A parliamentary report of 1776 listed local workhouses operating at Lewes Borough and at St Thomas in the Cliff, each with accommodation for 30 inmates .
The Lewes Poor Law Union was formed on 10th August 1835. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 11 in number, representing its 7 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):
County of Sussex:
Lewes—All Saints (2), Lewes—St John Baptist Southover, Lewes—St John-under-the-Castle (2), Lewes—St Michael (2), Lewes—St Peter and St Mary Westout, Lewes—St Thomas-in-the-Cliffs (2), South Malling.
Later Additions:Barcombe, Beddingham, Chailey, Chalvington, East Chiltington, Ditchling, West Firle, Glynde, Hamsey, Newick, Plumpton, Ringmer, Ripe, Streat, Westmeston, Wivelsfield (all from 1898).
The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 9,297 with parishes ranging in size from South Malling (population 705) to Lewes—St John-under-the-Castle (2,421). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1832-35 had been £5,770 or 12s.5d. per head of the population.
After its formation, Lewes Union continued to use existing workhouse premises for the enlargement of which the Poor Law Commissioners authorized an expenditure of £900 in 1836. In 1868, a new workhouse was built at the north side of De Montfort Road. Its construction cost £12,700 and it accommodated 205 inmates. There was an attached infirmary to the north west and a school house for 40 children to the north east. The workhouse location and layout are shown on the 1874 map below.
Lewes workhouse site, 1875.
The main building was constructed on a corridor plan and had numerous gables. A single storey entrance block ran along the south of the site.
Lewes workhouse from the south, c.1910.
© Peter Higginbotham.
In 1898, Lewes merged with the Chaileyand West Firle Unions, with the new body continuing under the name of Lewes Union. The West Firle and Lewes workhouses were closed and their inmates transferred to the former Chailey Union workhouse at East Chiltington.
The Lewes workhouse was subsequently rented by the Revd Harold Burden, a former missionary, and a leading figure in the creation and operation of reformatories for inebriates at the turn of the 19th century. Following the passing of an Inebriates Act in 1898 which enabled the compulsory detention of criminal inebriates in certified reformatories, Burden set up a charity called the National Institutions for Inebriates (NII). The NII set up a network of institutions, including one in another former workhouse at Guiltcross in Norfolk which opened as the Eastern Counties or East Harling reformatory in 1904. Lewes was the Southern Counties reformatory licensed in November 1902 for 130 female inebriates who were admitted directly from court. Guiltcross took both men and women, and also epileptic and diseased inmates. Due to falling numbers, the Lewes reformatory surrendered its licence as an inebriate reformatory in January 1910.
Lewes reformatory site, 1910.
The former workhouse blocks were allocated to groups of inebriate inmates classed as "well behaved", "manageable", "troublesome" and "very troublesome" as shown on the plan below (click on the plan for an enlarged version).
Lewes inebriate reformatory plan, c.1908.
The old Lewes workhouse buildings were demolished in 1960 to make way for the erection of the De Montfort flats.
This page () is copyright Peter G Higginbotham. Last updated 01-Aug-2008
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