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CITY CITY || INTERIORS HISTORY
The Bath Union Workhouse
There is a burial ground in Wells Road, Bath where 3,182 bodies were buried between 1858 and 1899 in unmarked graves. John Payne, whose great grandparents are buried there, explains the history and considers the need for a permanent memorial. Additional material by Aileen Thompson.
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areas were used as recreation yards. There were day rooms, dormitories and work rooms, an infirmary, a kitchen and a laundry. Land was purchased south of Frome Road for gardens to grow food. The workhouse was designed for 600, but as early as 1845 contained 758 adults and 374 children. On arrival families were broken up as men, women and children were housed separately. The workhouse was soon enlarged, with invalid wards added and in 1857 the so-called ‘lunatic wards’ for the mentally ill. A separate laundry and bakery were built in later years, the intention to reduce costs by employing pauper labour. Accommodation was also provided for the itinerant poor. Diets were simple and boring, beds were hard and everything was done as cheaply as possible. The most obvious discipline of the workhouse was time: getting up, eating and work all took place at the summons of the workhouse bell, which can still be seen – now silent – at the entrance to St Martin’s Hospital. There were punishments for those who broke workhouse rules, such as by swearing or fighting. There were also rewards such as beer for inmates who took on responsibilities in the infirmary, laundry, kitchen and gardens. Children from poor families ended up in the workhouse because they were Image: Cross Manufacturing Co Ltd
he 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act established a uniform system for the administration of welfare. This resulted in the building of the Bath Union Workhouse between 1836 and 1838. The New Poor Law, introduced in 1834, was designed to reduce the total expenditure on poor relief, especially that given in people’s own homes and communities. Its introduction caused much debate, with some comparing conditions in the new workhouses to slavery and others insisting that when relief was given to poor people it should be in return for work, and that conditions in the workhouse should be no better than conditions of working families outside it. The Bath Union Workhouse was built between 1836 and 1838 on Frome Road at Odd Down. The first chairman of the Bath Union Workhouse, the Rev. Thomas Spencer of Hinton Charterhouse, believed that while the workhouse should act as a deterrent through a strict regime, it would also provide training, enabling inmates to learn a trade to enable them to earn a living outside the workhouse. The workhouse building was built to a standard design with three wings radiating from the central offices of the workhouse, linked to form a hollow hexagon. The open
abandoned by their parents or orphaned, and lessons were provided in the school rooms. School teachers were employed not just to teach the children but to supervise them from morning till night, including chapel on Sunday mornings. The majority of the girls later went into service; for the boys a wider range of apprenticeships were available, often based on the practical skills The Workhouse bell
Image: John Payne
Christmas Day in the Workhouse, c. 1890
Workhouse inmate: William Wingrove 1819–1867 William grew up in Walcot and was a French polisher by trade. He married and had children, but his wife died, probably in childbirth. By the 1860s, William and two daughters were all living at Bath Workhouse. He died in 1867 at the age of 49. In 1871 Martha Wingrove, aged 28 and described as an imbecile, and Catherine (Kate) Wingrove, aged 32, described as a lunatic, were both still living in the Workhouse, though in the 1881 census they are both described as epileptic. Martha died later that year and was interred at the Burial Ground. What became of Kate is a mystery. What did it matter? They were only paupers...
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