Before 1835 individual parishes sometimes had their own
workhouses, which were often little more than run-down cottages.
These buildings housed the poor who had no homes of their own. Very
few records survive about these workhouses.
From 1835 parishes were combined into poor law unions, and they
were allowed to spread the cost of building and running a workhouse
between them. The late 1830s therefore saw a large number of
institutions being built.
See Poor Law Union Records
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