The Workhouses of Derby and Burton
A workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment.
The origins of the workhouse can be traced to the Statute of Cambridge 1388, a piece of English Legislation that placed restrictions on the movements of labourers and beggars following the Black Death, a bubonic plague pandemic that caused the deaths of 75-200 million people between 1346 and 1353.
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Mass unemployment following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the introduction of new technology to replace agricultural workers, and a series of bad harvests, meant that by the early 1830s the established system of poor relief was proving to be unsustainable.
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The New Poor Law of 1834 ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses, clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling and in return for this care, all workhouse residents would have to work for several hours each day.
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As the 19th century wore on, workhouses increasingly became refuges for the elderly, infirm, and sick rather than the able-bodied poor, and in 1929 legislation was passed to allow local authorities to take over workhouse infirmaries as municipal hospitals.
Although workhouses were formally abolished in 1930, many continued under the title of “Public Assistance Institutions” and were under the control of local authorities. It was not until the introduction of the National Assistance Act of 1948 that the last vestiges of the Poor Law finally disappeared, and with them the workhouses.
Life in the Workhouse
Upon entering the workhouse, new inmates usually spent some time in a receiving ward where they received a medical inspection. They were given a bath, had their clothes taken away for disinfecting, and were issued with the workhouse uniform. For men this was usually a jacket and trousers in rough cloth, striped cotton shirt, cloth cap and shoes. For women this was usually a blue and white ankle length striped shift-frock with a smock worn over the top.
Daily life in the workhouse was conducted to the timetable below, punctuated by the ringing of the workhouse bell. On Sundays, no work was performed except for essential domestic chores.
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The ‘No. 3 Dietary’ issued by the Poor Law Commissioners in 1836 gave the following dietary guidelines for the inmates:
After 1900, Unions were allowed to devise their own dietaries.
Some workhouses had workshops for sewing, spinning and weaving or other local trades. Others had their own vegetable gardens where inmates worked to provide food for the workhouse. Women performed the domestic tasks of cooking, cleaning and the workhouse laundry. Men were given heavy manual work such as stone-breaking (for saleable road making), corn-grinding (for flour), gypsum crushing (for use in plaster making), oakum picking (teasing out the fibres from old hep ropes) and bone crushing (to produce fertiliser).
After 1934, Poor Law Unions were required to provide at least three hours a day for the schooling of workhouse children. Children were taught reading, writing and arithmetic and the principles of Christian religion. By the 1840’s, unions were being encouraged to place children in buildings separate from the workhouse to remove them from any polluting associations with adult workhouse inmates.
The Workhouses in Derby
A workhouse existed in Derby from around 1729. A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded five parish workhouses in Derby. St Alkmunds on Lodge Lane with accommodation for up to thirty four inmates, All Saints on Walker Lane with sixty, St Michael with fourteen, St Peter with forty and St Werburgh on Friargate with fifty.
Derby Poor Law Union formally came into existence on the 19th October 1837. The first workhouse which was run by The Derby Union was built on Osmaston Road in 1838 and accommodated three hundred and fifty inmates.
Osmaston Road former Workhouse, 1880’s
The Derby Union built a second workhouse on Uttoxeter Road in 1878. The building of this new workhouse led to the site on Osmaston Road being put up for sale in 1876. It was purchased by the Royal Crown Derby Company for the establishment of a new factory.
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A gatehouse stood at the southern entrance to the site, with vagrants' wards to the west. Behind the gatehouse stood the three-storey main block with a central clock tower. There was a central dining hall and kitchen block to its rear. Further north lay the chapel with the infirmary to its east. A separate school building lay at the north of the site.
When the County Council took over responsibility for the workhouses from the Boards of Guardians in 1930, it became known as Boundary House Public Assistance Institution. It was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and became known as Manor Hospital. In later years it was used as a hospital for the elderly. The hospital closed in 1988 and the building was demolished in 1992.
We have a number of items in our collection relating to the Manor Hospital, including two rim lock keys from the Hospital’s workhouse origins.
From the UHDB Medical Museum Collection
In 1926, work began on a scheme on a 28-acre site on Uttoxeter Road to build a Poor Law Hospital. The official laying of the foundation stone took place on the 29th of June 1927. The hospital was officially opened on Saturday 16th November 1929, by the Mayor of Derby, Alderman JH Grant.
From the UHDB Medical Museum Collection
The hospital could accommodate three hundred patients and contained four thirty bed wards, each with day room plus a number of smaller one and two bed wards. A nurses room, bath and stores were at the inner end near to the main corridor. Also connected to the corridor were the operating theatre, maternity block and special treatment blocks. A porters lodge stood at the northern entrance to the site, with a mortuary to its rear. A large nurses home was built on the site in 1934.
Photo from the UHDB Medical Museum Collection
On the 1st of April 1930, less than six months after the hospitals official opening, the Local Government Act of 1929 came into operation. On that date, control of the hospital passed to Derby Town Council. It was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and still operates today.
The Workhouse in Burton
The first workhouse in Burton was built in 1728 in a converted barn on what is now known as Wetmore Road. In 1776 it could house sixty inmates. The building was sold in 1847 and later became a brewery warehouse.
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Burton-upon-Trent Poor Law Union formally came into existence on the 30th of March 1837. The first workhouse, which was run by The Burton-upon Trent Union, was built between Horninglow Street and Hawkins Lane in Burton in 1838 and accommodated three hundred inmates.
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The Burton-upon Trent Union built a second workhouse on Belvedere Road in 1884. The building of this new workhouse led to the site on Horninglow Street and Hawkins Lane to be first used as an infectious diseases hospital and then sold to the Bass Brewing Company in June 1891.
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The Belvedere Road workhouse could accommodate five hundred and fifty inmates and was formally opened on the 23rd October 1884 by Chairman of the Board of Guardians, Major Bindley.
A gatehouse stood at the southern entrance to the site, with vagrants' wards to the west. Behind the gatehouse stood the three-storey main block with a central clock tower. There was a central dining hall and kitchen block to its rear. Further north lay the chapel with the infirmary to its east. A separate school building lay at the north of the site.
Photo from the UHDB Medical Museum Collection
Inmates were separated into blocks with males, females and children being kept apart, even when from the same family. Within the children’s block, boys and girls were further segregated. Next to the children’s block was a schoolhouse. To the right was the Casuals block for short-term inmates. At the rear of the site was an Infirmary and close by, a mortuary and stable block.
In 1930, the workhouse became Burton-upon-Trent Public Assistance Institution. In 1948, the site was transferred to the National Health Service for the building of Burton District Hospital.
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Several buildings survived to become part of the new hospital and even today, remain in use as part of Queen’s Hospital. Here are a few of the key former workhouse buildings that are still in use today:
The former workhouse masters house, now known as 'The House' and used as offices (formerly housed the Chief Executive's office)
The plaque in the gable of The House
The workhouse children’s accommodation block, now houses the IT Offices.
The former workhouse masters house, now known as 'The House' and used as offices (formerly housed the Chief Executive's office)
