A Century of Struggle: Pauperism and the New Poor Law in Wales, 1834–1930

About the project

Although much has been written on poverty and the poor laws over the last 20 years, our project aims (for the first time) to provide a detailed and overarching ‘big picture’ of the New Poor Law, 1834–1930, in Wales.

We will focus on how it was received, experienced, and often challenged in Wales, is missing from the published historical literature.

The Welsh experience is often merged with and folded into the story of English welfare history. This project will provide new insights into the complexities of the imposition, operation, and impact of the New Poor Law in Wales. It will also question the assumption that Wales was just like England in the way it applied, adapted, and experienced it. The project will approach the research through three sets of questions:

1. Those that apply to both England and Wales, including the scale and scope of welfare and the nature of pauper agency.
2. Those that relate to the particularities of Welsh welfare attitudes, experiences, and outcomes, including the importance of the Welsh language in New Poor Law matters.
3. Those that relate to the place of Wales in an increasingly complex European debate about welfare regimes.

The project is based around a large-scale detailed research programme predicated upon unused and little used archives located at The National Archives, The National Library of Wales and multiple regional and county archive services across Wales, and it will transform the understanding of past welfare practices. This will include material written in Welsh.

Alongside a full suite of academic outputs, the project will also cast its research findings and archival transcription work into substantial non-academic engagement and impact. This includes work with project partners, their networks, and Wales-based teachers to create freely accessible and interactive educational resources. This will ensure teachers, school students, and leisure historians (and others) have access to teaching materials and to large numbers of archival transcriptions.

We will also work with a large number of skilled and knowledgeable volunteer editors helping us to create the datasets necessary to support our work. Additionally, we will provide online talks and seminars to both academic and general audiences. Collectively these activities will ensure large scale significant non-academic engagement impacts both during the period of this project and, as a significant legacy, beyond.