Havant, Hampshire

[Up to 1834] [After 1834] [Staff] [Inmates] [Records] [Bibliography] [Links]

Up to 1834

A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Havant (for up to 50 inmates), Bedhampton (15), and Warblington (30).

A parish workhouse was erected in Havant in 1819 at the north side of West Street.

Havant Poor Law Union was formed on 27th May 1835. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 10 in number, representing its 6 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

Hampshire: Bedhampton, Farlington, Havant (3), North Hayling, South Hayling, Warblington (3).

The population falling within the union at the 1831 census had been 6,398 with parishes ranging in size from North Hayling (population 294) to Warblington (2,118) and Havant itself (2,083). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1832-35 had been £4,975 or 15s.7d. per head of the population.

The new Havant Union took over the existing Havant parish workhouse and in 1836 the Poor Law Commissioners authorized the sum of £900 for its enlargement. The building had a simple T-shaped layout, presumably accommodating males in one wing and females in the other with kitchen and dining-hall at the centre rear. The workhouse location and layout are shown on the 1932 map below, by which time it had become known as a Poor Law Institution.

Havant workhouse site, 1932.

The workhouse building was demolished before 1960 and modern flats occupy the site. The only reminder of the workhouse's existence is the street sign for Union Road.

Havant former workhouse site from the west, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Staff

1881 Census

Inmates

1881 Census

Records

Hampshire Record Office, Sussex Street, Winchester SO23 8TH. Holdings: Guardians' minute books (1856-1930).

Bibliography

None.