An establishment, usually funded by a charitable endowment, providing free or subsidised accommodation for the elderly poor of good character, and typically constructed as a row of small self-containe [..]

An Act of 1697, amending the Settlement laws, required that anyone receiving poor relief wear a badge on their right shoulder. The badge, in red or blue cloth, consisted of the letter "P" to [..]

One of the slang names for the workhouse, along with Spike, Grubber etc. probably reflecting the prison/fortress-like nature of some early workhouse designs. GR Wythen Baxter's book The Book of t [..]

The local management committee for each Poor Law Union. They were elected annually by the rate-payers in each parish in a Union. In addition, local magistrates could act as ex officio Guardians. The B [..]

Boarding out was the practice of placing workhouse children in the long-term care of foster parents who usually received a weekly allowance for each child staying with them. (See also scattered comes, [..]

The pounding of old bones into dust for use as fertilizer. In the 1840s, there was a public scandal when it was discovered that malnourished inmates at Andover workhouse had been fighting over scraps [..]

The Brabazon Scheme was initiated in 1880 by Lady Brabazon who later became the Countess of Meath. It was intended to provide interesting and useful occupation such as knitting, embroidery or lace-mak [..]

Originally the graveyard adjoining the Royal Hospital in Dublin, where no payment of fees was exacted. Later used more generally as an informal term for a paupers' or famine graveyard, especially [..]

In the autumn of 1830, agricultural labourers across southern England protested against low wages, expensive food, and the growing mechanization of farms. Threatening letters sent to land-owners and f [..]

The Casual Poor (usually known just as "Casuals") were those to which a workhouse gave temporary accommodation for one or two nights. Casuals — typically vagrants, tramps, or the "house [..]