A sprinkling of sympathy

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (181) finds compassion on occasion softening the dark prejudice with which Guardians managed the local workhouse. Press reports show the Guardians applying both stick and carrot. One time, providing tea and beer, another, rewarding dissent with a prison sentence. Also, it explores the possibility that domestic catastrophes, rather than malingering, may have caused several groups comprised of young siblings to become inmates.

Victorian Bournemouth (181): Part 1

Tea but no sympathy

The Dickensian satire of institutional attitudes and beliefs about paupers appears as a leit motif during meetings of the Christchurch Union’s Guardians as reported by the press. Reverend J. R. Pretyman stated that only 3% of vagrants deserved accommodation in the workhouse. Minimal mercy to discourage malingering constituted the Guardians’ main approach. Examples of it appear often, but reluctance to heat the workhouse perhaps stands as the epitome of their attitude. On occasion, however, they appear to have leavened this puritanical and unyielding behaviour by treating inmates to humane acts. For example, they gave permission for older inmates, women for the most part, to accept invitations to take afternoon tea with ladies of charitable outlook. EW Rebbeck thought ‘they must be careful not to make the [workhouse] too comfortable’. Nevertheless, a week earlier he had paid for old men and children to have tea, distributing tobacco and sweets.

Oakum-picking

The Guardians discussed an inmate sent to prison for refusing to pick oakum. The Master had instituted proceedings. The man, aged 75, who claimed having bad sight, and the Master seemed to have a bad relationship, the latter finding him always difficult. Other inmates drew attention to the case after the man had gone to prison. In the discussion, one Guardian quoted contemporary writers who described oakum-picking as a punishment because it could numb the finger-tips, when shifts lasted perhaps twelve hours. The Clerk made a joke: ‘any work occasionally caused a “disagreeable sensation to the tips of the fingers” (Laughter)’. Perhaps to divert the attention, the Master produced samples of rope so that the Guardians could discover the effect of a (brief) oakum-picking on their fingertips. The incident illustrates how an attempt to modify Guardians’ attitudes might occur. Two years later, they put a stove in the oakum-picking room.

Victorian Bournemouth (181): Part 2

Beer, or coffee

The Guardians received a letter from the Local Government Board concerning arrangements to celebrate the 1887 Jubilee within the workhouse. On their advice, the Guardians could make ‘such reasonable modifications … to discipline and diet’. After discussion, the Guardians decided on a ‘meat tea’ and ‘other delicacies’ such as happened at Christmas. The Master had the option to distribute tobacco. In 1891, a huge row divided the Board. Most Guardians thought they had agreed to provide beer as part of the Christmas celebrations, thereafter leaving the meeting. The remaining rump, Temperance supporters, countermanded this, replacing beer with coffee. Lord Malmesbury, an ex-officio member, offered to supply the inmates with a barrel of beer at his expense. His paternalism and the anger of the members bypassed by their over-zealous colleagues provide another illustration of how, on occasion, humane attitudes might surface to soften an intransigent approach to applying government policy.

Profiles

At the beginning of the 1880s, the workhouse perhaps had a ring of emptiness, less than half of its capacity (200) filled. During the decade, however, the numbers increased to 159 in 1891. Nevertheless, it remained a quarter empty. On April 5th, 1891, male inmates outnumbered the females, the former having a higher average age than the latter. Most of the men listed an occupation: labourers, artisans, building craftsmen. Some very old men still gave an occupation: 81 (bricklayer), 78 (shoemaker), 77 (gas-fitter). The senior man, John Ford, an ‘aged inmate’, had reached 92. Most of the women had no occupation or worked in service. A decade earlier, children had boarded at Tuckton school. By 1891, however, the master and matron now accepted children in the workhouse, where they accounted for the greatest proportion of inmates. Surname inspection shows several clusters of young children, most without an accompanying adult.

Victorian Bournemouth (181): Part 3

Domestic crises

Analysis of several childhood kinship groups recorded in the workhouse raises doubts about equating all workhouse inmates with malingerers. Instead, domestic crises, personal or economic, may have brought some groups of young siblings into the workhouse. These families, the fathers agricultural labourers, appear to have lead nomadic lives. At some point, either the death of one parent (or both) or a break in the relationship, appears to have brought the children into Christchurch workhouse. In some cases, a mother or father accompanied them, but in others, no evidence of the parents’ contemporary location has surfaced. For some, their residence did not become permanent, for evidence of reunited families exists in subsequent census listings. For others, where long-term residence occurred, subsequent employment – army for boys, service for girls – helped them lead adult lives under their control. Some married, had families, and prospered in their way.

Working the system

One example, however, suggests that a couple may have applied sharp practice to gain entrance into the workhouse. In 1891, Susan, a widow, worked on a refreshment stand located on the beach at Alum Chine. Three of her children resided in the workhouse. Ten years earlier, the census showed her as a ‘widow’. In 1901, however, other children resided with their siblings, former inmates. Their births date to after 1881. Furthermore, in that year their apparent father, visited a relative in Battersea, not dead at all. Records of workhouse inmates identified otherwise can incorporate mistakes or confusion. This may have applied to this family, but the possibility exists that its parents engaged in a measure of trickery to deposit some of their children in the Christchurch workhouse. The subsequent collection of the inmates with other siblings may imply a family geared all possible resources to survive temporary problems.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (181) has found that, while they subscribed to the vendetta against sturdy beggars, some Guardians took steps to ease life for inmates at the Christchurch Union workhouse. It also discusses examples where the death of parents or a split may have resulted in their children finding social care and support in the workhouse. Thus, some tempering or retouching of the stereotyped Dickensian portrait should occur.

References

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