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The Potterspury Union Workhouse
at Yardley Gobion
Up to 1834According to Eden's 1797 survey of the poor in England, provisions for the poor in Yardley Goben [Yardley Gobion] were as follows: In this township is a sort of Workhouse, in which there are at present only 2 persons. The manager of the house finds such Poor as the township may send him in victuals and fuel, for which he receives 3s. a week for each person. The township provides clothes, beds and other furniture.The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834Under this new Act, the Poor Law Commission acquired the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. The Commission issued directions to the Unions; these to be carried out by a Board of Guardians drawn locally to administer each Union. The Act laid down that relief was only to be given to able-bodied paupers through the workhouse, and central to the formation of any Union was the provision of a workhouse building. Although there was some periodic reorganisation of union boundaries over the next century, usually involving the dissolution or merger of existing Unions - this happened most notably in London - the majority of the Unions set up under the 1834 Act continued in operation for almost a hundred years. A new Local Government Bill which came into force on Monday 31st March 1930 abolished all the Poor Law Unions and their Boards of Guardians, and their role passed to county councils and county boroughs. Responsibility for the destitute was then assumed by the new local Public Assistance Committees. After 1834The Potterspury Poor Law Union formally came into being on 20th May 1835. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 13 in number, representing its 11 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):
The population falling within the (original) Union at the 1831 census had been 5,954 — with parishes ranging in size from Furtho (population 16) to Paulerspury (1,092). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1833-5 had been £5,375 or 18s.1d. per head of the population. The Potterspury Union adopted an existing building, perhaps the one referred to by Eden, and the Poor Law Commissioners authorised a total expenditure of £2,150 for its enlargement and adaptation. (Click here for the draft conveyance). The upgraded workhouse could accommodate up to 200 inmates. The main building had a long U-shaped layout as shown on the OS map of the site from 1901.
Some records of the Board of Guardians meetings have survived.. Click here to read the section covering 1840 - 1845 |
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