Workhouse at Southwell was deemed so successful that hundreds of workhouses were patterned after it. Welfare policy eventually shifted towards providing care, rather than blame and deterrence, but workhouses continued to house the poor and homeless well into the 20th century.