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Bluecoat Schools and Ragged Schools
As part of my series on the Poor Laws and workhouses of Britain, I thought I would write a short piece on how these affected education of the poorest children of the times. So here we have a piece on poor schools. Following the Dissolution of the monasteries, during the reign of Henry VIII, scant thought was given to the poor of the parish who had often relied on the charity of the abbeys and so on to provide poor relief of varying measures. These charities included, food, shelter, employment, alms and basic care of the sick. In certain areas, a rudimentary education and certain apprenticeships were offered to young…
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Surviving Life in The Workhouse Part 2
In part one, we discussed the development of Poor laws and rates and so on to meet the rising need of the destitute in the community and the provision for children, the elderly and others who were unable to provide for themselves. We had reached the point where Elizabeth I had passed the 1601 Poor Laws, now known as the Old Poor Law, which had passed on the responsibility for collecting the poor rates from parishes and converting it to basic foods, clothing and fuel etc for those in need. Rent allowances and other monies from the rates were also introduced to be given to those in need, enabling them…
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Surviving life in – The Workhouse (Part One)
Most of us have heard tales of the infamous workhouses of the Victorian era. Dark abodes of desolation where the most pitifully destitute of humanity went, never to see the outside world again. Conditions were harsh and mortality rates were high. But is this an accurate view of these institutes? Let’s delve into the past and find out. The common idea of the Workhouse goes back much further than most people would think, although in varying guises. As a result of the Great Plague epidemic of 1348/9, a vast number of the peasant population of England and Wales had been wiped out. The loss of life particularly impacted agricultural areas,…
