Wolverhampton Poor Law Union and Workhouse

Wolverhampton's first workhouse was erected in 1700 at the top of Horseley Fields. Its location is shown on the 1750 map below.

A parliamentary survey in 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Bilston (for up to 60 inmates), Willenhall (25), and Wolverhampton (60).

After 1834

The Wolverhampton Poor Law Union formally came into being on 11th December 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 25 in number, representing its 4 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

County of Stafford: Bilston (8), Wednesfield (2), Willenhall (3), Wolverhampton (12).

The population falling within the union at the 1831 census had been 46,937 with parishes ranging from in size from Wednesfield (population 1,879) to Wolverhampton itself (24,732). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1834-36 had been £9,021 or 3s.10d. per head of the population.

The Bilston Road Workhouse

The first Wolverhampton Union workhouse was erected in 1836-8 on Bilston Road. Its construction cost around £9,000 and it could accommodate 750 inmates. It is believed to have been designed by George Wilkinson and adopted the relatively uncommon "St Andrew's Cross" plan which Wilkinson had also used at Chipping Norton and Witney. An entrance range faced towards the entrance at the north of the site. This connected to a central supervisory hub from which radiated four accommodation wings for the various classes of inmate (male/female, old/young). The areas between the wings formed enclosed exercise yards. The location and layout of the Bilston Road site are shown on the 1901 map below.

Various additions were made to the buildings including an infirmary, new infectious wards in 1867, and new accommodation wards in 1881. The capacity of the workhouse eventually reached 1,000. However, the situation of the site, hemmed in by houses and factories made any further expansion impossible. Smoke from adjacent factories also made the air in the vicinity very polluted. Faced with ever increasing demands on space, in 1885 the Guardians even resorted to sending 50 inmates to the Westbury-on-Severn Union which had spare capacity.

In 1842, the Commissioners investigating the employment and conditions of children in mines and manufactories, discovered that workhouse boys, some as young as eight, were being sent on "apprenticeships" of up to twelve years working in coal mines. As a result, some unions in the coal-mining districts of South Staffordshire and adjacent areas were asked to provide detailed information on the children who had been apprenticed in the mining industry in recent years. The return for the Wolverhampton Union covering the years 1840-41 is included below. In each case, the child was apprenticed, without any premium being paid, until they reached the age of 21. The list also included one girl, Mary Griffiths, who it was noted would probably act as a domestic servant, again until the age of 21 or until she married.

The workhouse master's journal provides an interesting picture of life in the workhouse in the 1840s. Below is a typical entry from February 1843:

Date	Name of Child	Age	Parent's name	To whom bound	Residence
10 January 1840	William Taylor	9		Thomas Cooksey	Sedgley
10 January 1840	Hope Tunnicliff	9	Dead	John Granger	ditto
16 March 1840	William Graham	9	Deserted and dead	George Holmes	Bilston
16 March 1840	George Yeomans	9	Not known	ditto	ditto
23 March 1840	William Hand	9	William Hand	John Haywood	Wolverhampton
6 April 1840	George Stewart	12		John Handley	ditto
26 June 1840	James Desbro	9		Ezekiel Riley	ditto
9 March 1840	William Trower	10	Parents dead	John Potts	Bilston
11 November 1840	William Trevet	10	ditto	Joseph Woodridge	Wolverhampton
23 June 1841	Michael Silitoe Topham	10	Mary Topham (wid.)	Richard Lewis	Bilston
21 September 1841	Mary Griffiths	15	Parents dead	Benjamin Powis	Bilston

On Monday the 13th inst. Ja's Chadwick and Tho's Nokes absconded with the Union Clothes on and went off with Mary Doughty & Emma Allen two young women with whom. I understand a correspondence has been carried on. through the men having access to the Garden to go to the temporary Privy erected near the women's yard. Nokes came in with the Venereal Disease and Emma Allen is the tall girl who applied to you a fortnight since for clothes, to go as she said to service. If the temporary privy be removed from the Garden to the Stone Yard, one source of mischief will be cut off and much conduce to the order of the establishment. I believe it may be done by men at present in the House with a Shovel & the requisite quantity of buckets.
On Wednesday last John Shaw, belonging to the parish of Wolverhampton who absconded in July last with the Union dress on having a child here was apprehended and committed to hard labour for 3 months.
The Bell Rope to the House Bell is again broken — (near to the top) I would recommend that a chain be fixed there instead of roping on account of the action of the atmosphere.

Bilston Road workhouse staff, c.1900. The Master, Mr E Sattin, is standing at the centre.

Wednesfield Cottage Homes

Some temporary relief to the overcrowding at the workhouse came on 4th November, 1890, when some cottage homes for pauper children were opened at a 20-acre site on Amos Lane, Wednesfield. The homes, whose construction cost about £20,000, could accommodate up to 240 children. The buildings included eight cottages, four for boys and four for girls, together with a master's residence, lodge, probationers' wards, infirmary, schools, swimming pool and workshops. The site layout is shown on 1902 map below.

Wednesfield Cottage Homes entrance from the south-west, c.1913.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Wednesfield Cottage Homes entrance from the north-east, c.1910.
© Peter Higginbotham.

Wednesfield Cottage Homes main drive from the north-east, c.1910.
© Peter Higginbotham.

After 1930, the cottage homes became local authority children's homes but by the end of the 1960s the buildings were used for other purposes. They have now all been demolished and a housing estate covers the site.

The New Cross Workhouse

Under increasing pressure from the Local Government Board, the Union finally agreed to build a new workhouse. A site was found at New Cross in Wednesfield where 50.5 acres of land were purchased for the sum of £11,218. The design of the new buildings was opened to competition with the winning entry coming from Arthur Marshall of Nottingham. The foundation stone for the new complex was laid in September 1900 by Chairman of the Guardians, Mr Price. The workhouse was formally opened on 24th September 1903. The Bilston Road buildings were then closed and demolished.

The new workhouse could accommodate up to 1,246 inmates, 20 nurses, and 60 other officers. The total cost of the buildings, which themselves occupied an area of six acres, was a (then) massive £156,879. The location and layout of the New Cross site is shown on the 1919 map below.

At the site entrance to the south were a lodge and receiving wards and the Union Board's Offices.

The easternmost of the workhouse accommodation blocks was for sixteen married couples.

The infirmary section at the north of the workhouse comprised six pavilions with a single storey connecting corridor running east-west. In addition, there were separate ward blocks for skin and syphilitic cases. A nurses home was located at the west of the site.

After 1930, control of the workhouse site passed to the Wolverhampton Public Assistance Committee and it became New Cross Hospital. Many of the old workhouse blocks have now been replaced by modern buildings.

Wolverhampton, Staffordshire

Up to 1834

After 1834

The Bilston Road Workhouse

Wednesfield Cottage Homes

The New Cross Workhouse

Staff

Inmates

Records

Bibliography

Links