por 10 Stoke upon Trent Poor Law Lunes Book 1807.

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

This work is a totally one off as it covers extracts from 1714 regulations of the Spittals Workhouse, Stoke-upon-Trent relating to the admission, cleansing, disinfecting clothing and searching of inmates for any valuables.

It describes the experiences on admission to the Institution, articles of value found upon the inmate shall were deposited with the Master, any money or value security in his possession will be used to off-set their maintenance within the institution.

It continues to list the items that are prohibited such as Cards or Dice, Letters, articles or written or printed matter of an obscene or improper character. The reference to the bathing of inmates is quite scary. This is an early view of life in 1714 under the Old Poor Law of Elizabeth I and an eye-opener again to the treatment of inmates both male and female.

Surprisingly this building still stands within the middle of the Royal Stoke University Hospital and now used as offices. The building is listed by English Heritage. It was built to provide assistance for the sick, both to resident inmates, but importantly to the people of Stoke-upon-Trent.

Male and Female wards for general cases. Wards for the elderly and infirm. Fever, Itch and Smallpox wards. There were also wards provided for Lunatics and Midwifery and finally a Nursery sick ward. In addition, the general items were also listed, Surgery, Nurses’ rooms, and the important water closets something the vast majority of the parish working classes had never experienced. In fact. It was quite a comprehensive hospital at the time catering probably all the needs of the general population of the parish.

This article reflects on when it was bult, its design and importantly how many rooms/wards and what uses they were put to. Gives one of the earlies insights to the early facility of medical treatment and is the only work that has been researched and compiled on its history and use since it was opened in 1842.

1 x A4 page