Proposed Nineteenth Century Poverty in England and Wales Project
One of the key sets of records for those undertaking local, family, social and other historical studies are the poor law union 'correspondence' volumes held here at The National Archives. Here we find allegations of cruelty to individual paupers, instances of workhouse riots, accounts of political and Chartist activities… and so much more.
Made up of 16,741 large bound volumes and covering the period c. 1834 to 1900 this poorly listed collection of hundreds of thousands of letters, reports and memos tells us much about how the poor lived throughout the Victorian period.
The National Archives is seeking external funding to make (initially) a large selection of these records, and the information they contain, more easily available to researchers, colleges and schools; but for this we are going to need your help. But first…
Frequently asked questions
About the project:
Q: When will the project start?
A: An exact date is difficult to determine until we know we have the funding. Meetings with the groups who have 'expressed interest' are now complete.
Q: How long will the project last?
A: This is a 4 year project (from digitization to completion).
Q: Would the cataloguing be done locally or would participants be expected to work at The National Archives in London?
A: Locally - The National Archives staff would come to you.
Q: Where will training for the project be conducted?
A: Locally - some groups already have a ´base´ where they can work. The National Archives is liaising with other archives/libraries/museums and other similar organisations to secure bases for those groups currently without.
Q: Is there any more information available about the project so I can show members of my society?
A: There is other information on this page, please see above.
About working groups:
Q: How many volunteers are needed per group?
A: This would depend on the number of volumes of correspondence they are working on (some poor law unions have a larger archive). Some of the volunteer groups are small 4-5, while others are up to 10-20 people.
Q: How much time will be required from each volunteer?
A: This may differ between and in each group. On our past experience some people have done maybe 3 hours per week while others have done over a day.
Q: I am disabled can I work from home as part of a local group?
A: Yes of course - indeed for other reasons people may want to do some/most of the work at home.
Q: What funding is available to cover any set up costs involved?
A: We would expect any ´set up costs´ to be met by us (and covered in the bid).
About Skills/Equipment required:
Q: Do I need to be able to type properly/copy type?
A: Yes - but only basic skills are needed and we would provide additional training for the cataloguing itself.
Q: Is there any specific computer software that needs to be bought/acquired?
A: People would be working in Word (common to most machines).
Q: Do I need access to the Internet to be part of the project?
A:This would be helpful - but The National Archives is liaising with archives/libraries/museums and other similar organisations locally to ensure you have this for the purposes of the project.
About the records:
Q: Will we be working on records just for our local area or will we be allocated records that do not relate to our local area?
A: We are seeking to ensure that everyone will be working on local area records.
Q: How will the records for cataloguing be supplied to our group?
A: We will scan them digitally and deliver them on CD Rom. These can then be downloaded (we can help with this).
Q: Is it possible to have hard copies?
A: We cannot supply these - although there is nothing to stop people printing from disc.
About publicity:
Q: Will I/my group be acknowledged as taking part in this project by The National Archives?
A: Yes - definitely; there will be huge interest in this - radio, newspaper, magazines, TV - and all groups will be acknowledged.
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The structure of Poor Law unions
Under the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act most of England and Wales was divided into poor law unions, collections of parishes, for poor law purposes, apart from those parishes who were part of an earlier union set up by an individual act of parliament.
The Poor Law Commission and later the Poor Law Board were responsible for implementing the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act; a system whereby poor relief across any particular local union would be offered via the 'deterrent workhouse'; designed and run to be an institution of last resort. In this they were aided by Assistant Poor Law Commissioners, later Poor Law Inspectors, who operated locally ´in the field´.
Each parish within a union was to elect (by local rate payers) one or more guardians. Each board of guardians would then employ a clerk, master, mistress and other ´professional´ staff to run the workhouse on a day to day basis.
Parishes would still raise money through a rating system and the monies from all of those parishes within a union would form the funds for the provision of relief.
In effect the 1834 Act saw the establishment of two new bureaucracies, the Poor Law Union (a new ´local government authority´) and the Poor Law Commission/Board (the ´Centre´). The job of the centre was to reduce poor relief expenditure by limiting the nature of relief to be given locally and to monitor each locality.
Here is the beauty of such bureaucratic creations; having more administrative space the correspondence of the Poor Law Unions to the Poor Law Commission/Board (and the draft letters back) were kept, stored and are available for use.
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The correspondence
'Correspondence' is by its very nature an extremely boring piece of archival terminology. But it often hides some of the most detailed and intimate local information we hold at The National Archives.
Once the new bureaucracies of the Poor Law Commission/Board and the Poor Law Unions were set up they engaged in a continuous round of letter writing and information sharing: finance, indoor and outdoor poor relief, details about individual paupers, education, building work, workhouse staff, public health, local politics, labour matters (such as trade unions, Chartism, friendly societies etc.) - in fact a broad range of everyday Victorian life.
In the main these records are really the original in-coming correspondence to the Poor Law Commission/ Board from the localities. The out-going letters (where they survive) will be with the records of the Poor Law Union itself. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Commission/Board ´copies´ of the responses are usually scrawled on the reverse of the incoming letter or fully drafted on ´acknowledgement sheets´; in effect giving both sides of the conversation.
