Before the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, each parish was
responsible for the 'relief of the poor', either by charity
dispensed at home (for the able-bodied, deserving, poor) or in a
parish workhouse (for the idle poor or completely destitute). The
1834 Act called for the combining together of groups of parishes
into "unions", and the provision of a workhouse large enough to
accommodate the poor and sick from within its 'Union'. A "Board of
Guardians" was set up to administer the Poor Law within each
'Union'. In the absence of any other rural local authorities, these
Boards were frequently vested by subsequent Acts of Parliament with
other administrative powers, such as the registration of births,
marriages and deaths, rural medical care and sanitary inspection,
rating, and school attendance supervision. Many of these non-poor
law responsibilities were later transferred to new local
authorities when the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894 came
into force.
Under the Local Government Act of 1929 the Boards of Guardians
were abolished as from 1, April 1930, but instead became committees
of the appropriate County Council, whilst workhouses became known
as 'Public Assistance Institutions', but their work continued in
much the same way, until 1948.
There were two Poor Law Unions responsible for the Peterborough
area: Stamford Union (which included the western half of the Soke
of P'boro), and Peterborough Union, which covered 41 parishes (ie.,
the eastern Soke, most of Norman Cross Hundred in Huntingdonshire,
plus Thorney out of Cambs, and Crowland from Lincs). The
Peterborough Board of 53 Guardians first met in December 1835, and
initially used the parish workhouses until a new workhouse could be
built. This opened in Thorpe Road [close to the site of the present
maternity hospital] in 1837; an infirmary was added c1843 and a
separate chapel in 1865. The Guardians, however, built their
'Boardroom' behind the Mansion House in Westgate (it later fronted
Broadway when that street was finally built).
The Workhouse was informally known as 'Thorpe Road House' after
World War I, but formally renamed St John's Close in 1948, when it
became shared between the County Council and the National Health
Service. Once the County Council had completed building three new
residential homes for the elderly, the workhouse buildings were
demolished (c1971).
The majority of Poor Law Union records relating to Peterborough
held at Northamptonshire Record Office:
- 1835-1930: Guardians minutes [42 volumes].
- 1882-1901 Correspondence.
- 1836-1930: Financial Papers.
- 1923-1930: Workhouse building.
- 1836-1938: Workhouse master's papers (including admission and
discharge registers 1836-1930).
- 1836-1945: Medical Officer of Health papers (including
registers of births 1836-1945 and registers of deaths
1836-1931).
- 1915-1945: Religious creed registers.
- 1912: Outdoor relief papers.
- 1869-1923: Children's papers.
- 1877-1903: School attendance papers.
- 1882-1918: Vaccination papers.
- 1935-1941: Public Assistance Committee papers.
- 1946-1947: Notices of births at St John's Hospital.
- 1945-1946: Thorpe Road House.
- 1931-1939: Register of deaths.
- 1944-1945: Notices of deaths at St John's Hospital.
For further information see: http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Community/record/Poorlaw.htm.
Cambridge Record Office holds:
- Valuation lists, North Stanground 1920, Thorney 1921-1923.
Huntingdon Record Office holds:
- Vaccination registers (Peterborough 1914-1918 Stilton
1916-1927).
- Vaccination officers report books (Peterborough)
1910-1948.
- A series of records relating to Peterborough's Medical
Officer of Health. See under Medical Officer of Health for
details.
The National Archives holds:
- Correspondence etc 1835-1900 [MH 12/8828-54]; staff register
1837-1921 [MH 9/13].
Printed sources:
- The first minute book of the Board of Guardians of the
Peterborough Union by G T Vawser
- In and out of the workhouse: the coming of the new Poor Law
to Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire by the WEA, Eastern
Divsion. (Ely Resource Centre, 1978).
The following book uses Northamptonshire examples, including
Peterborough Union:
- The making of the new Poor Law [etc] A Brundage.
(Hutchinson, 1978).
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