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What problems, if any, did the workhouse solve

16th January 1838 it accused the workhouses of, cruelty to children and the aged, systematic famishing, and neglect of the sick. Richard Oastler, spoke out against the new Poor Law, calling the workhouses ‘Prisons for the Poor.’ Also opposed to the workhouses were David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Henry Mayhew, Dr Barnardo, William, Charles and Catherine Booth and Seebohm Rowntree son of Joseph Rowntree.

In conclusion, I think the original economic idea of the workhouse was an innocent attempt at solving a problem: too many poor, homeless un-employed people. To remedy that problem the poor needed to have a job and a house, hence the workhouse. Here, the poor would get fed, access to showers, a bed etc, so the welfare cost would have been met, but they would also be producing a commodity that would fetch a price. However, this simple plan was turned into a way of punishing people for being poor. Factory owners held all the power over workers and, I believe, it was the absent legislation that was so damaging.

References

Book Referencing:

· Crompton Frank Workhouse Children (1997)

· Englander David Poverty & Poor Law Reform in 19c Britain (1998)

· Fraser D The Evolution of the British Welfare State. London Macmillan (1984)

· Hill K. County records Dept. Cambridge

· Hill Michael Understanding Social Policy, Oxford Blackwell (1999)

· Hinde, G.B., Provision for the Relief of the Poor in Manchester, 1754-1826 (Chetham Society, 1975)

· Hitchcock, T, Paupers and preachers: the SPCK and the parochial workhouse movement in Lee Davison, et al, eds, Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems in England, 1689-1750 (Allen Sutton, 1992).

· Jones K The making of social policy in Britain 183-1990. London Athlone Press

· Journal of the Workhouse Visiting Society (1859-65)

· Longbottom Alan The London Medical Gazette1837-8 Vol. 21 1053 pp p 693 27th January (1838)

· Maslow Abraham, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed., Harper & Row, (1970)

· Slack, Paul. The English Poor Law, 1531-1782, (1990)

· Sutton Alan. Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems, 1688-1750 1992,

· Taylor, Geoffrey, The Problem of Poverty, 1660-1834 (Longman, 1969).

· Webb Sidney & Beatrice English Poor Law History (3 vols 1927-9)

Website referencing:

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse

http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/victorianbritain/caring/timeline2.htm

http://65.107.211.206/history/poorlaw/royalcom.html

www.workhouses.co.uk

www.workhouses.org.uk