In conclusion these records are a fantastic resource for researchers… if only they were catalogued/listed in such a way that researchers knew what was in specific volumes. We know they are underused by historians, notwithstanding how essential they are for local nineteenth century studies.
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The proposal
The MH 12 volumes make up a large part of The National Archives Ministry of Health archive and cataloguing them would be too big a job for our current (and foreseeable) resources. Therefore to make a large selection of these records, and the information they contain, more easily available to researchers, colleges and schools, The National Archives is currently seeking additional funding; this would allow us to work with the local history community to:
1. select c. 20 groups of volunteer editors from the local history community to work with The National Archives in cataloguing local poor law union correspondence; for example Southampton local history groups/societies would work on Southampton material, Liverpool local history groups/societies would work on Liverpool material, Cardiff local history groups/societies would work on Cardiff material etc. This has now been completed.
2. digitise the various letters, memos, reports etc. which make up the correspondence for selected poor law unions and make these scans available locally (for free)
3. employ two members of staff to work with the selected groups providing editorial and historical workshops to support the groups throughout the life of the project
4. undertake the final editorial work required for the catalogue entries (for searchability in The National Archives Catalogue)
5. The National Archives would help the local groups disseminate the information ´discovered´ by the groups themselves through links to local schools, press releases and via their own websites
6. (once material is catalogued) to make the digitised scan available for free via The National Archives website
The proposed project is seen as a partnership between The National Archives and the local history community; it is a great opportunity to work together to create the tools for detailed local history research.
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The Southwell (Nottinghamshire) Experience
In 2001 The National Archives and the National Trust agreed to work together to make the Southwell Poor Law Union correspondence more accessible to students, local historians, academics and indeed everyone with an interest in the National Trust's (then) latest acquisition: The Southwell Poor Law Union Workhouse.
The National Archives have 11 large volumes of bound correspondence (letters, reports, memos etc.) of the Southwell Workhouse covering 1834 to 1871 and this represents an indispensable source for historians interested in how poor relief was ´managed´ during this period within the 60 or so parishes which formed the Southwell Poor Law Union.
It was decided that The National Archives would provide:
- microfilm copies of the original material
- film readers on which they could be examined
- expert (continual) advice on the records themselves
- high quality digitised images of all of the 1834 to 1871 records for free via their website (making visits to London to view the material unnecessary).
The National Trust would provide:
- a work room
- computers
- the necessary infrastructure (IT servers etc.)
The local National Trust team at the workhouse then approached local people to act as volunteer editors who then carried out the initial cataloguing work. The National Archives staff working on the project provided initial training for the volunteer editors as well as giving regular support throughout the period of the project.
The volunteer editors read through the correspondence, noting who the letters etc. were from and to and what information was contained (reports on individual paupers, conditions in the workhouse, details of various staff, corruption and fraud by staff, information on local crime, etc). This information was then typed by the volunteer editors into specially provided (and easy to use) Word documents. Once finished the volunteers' work was checked and edited by staff at The National Archives.
When the volunteer editors had finished the volumes for 1834 to 1871 and the final editing and checking had taken place at The National Archives, the catalogue entries for the thousands and thousands of individual letters etc. became word searchable for all. Local historians in the Southwell area now have a fantastic resource at their finger-tips; historians of the neighbouring poor law unions of Newark, Worksop, East Retford and Mansfield will also find materials of interest as poor law union matters often overlapped locally. Of course other nineteenth century researchers and historians will also find much of interest in how the Victorian Poor Law operated.
The images are freely available to view and download. Local historians in the Southwell area have fully word searchable catalogue entries to the records and free access to high quality scans of one of the key nineteenth century sources. Furthermore local historians have been part of ´the team´ making these resources available.
Comments from members of the 'Southwell Workhouse Research Group' on their experiences while undertaking the project
Most of the Southwell volunteer editors were attracted to the project because of an existing interest in history, and were keen to gain further insights into the workhouse, its operation and impact on the local area and inhabitants. Some of the editors also work as room stewards in the property, and have found the new material valuable in answering visitors´ enquiries, and talking to them about life in the workhouse. It has prompted further research and interest in local history with several editors already using the new material to write articles or to add further interest to talks they give about the workhouse.
Staff at the National Trust and The National Archives know how critical the volunteers´ contribution has been, and are glad that they feel they have gained something too. Volunteers have reported the following benefits:
- acquired IT skills
- made new friends
- developed more confidence
- acquired cataloguing skills
- deepened knowledge of local history
- feel more connected to the local area
- feel they´ve made a contribution to understanding our history
Comments received include:
"It has given a remarkable insight into the activities, lives and minds of those associated with the Southwell Union Workhouse".
"Felt that the house has been brought to life".
"There has been quite a buzz knowing that you are doing something that has not been done before…….also finding some new aspects of history not always understood before".
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Gallery of example documents from MH 12 series across England and Wales
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