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Poor Houses, Poor Law information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy

Berkshire

  • General information about poorhouses. In 1782, the Gilbert Act divided counties into districts providing unions of parishes to be controlled by Boards of Guardians in order to benefit the old, the sick, the infirm and orphans. During the First World War many workhouses were used as war hospitals.  Under the Local Government Act of 1929, the Poor Law Unions were abolished. Responsibility for poor relief passed to local authorities from April 1930. Berkshire County Council took over all the former workhouses in Berkshire apart from Reading, which was taken over by Reading Borough Council. See article in the Berkshire Echo Vol 76 of Sep. 2016 for general information about the poorhouses and social care generally before the welfare state in 1948.
  • Peter Higginbotham's The Story of Workhouses provides a detailed description of each poorhouse and the location of their archived records, including these serving Berkshire: Abingdon,  Bradfield,  Cookham (later re-named Maidenhead) Easthampstead, Faringdon,  Hungerford (and Ramsbury),  Newbury,  Reading,  Wallingford,  Wantage,  Windsor and Wokingham.
  • Many records are held by the RBA and, where they exist, may contain: lists of inmates, register of Apprentices, register of births, register of deaths, rate books, admission and discharge registers, Board of Guardians' records. A useful source of information on those at the bottom of the social heap.
  • Records of the original Oracle cloth workhouse are held by the RBA
  • The Eureka Partnership publish a number of birth and death records of the Berkshire Workhouses.  
  • Berkshire FHS have information about  the Berkshire Workhouses and their shop sells a number of booklets of Poor Law Union records.
  • If you are looking for someone who was in a workhouse, it is worth checking if they also appear in the Quarter Sessions records, also held by the RBA
  • The Berkshire Overseers Papers are published by Berkshire FHS on CD which contains virtually all of the surviving pre-1834 records arranged by Poor Law Union, and with a master index. 
  • Berkshire FHS identify the Berkshire Poorlaw Unions and their constituent parishes (for members only).  See also their sketch map of  Berkshire Poorlaw Union areas. 
  • Newbury Poor Law Union Workhouse births and deaths.  
  • For photographs of workhouses, see The Story of Workhouses above and Historical Photographs under History.
  • Trade directories can provide some information through the years, see sample pages from a 1915 directory.

England

UK and Ireland

  • Peter Higginbotham's comprehensive The Workhouse website provides a wealth of information about Workhouses, the Poor Law and related issues.catalogue
  • If you are looking for someone who was in a workhouse, it is worth checking if they also appear in the Quarter Sessions records, held in County Record Offices - see the British Library's Discovery catalogue (use Advanced Search and select "Search Other Archives"). 
  • You can search and freely download documents of a number of Poor Law Unions across England and Wales from TNA.
  • Settlement Examinations in England and Wales - a detailed explanation, from LDS Familysearch, based on an article by Anthony Camp.