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Gateshead, Durham Poor Law Union: Difference between revisions
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Eventually, cottage homes were opened in 1901 at Shotley Bridge, the first in the North East. Six cottages provided for 120 boys and 90 girls and at first met with some hostility from local residents (this had been a problem in selecting a site for the workhouse itself) but continued in use until 1930 when they were handed over to Durham County Council. | Eventually, cottage homes were opened in 1901 at Shotley Bridge, the first in the North East. Six cottages provided for 120 boys and 90 girls and at first met with some hostility from local residents (this had been a problem in selecting a site for the workhouse itself) but continued in use until 1930 when they were handed over to Durham County Council. | ||
One group of inmates in the workhouse received very little sympathy, the tramps and vagrants who slept in the casual ward of the workhouse. They were a problem from the mid-nineteenth century and several times suggestions were put forward that the vagrant wards be demolished. On one night in January 1865, twenty-three people slept on the stone floor of a room 12 feet square! Later on, in the 1890s, attempts were made to distinguish between those who had left home in search of work, and vagrants who knew no other way of life. In 1901 it came to light that the master of Newcastle Workhouse was turning away vagrants and advising them to come to Gateshead! This practice was discontinued after complaints by the Gateshead Guardians. | One group of inmates in the workhouse received very little sympathy, the tramps and vagrants who slept in the casual ward of the workhouse. They were a problem from the mid-nineteenth century and several times suggestions were put forward that the vagrant wards be demolished. On one night in January 1865, twenty-three people slept on the stone floor of a room 12 feet square! Later on, in the 1890s, attempts were made to distinguish between those who had left home in search of work, and vagrants who knew no other way of life. In 1901 it came to light that the master of Newcastle Workhouse was turning away vagrants and advising them to come to Gateshead! This practice was discontinued after complaints by the Gateshead Guardians.<br> | ||
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http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Gateshead/Gateshead.shtml<br> | http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Gateshead/Gateshead.shtml<br> | ||