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Southwell Union Workhouse (1834 - 1871)

You can now search and download documents from Southwell Union Workhouse, the best-preserved workhouse in England. These records are a fantastic resource for researchers. We are fortunate to be able to provide free access to the images because this is a joint project by The National Archives in partnership with the National Trust, with the aid of volunteers in Nottinghamshire.

Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Introduction

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Women picking oakum in the workhouse (Cat. ref. PRO 30/69/1663)

The Poor Law Amendment Act (PLAA) was introduced in 1834, centralising the poor relief administrative system. Previously poor relief had been largely based on the parish. Expenditure had risen during the Napoleonic Wars and local rate payers and authorities decided that looking after paupers was too costly.

When the PLAA was passed parishes were to be grouped into "unions", managed by boards of guardians who were elected by their constituent parish ratepayers. The new poor law unions were to report to the Poor Law Commissioners, based in Somerset House in London. Assistant Commissioners (later known as Poor Law Inspectors) were allocated a geographical area in which they were to set up, supervise and inspect the unions within it.

The new system was expected to reduce expenditure, using a harsh and deterrent workhouse test. Claimants would be "offered the house" but if they turned it down then the legal obligation to offer relief had been met.

Searching in DocumentsOnline

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You can search on any or all of the following:

Any other keywords might be the names of other people mentioned in a document, for example.

 

What could they help me to discover?

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This online collection holds the correspondence between the union and the central authorities. You will find letters, memos, reports and accounts bound from the loose correspondence. You will see details of individual paupers and workhouse staff as well as source material to study indoor and outdoor poor relief, education, building work, public health, local politics and labour history, such as trade unions, Chartism and friendly societies.

You can read about specific cases such as the dismissal of medical officers or a report on pauper disturbances in the workhouse. Here are examples of what you might find. The first document is a letter from Southwell Union to the Poor Law Board with details of vagrancy. The second is a Poor Law Inspector's report of visit to Southwell Union workhouse.

 

Click on the images below.

Further information

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Southwell Union Workhouse © National Trust Photo Library

Read more about this project and click on the links below to see these National Archives research guides:

Poor and the Poor Laws

Poor Law Records, 1834-1871

Elementary (Primary) Schools

Education: Inspectorate and HMI Reports

Nineteenth Century Public Health and Epidemics: Sources in The National Archives

Lunatic Asylums, 18th-20th Centuries

 

You might also be interested in this book, available from The National Archives bookshop:

And there are helpful articles in these back issues of Ancestors magazine:

Ancestors Issue 9, features on Poor Law, the Workhouse and Charles Booth's Enquiry into London Life and Labour

Ancestors Issue 54 Masters of the Poor

 

You can visit the workhouse at Southwell. See the National Trust website for details.