Catalogue

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

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

The Scriven Report of 1843 is the report that has received most attention in analysing the life of children in the potteries, many working long hours for just a few pence jus to avoid the family having to go into the workhouse. It contains the same methodology as the later contribution of Mr. Longe in 1862, nineteen years later.

This report was probably the best known of its time for the examination of working conditions for children taking statements from many of the children. In addition, interviews were taken from supervisors, department heads, managers, master potters and company bosses and therefore is the finest examination of working conditions on the 1840 used by scholars, university humanities and economic students as well as those looking into the causes of illness and deaths within the industry.

The Longue Report is one that I discovered by accident and very little work has been carried out is analysing the data to create an informed picture of the potteries in 1863. I have used this widely and recommend its use by students of social, economic and child exploitation in the 19^th century. It covers areas of employment of young children in the potteries, age, working conditions, punishment, hours of daily work, contributions by children and employers. A great study of life is unfolded. and follows on and updated from that of the Scriven Report of 1843.

PDF 97 pages

A most unusual record was maintained under the Poor Law Act 1834 that the religion of each inmate was recorded at the time of admittance. The religion of the guardians often had influence on how inmates were treated and therefore is an important contribution to the social and religious history of workhouses. Sadly, the question of religion was a huge issue of the time whereby, one religion did not accept the others creating a high level of animosity between inmates. This is a subject area that no other historian has previously studied despite religion being one of the most contentious issues of workhouse life and therefore a huge contribution to the flavour of workhouse life. Perfect for A level or Humanities students.

Graph format pie chart

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