The origin of Watford Union Workhouse started in 1838 and has since developed into a hospital. It has made big alterations in the time between and has made improvements over the time taken up until its final transformation. I will be thoroughly examining its growth and how it has fully developed and studying the Workhouse from the very beginning.It all dates back to the time when Henry VIII reigned in the 16th century, he made an important decision which changed many lives.
This decision was to dissolve ALL monasteries, which landed many poor people with nowhere to go. The monasteries were somewhere that poor people could go to for help, food and shelter. The situation worsened and the decided to pass the poor law in 1601. The law stated that each parish was responsible for its own paupers.There were two types of poor people - the deserving poor and the idle poor.
The deserving poor are people who under no fault of their own are homeless and can't do anything about it. Some of these people were put into workhouses and/or offered Outdoor relief which was food, clothing and medical care. The idle poor were people who could work but chose not to.The system was failing after the 1750s.
The settlement Act of 1622 allowed parishes to send away paupers from other parishes after 40 days, unless the pauper had a note from his/her parish agreeing to pay back any money spent. The 1722 Workhouse act said that parishes must build workhouses.The old poor law was under pressure towards the end of the eighteenth century due to the popular increase and the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. This is shown in Source A as the workhouse is said to be "too small for the convenient" and it also includes the need for an extension "an additional building to present workhouse is now very much wanted."After some problems towards the end of the eighteenth century with the old poor law, Gilberts act of 1782 allowed parishes to join as unions to build workhouses for the poor. The act outlawed Outdoor Relief.
The poor law was costing too much and kept on rising, in 1832 an investigation was to be carried out by the Royal Commissioner. The cost of poor relief had risen from 1.4 million in 1776 to 7.3 million in 1833. The main causes were that the parishes were too small and there were too many different systems being introduced.
After the investigation had been carried out, the final report listed some improvements to be made: there should be one system of poor relief, no more outdoor relief, parishes form unions, paupers and their families only receive relief if they're prepared to enter the workhouse and workhouses should be more strict and in bad conditions so only people who had nowhere else to go, would go here as a last resort.The Law Amendment Act, 1834, issued the New Poor Law stating that parishes were to merge together to form unions, which then had to build workhouses. In source B, s modern school history textbook, the main points are taken down on the New Poor Law. These points are: Parishes unite together as Poor Law Unions, Outdoor relief was only for those who were willing to enter a workhouse and the state of the workhouses had to be the worst they could be so only people who were desperate could go.By 1839, the South of England had made fast progress with 700 unions and around 350 workhouses made or being built.
Although in the north of England, industrial had taken a downfall for the worst and there was a lack of employment in the area.Edwin Chadwick, the secretary of the Poor Law Commissions, designed the workhouses to be very plain, grim and prison-like. His design of the workhouse was based on the work of Jack Nichols and on the Southwell workhouse in Nottinghamshire. This was also the main example for union workhouses up and down the country. There were strict rules and punishments for anyone who had been made to live in a workhouse.
Uniforms were to be worn and work was to be completed to a satisfactory amount. There were also same-sex dormitories and this can also be assumed in Source E, which is a map of the buildings, as they are in a symmetrical shape.In 1838, in association with the New Poor Law, a new Union Workhouse was built in Watford on vicarage road replacing the old workhouse and before that a complex of workhouse buildings that were then sold and in its place were the West Herts Co-operative society, the parish clerk and others. This is noted in Source D from The Book of Watford by JB Nunn in 1987.Watford was finally a non-growth area in an expanding Watford half a century later.
Yet the problem remains to be solved and although there have been some changes to the workhouse in an effort to resolve the problem it seems that the poor are still "contained within reasonable limits."Source C is a history source from a book called The History of Watford written in 1970, it shows us how the Watford Workhouse has been developing and the number of poor people who were staying there and the previous year. It also tells us how much poor relief for the fortnight there was and also the year before. The numbers of "inmates" (suggesting imprisonment) in December 1882 were 224 people, a year later it was 252.
The numbers are inaccurate and don't give the exact amount of people in the whole workhouse. The numbers weren't really increasing though and it shows that the workhouse is not growing.Three years after the Second World War and the introduction of the NHS both in 1948, the Watford Union Workhouse was experiencing it's final transformation into Watford General Hospital. This made good use of the workhouse as there was plenty of space and buildings to be used for a hospital, this was also typical of workhouses and many nationally reformed into hospitals.
After looking at the origin of Watford Union Workhouse and it's current state as Watford General Hospital and all the different developments and relocations in between, the workhouse has come a long way and I think the idea of a hospital has been it's best change to date. Having a new hospital will benefit many and will do what it has only been doing since the start and that is looking after and caring for other people.This historical site is a very important place and will be remembered for all the people it has helped and will continue to do so, thus it's purpose being reached.
