No information.
Bangor and Beaumaris Poor Law Union was formed on 30th May, 1837. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 30 in number, representing its 21 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):
Carnarvonshire:
Aber, Bangor (4), Llandegai (3), Llanfairfechan, Llanllechlid (3).
Anglesey: Beaumaris (3), Llandaniel Fab, Llandegfan, Llandonna, Llandysilio, Llanedwen, Llanfaes, Llanfair-pwll-Gwyngyl, Llanffinan, Llanfihangel Esceifiog, Llanfihangel-tyn-Sylwy, Llangoed, Llaniestyn, Llansadwrn, Penmon, Penmynydd.
The population falling within the union at the 1831 census had been 19,972 with parishes ranging in size from Llanfihangel-tyn-Sylwy (population 62) to Bangor itself (4,751). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1834-36 had been £6,452.
In 1838, the Poor law Commissioners autheorised the expenditure of £3,800 on the construction of a union workhouse. However, in Bangor as in many other Welsh unions, there was little enthusiasm for the new workhouse system and it was not until September 1845 that the building was ready.
The workhouse, designed by Messrs Weightman & Hadfield, was erected on a site at the east side of the Carnarvon Road at Glan Adda to the south-west of Bangor. Its location and layout are shown on the 1900 map below.
Bangor and Beaumaris workhouse site, 1900.
The workhouse adopted a somewhat unusal H-shaped layout with a long, possibly corridor-plan main block, with narrower cross-wings to each side.
After its closure in 1930, the main workhouse site became a creamery. The workhouse buildings have now been demolished and a supermarket occupies the site.
In 1914, a large new workhouse infirmary was erected at west side of the Carnarvon Road, a little to the north of the main workhouse. However, with the onset of the First World War the buildings were taken over for use as a military hospital. The site later became a maternity and childrens hospital known as St David's' Hospital but closed in 1983.
Bangor and Beaumaris workhouse and infirmary sites, c.1914.
Bangor & Beaumaris military hospital, c.1915.
© Peter Higginbotham.
This page () is copyright Peter G Higginbotham. Last updated 03-Feb-2010
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