Workhouse Boulton Lane

[Patricia]

Does anyone have any knowledge about the Workhouse.

My father lived at Hungerhill when he was a child and told me that people entering the Workhouse had to be pennyless so any money they had they used to put it in the wall along the Slad. All the children in the area knew about this practice so would search the walls every evening to look for money. They were lucky sometimes. How wicked to rob from the poor. Unfortunately most of the families living in the area were poor themselves.

[dursleyglos]

Hi Patricia. I know this story too - appararently when the walls around the workhouse were demolished some of the coins were found. It's a shame the building isn't still there.

[Patricia]

We hear so much about "credit crunch" at the moment but life in our grandparents' lifetime was very hard.

My mother's mother died in childbirth, there were seven children. My mother was adopted. Her younger brother was brought up by the elder sisters.

One of her sisters had severe arthritis and was sent to the Workhouse because they couldn't look after her.

[dursleyglos]

Hi Patricia. I agree with you about the difficulties of life in those days compared to today. I have a copy of the Dursley Union Workhouse "Abstract of Accounts and List of Paupers" for October 1896 and looking through it you can get a picture of how people ended up there. Reasons include infirmity, widowhood, imbecile, deafness, destitution, epilepsy, broken leg, defective sight, asthma, desertion, pregnancy, orphan, and so on. All the paupers' names are listed and most had been in there for at least six months. Quite eye-opening.