This government report is a major contribution to the health issues of the times and the state of the potteries. A huge contribution to the social and health issues of the potteries and the industrial illnesses and deaths as a result of the time.

On the Sanitary State of the Staffordshire Potteries, with especial reference to that of the Potters as a class, their Mortality, and the Diseases ;prevalent among them. By J. T. Arlidge, M.J3. and A.13 Lond., M.K.C.P. Lond., Senior Physician to the ‘North Staffordshire Infirmary, formerly Physician to the West London Hospital,

Great help to Humanities students and social working conditions.

Report PDF Fifteen Pages

This project is a focus of the life of children in the middle of the 1800’s. It is a focus is the life of the young, how they were treated in the workhouse and within the working environment. It’s not an easy read as it quotes extensively the experiences of life by many children from as early as 6/7 as they had to go out to work in support of their family. Illustrated with photographs of the time and a worthy read to place life at that time into context and how children were treated in so many ways. Breadwinners, because of the system of wages being paid in the street corner pub, were encouraged by the landlord to have more to drink as he claimed he had not enough change to pay them from a £5 note from the foreman who held the pay for all under him. Many wives, along with their children, would stand outside imploring their husbands to come out before all their wages were spent. But would often return home with a drunken spouse in the certain knowledge they would be evicted the following week as there was no money for the rent or food. For many families the breadwinner would just walk out, leaving his wife and children to the mercies of the Poor Law system, or to survive on just a few pence from the relieving officer. For others, because of industrial disease, many mothers were left widowed at an early age. Against this background of need and lack of sustenance, there was also a lack of education except that offered by Sunday schools.

Breadwinners, because of the system of wages being paid in the street corner pub, were encouraged by the landlord to have more to drink as he claimed he had not enough change to pay them from a £5 note from the foreman who held the pay for all under him. Many wives, along with their children, would stand outside imploring their husbands to come out before all their wages were spent. But would often return home with a drunken spouse in the certain knowledge they would be evicted the following week as there was no money for the rent or food. For many families the breadwinner would just walk out, leaving his wife and children to the mercies of the Poor Law system, or to survive on just a few pence from the relieving officer. For others, because of industrial disease, many mothers were left widowed at an early age. Against this background of need and lack of sustenance, there was also a lack of education except that offered by Sunday schools.

3 x A4 pages

In 1832 the overseer of the poor prepared a report of several pages referring to the problems of the current workhouse then situated in the village of Penkhull and its over-crowding with no room for enlargement. His brief was to come up with some proposals for a new workhouse and suggested the area of Wetley Rocks, an area of some miles from Stoke and isolated. His conclusions on how the inmates would be treated and noting the vast amount of land which could be purchased for £10 per acre. It was here that he describes that there was sufficient land to make the workhouse self-sufficient. A tremendous document to read and the only one to have survived. A huge contribution to the social and economic period of the time in addition to the terrible treatment of paupers.

For the young inmates in workhouses the guardians in many cases understood the need to train both genders in an occupation that could find them employment once leaving the workhouse at the age of sixteen. Why, because this was considered a means whereby once discharged, they could find work, and as a consequence not to become a permanent burden upon poor law. This section is a comprehensive study which includes many aspects of young people’s expectations. Girls were treated very differently than boys where the focus was upon domestic duties, washing, ironing and household accounts. Miss Rose Wedgwood provided training and accommodation for a number of girls to be trained in high quality servants work with the promise of employment in a gentleman’s residence. The North Staffs Ladies Association sent up a school at Shelton for the training of young girls.

Boys were trained in gardening and farming, shoe making, tailoring, learning to play a brass band instrument and drill ready for a good position in the services. All this was done by outside skilled people who were paid by the hour.

Nine x A4 pages

This original research is a compilation of hope for so many and in return once the young left did not become a burden on the poor law. This is a major piece of valuable study and a certain tool for those studying social and economic studies as well as those who are keen to explore what was done in the workhouse and to learn that all was not bad. A great reflection upon how children inmates were treated at the time, very differently that the adults.

This article relating to how Christmas was celebrated at the Stoke-upon-Trent workhouse compared with that of the Wolstanton and Burslem workhouse which was situated in the north of the city at Chell.

Each Christmas was almost a re-run of the previous year. The height of the day would be roast beef and plumb pudding. Ar the Stoke workhouse, this was served by the govenor and staff, whist at Chell they always celebrated Christmas on the 26th why – because the staff wanted the day off with their families. A gift for the women would be a small packet of tea and sugar while the men had tobacco. The young children had a mixture of treats normally donated by the shop keepers of the nearby town.

The afternoos is where entertainment was brought into the workhouse, which provided a much needed rest from the normal works of the day. As usual the govenor finished the day off with prayers in addition to saying Grace before the meal was served.

Two pages A4

Under the Poor Law of 1834 there were no benefits it was simply if you had no money, no home, no job you would apply to be admitted into a workhouse. The objective was to enforce the worst conditions they could in the hope that those desperate would do anything to remain out of the workhouse. Here families were separated by gender and a minimum age necessary for the maintenance of ‘decency’ whereby children were segregated from adults in order to dissuade them from a life of indolence and mendicancy and kept from what was considered ‘sluggish sensual indolence’.
Vagrants or casuals were travellers from town to town, perhaps we could call tramps. The 1834 Act was designed to stem the drain of resources as a deterrent, but vagrants dominated the flow of poor inmates. In 1837 workhouses became obliged to provide temporary overnight shelter for any destitute person, forcing guardians to arrange special accommodation for this category. Initially, vagrants were housed in infectious wards, stables and outhouses anywhere until purpose built vagrant wards were built at the edge of the main workhouse site, frequently having its own access from the highway to avoid contamination with other inmates.
Vagrants would arrive late in the afternoon waiting for admission and their personal belongings removed. The number of beds available for vagrants was frequently limited and late-comers found themselves turned away. In better-regulated wards, they were stripped, bathed and their clothes disinfected, and a bread and water supper were served.
This was the way in which people were treated if they became a burden upon the parish and in turn taxed the local residents based upon the value of their home. Many think the of survival today with increasing costs everywhere, but in reality, nearly two hundred years ago life then was beyond imagination. Read more about times then for those who had nothing except the clothes they stood up in. Yes, the poor law did make some difference to those who came knocking but inside you were treated less than human.