In the reign of Elizabeth I, a building known as the College for the Poor was founded on a site at Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton, at the west side of what is now College Street. It was rebuilt in 1809 by the Fitzroy-Newdegate family on whose land it stood. The labour for the rebuilding is said to have been provided by French prisoners from the Peninsula War who had previously been imprisoned in the hulks in Portsmouth Harbour.
A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Chilvers Cotton (for up to 33 inmates), Nuneaton (70), and Buckington [Bulkington] (40).
Nuneaton Poor Law Union was formed on 6th April 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 19 in number, representing its 7 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):
County of Warwick:
Arley, Astley, Bulkington (8), Caldecote, Chilvers Coton (4), Nuneaton (3), Weddington.
Later Additions (from 1896): Burton Hastings, Stretton Baskervile, Wolvey.
The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 13,068 with parishes ranging in size from Weddington (population 69) to Nuneaton itself (7,999). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1833-35 had been £7,101 or 10s.10d. per head of the population.
In 1836, the existing Coton Chilvers workhouse was taken over by the Nuneaton Poor Law Union. By 1884, it accommodated 226 inmates. The site layout is shown on the 1903 map below.
Nuneaton workhouse site, 1903.
Nuneaton entrance range from the south-east.
There is a single-storey block at the south of site which may have been a vagrants' ward.
Nuneaton vagrant's ward block(?) from the south-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.
An 80-bed infirmary and a laundry were erected in 1905 at a cost of £12,000 plus £2,200 for fittings.
Nuneaton workhouse site, 1924.
Nuneaton infirmary block from the east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.
After 1930, the workhouse site became a Public Assistance Institution. The site eventually grew into what is now the George Eliot Hospital.
The main workhouse buildings are believed to have been demolished in the 1970s, and little now (2001) remains apart from the 1905 infirmary block at the west of the site.
Thanks to Caroline Wetton for her contribution to this page.
This page () is copyright Peter G Higginbotham. Last updated 27-Aug-2008
NEW! The Prison Cookbook — takes the lid off
doing porridge! My history of the prison system and its food includes a complete
original prison cookery manual. Out May 2010. More...
|
|
|
London workhouse and parish records now viewable online! | |
|
Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? For a huge selection of books about workhouses and family/local/social history... Visit the Workhouse Bookshop! |
|
|
|
|