The poor law Act of 1556, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st, enacted procedures for
collecting charitable alms from the wealthier people of the parish to help the poor
and this task was usually carried out by churchwardens. By 1597, parishes were able to
levy a poor rate, and this paid for the building of the first poorhouse.
The Poor Law Acts of 1601 were to provide essential pattern for the treatment of the poor.
It lay down in each parish to appoint as overseers of the poor, and to collect the poor
rate from the wealthier inhabitants.
The new arrangements put paupers into three categories; a) the able-bodied poor, for
whom work would, provided. b) The old, children, the handicapped including lunatics c)
those thought to be able but unwilling; to earn a living for themselves or there families
these were often referred to as "sturdy beggars". This general concept of
separately identifying the "deserving" and "undeserving" paupers.
The General Workhouse Act of 1723 gave parishes the authority to build their own workhouse
or join with other parishes to do so. The responsibility for poor relief lay at parish
level in the hands of the Overseers of the Poor and under the supervision of the county
Justices of the Peace. In 1833 Earl Grey, the British Prime Minister, set up a Poor Law
Commission to examine the working of the poor law system in Britain. In their report
published in 1934, the Commission made several recommendations to parliament. As a result,
the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed.
In the act it was decreed that external relief for the poor was to be stopped within two years, leaving these unfortunates with the choice of the workhouse or starvation. No able-bodied person was to receive money or any other help from the poor law authorities except in a workhouse. The legislation had been designed to root out the "undeserving poor". The New Poor Law Union supervised by the Board of Guardians consisted of who men were elected by the ratepayers and prominent landowners of the parish.
Conditions in the workhouse were made very harsh and hostile for the paupers, to discourage people from wanting to receive help. Perhaps the cruelest aspects of the workhouse were the separation of husbands and wives and parents and children. They were forced to stay in different parts of the workhouse and were not even permitted to meet in communal areas such as the chapel. There was no free lunch in the workhouse, everyone was expected to work long hours in often difficult and demanding jobs. Men would be expected to do heavy work like breaking stone, cutting wood or grinding corn. Women were expected to work long hours washing, scrubbing and cleaning or other tasks in payment for a bowl of gruel and a piece of bread. Children around this time were still working down the mines and often doing dangerous work in factories so children would be expected to do heavy work within the workhouse. There was a social stigma attached to being in the workhouse, conditions were harsh and very few personal items where allowed to be kept by the pauper. The Workhouse dweller was given a uniform in exchanged for their clothes, usually a coarse gown or cotton shirt. These would have letters sewn on them, 'P' for pauper, followed by the letter of the parish.