The Newton Abbot Workhouse

Thomas Fradd was born to (as yet) unknown parents on September 1^st 1869 at Tormoham, a parish in Newton-Abbot district, Devon, England. He was named as a 15 year old inmate in the Newton Abbot Workhouse during the 1871 Census.

A Workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. Towns rarely subscribed to the idea of issued relief. It was much easier to pack the poor into a Workhouse and make them suffer unpleasant conditions to ensure that these people avoided being such charges to the ratepayers.

Because of the complete loss of dignity the Workhouse became the ultimate shame for the poor.

The 1834 Poor Law Act required changes and incorporation where villages were required to group into "Unions" for assistance of the poor. The "Union House", serving a group of parishes, was controlled by a Board of Guardians, hardly familiar with the poor they were supposed to help, and more concerned with the cost to the rates.

To some extent the system became self-perpetuating. On the old system of "out-relief" the poor received help and had some chance of getting back on their own feet again. In the workhouse they had nothing; they worked for a pittance and thus had little chance of finding decent work and re-establishment in the community.

The original Newton Abbot ‘poorhouse’ was based in East Street, and the cellar of the Devon Arms was used as the oakum picking room—where paupers were assigned the unpleasant job of untwisting old rope to provide oakum, used to seal the seams of wooden boats.

 

 

The Workhouse, East Street, Newton Abbot - c 1880

 

In 1839, a new workhouse was built in East Street and was used to house paupers from the surrounding areas. It was proposed to accommodate 350 inmates from 39 constituent parishes which surrounded Newton Abbot.

Records from the poor law unions, which were created from this time forward, include the following:

Guardianship

Creed Registers

Rate books

Workhouse Lists of Inmates

Register of Apprentices

Register of Births

Register of Deaths

Vestry Rate Books

Admission and Discharge Registers

Board of Guardians' Records

 

A 'bastardy clause' in the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act had made all illegitimate children the sole responsibility of their mothers until they were 16 years old.

The putative father therefore became free of any legal responsibility for his illegitimate offspring.

Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child.

The highly controversial measure in the 1834 Act was overturned in a subsequent Act in 1844, which enabled an unmarried mother to apply for an affiliation order against the father for maintenance, even if she was not in receipt of poor relief.

However unmarried mothers from poor backgrounds still entered the workhouse to have their babies.

Pregnant women who were ill, infirm, very poor or deserted by their husbands, and who became dependent on poor relief, were also forced into the workhouse to give birth.

In 1878, the Newton Abbot workhouse had room for about 400 inmates. The wards, yards etc. occupied 2 acres and there were gardens adjoining.

By 1890 there were reports of cruel treatment. In 1894, the workhouse was the focus of an inquiry by the Local Government Board.

It was claimed that a strait-jacket, called a 'jumper' was in regular use, and that elderly paupers had been placed in it naked, and then tied to beds. This had led, it was alleged, to the deaths of some inmates.

Witnesses described that the wards were filthy, and the inmates infested with vermin. A nurse testified that she had found a female inmate dying, her hair had been cut off, and her toe-nails were like claws. Another paralysed inmate had injured herself with her uncut finger-nails.

Another nurse said she had been given sole charge of about 150 sick paupers. The beds were filthy and sick children were under the care of two partially blind women. One child had been tied to a bed with string to prevent it from running about as it had no shoes and stockings. Eleven children had four nightgowns between them. Neither brushes nor combs were provided and their food was kept in the lavatories. Another witness said she saw two men tied to the same bed.

A woman with, what we would now call, learning disabilities was observed in the workhouse yard crouched in a corner with a bruised face. A shed had been built for her in the yard, but the boys threw stones and snowballs at her. Her tormentors included the master's son. Fighting amongst the inmates (who were described as 'idiots) was common, as was 'immorality' amongst them.

The matron for almost thirty years, Ann Mance, was accused of neglecting her duties, having visited the sick ward only five times in three months. She was dismissed, and died from a heart condition a few weeks later.

The workhouse era ended, officially at least, on 1st April 1930; the Boards of Guardians were abolished and their responsibilities passed to local authorities.

Newton Abbot Workhouse became the Newton Abbot Public Assistance Institution; more of a hospital for the sick, infirm and aged poor. A new infirmary was built, and during the wars some of the buildings were used as a military hospital. By 1950, the workhouse buildings were incorporated into part of Newton Abbot Hospital.

Thomas went on to marry Mary Unknown in about 1893 and raised 8 children in Hennock, and Torquay in Devon, and then in Darwen, Lancashire (1911 Census).