Newcastle-upon-Tyne Workhouse and Poor Law Union

A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded local workhouses in operation at Newcastle All Saints (for up to 100 inmates), Newcastle St John (26), Elswick in St Johns (40), Westgate in St Johns (12), and Byker (10).

An account in 1831 by Thomas Oliver described four parish workhouses in Newcastle.

After 1834

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Poor Law Union formally came into existence on 26th September 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 34 in number, representing its 11 constituent parishes and townships as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

County of the Town of Newcastle: All Saints (9), Byker (3), Elswick, Heaton, Jessmond, St Andrew's (6), St John's (5), St Nicholas (4), Westgate (2). Northumberland: Benwell, Fenham.

The population falling within the union at the 1831 census had been 54,991 with parishes and townships ranging in size from Fenham (population 100 each) to Newcastle All Saints (17,063). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1834-36 had been £15,049 or 5s.6d per head of the population.

In 1914, following and enlargement of the city's boundaries, the union was reconstituted as the Newcastle-upon-Tyne poor law parish.

Westgate Road Workhouse

In 1839, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Board of Guardians decided to replace the existing workhouses with a new purpose-built one at a site to the west of the city at the top of Westgate Hill. The first workhouse buildings were erected at the south-east corner of the site at the junction of Westgate Road and Brighton Grove. Included were an administration block, dining-hall, laundry, bakehouse, workshops, school, sick wards, lying-in ward and imbeciles' ward. Males were placed at the western side of the workhouse and females at the east.

In September 1868, work started on a new infirmary located at the west of the site. A foundation stone was laid on 9th December by Mr Milvain, vice-chairman of the Board of Guardians. The building's construction cost £16,302 and it was officially opened on 7th December, 1870, by the Board's chairman, Mr Thomas Ridley. The infirmary was two storeys high and arranged in the shape of a U opening onto Westgate Road at the south and enclosing a quadrangle of grass. There were eight main wards plus three semi-basement wards on the north and east sides where the slope of the land made the foundations lower. Male wards were placed at the west and female at the east.

A separate children's block was erected between the workhouse and the 1868 infirmary of the workhouse. The boys' school, dayroom, playground and dormitories were located in the northern part of the building, while girls and infants were at the south. At the north-east of the school, a separate block contained the children's swimming bath. In 1902, the children were removed to the union's new cottage homes at Ponteland (see below) and the building then used for the workhouse's aged and infirm inmates. The dining-room was converted into a chapel.

In 1882, the small entrance lodge was replaced by an imposing three-storey building with a central archway. The building contained waiting rooms and receiving wards on the ground floor, with a three-roomed residence above and store rooms on the top floor.

In 1902, a separate Itch and Venereal Ward was erected at the west of the workhouse site. This was a two-storey building with about 50 beds.

The first vagrants' ward was at the west of the site just to the north-west of the hospital. This later became an isolation ward. More extensive vagrant's ward were erected further to the north including a stone-breaking yard.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne administration block from the south-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne dining hall, kitchens, and rear of administration block from the west, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne sewing room and bakehouse from the south-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne male ward block and workshops from the north-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

In the First World War, the military authorities took over all the workhouse buildings, and some of the hospital for the treatment of venereal diseases in soldiers. In 1939, at the start of World War Two, the western part of the entrance building and the archway were taken down in case of bombing.

Auxiliary Workhouse

In addition to the main workhouse, the union had an auxiliary workhouse workhouse in an old building on the north bank of the Tyne in Newcastle. It accommodated 60 and was used for temporary relief. Half the inmates were tramps. Of the remainder, some were detained on account of their parents being in the public fever hospital, and some because they had been deserted by their husbands or parents. There were two yards, three rooms and a day room for men, three for women, and two tramp rooms.

Ponteland Cottage Homes

In 1901, the Union erected cottage homes on a 70-acre rural site at Ponteland for the accommodation of 300 pauper children away from the workhouse. Each cottage block was supervised by a "house-father" or "house-mother" and accommodated between thirty and forty children. The homes, which were extended in 1913, also included a school, infirmary, and workshops including a blacksmith's shop.

The construction of the homes was the subject of a this report in The Builder in June 1901.

Each cottage block was designed slightly differently to make it easier for new children to find their own one.

Dorothy Crawford (neé Bolton) recalls life at the Ponteland cottage homes in the 1920s:

The Cottage Homes were a series of large, well-built houses round a very large oval of grass. They also included a school for the younger children (infants?). The Headmistress was Miss Heron who was followed by Mrs. Alec Purves. There -was also a laundry, and a cobbler's shop. This latter was run by Mr. Bell. Mr. & Mrs. Bell were house parents, with about ten children to a house. One of their boys, George Russell, won a scholarship to Gosforth Secondary School (later Grammar school) which he left in about 1926 and went to college to train as a teacher, becoming a Headmaster. The Bells treated him as their own, George even had his own room. Mrs. Bell retired to a house up the West Road, where she died during the Second World War.
   Older children attended schools in Ponteland, walking down. They also came to the village to Sunday school. At the Methodist Chapel where I was a Sunday School teacher, if the children from the Homes were unable to attend, Sunday school could be cancelled. One little boy in my class used to enjoy stroking my leg, liking the feel of silk stockings!
   The Master and Mistress of the Cottage Homes, Mr. & Mrs. Frank Harris, were both musical and trained the children for an excellent annual concert. Among the names I remember are Ethel Robertson who worked in the laundry, Billy Abbie who became a cobbler and married a girl from the homes, and Sarah Lye who passed the exam and went to Gosforth Secondary school with me from 1926-31. A 'Cottager' school friend of my younger brother was Ernie Walton who once hid overnight in Mawson, Swan and Morgan, an up-market shop in Newcastle, in the hope that he wouldn't be noticed next morning when he tried to walk out carrying expensive luggage, full of goodies no doubt.
   In the early days, the clothes of the children were very severe. The boys wore grey suits and rubber collars on their shirts. Their hair was cropped very close.All the clothes were made at the Homes. The sewing lady, Lydia Turk, married in middle age and became Mrs. John Thompson. Later, things became more relaxed and the children had bought clothes.
   As well as the Cottage Homes, which were a couple of miles up the North Road from Ponteland, there was a house called 'Louisville', run by the Board of Guardians. This was a large house to the side of the Workhouse and housed the babies and toddlers. 1 remember seeing them playing in the yard at the front of the house. Mr.& Mrs. Halliday were Master and Matron at the Workhouse and were succeeded by their son. During the war, it became a hospital for the aged from Newcastle and those in long term care.

The former cottage homes site is now the headquarters of the Northumbria Police.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland

Up to 1834

After 1834

Westgate Road Workhouse

Auxiliary Workhouse

Ponteland Cottage Homes

Staff

Inmates

Records

Bibliography

Links