Since Elizabethan times there have been laws (known as the Old Poor Laws) requiring parishes to supply relief to parishioners who were destitute. There were two types of relief, outdoor relief and indoor relief. With outdoor relief the poor lived in their own homes and were given either money or food and clothes. In contrast, recipients of indoor relief were required to enter a workhouse or poorhouse where they could be fed and clothed. The law required each parish to elect two Overseers of the Poor. The post holders were unpaid and acted under the supervision of local JPs.

Their duties included setting the Poor Rate and collecting it from property owners (rate payers). They then used the money to relieve the poor by giving them either money or food or admitting them to a suitable institution (Indoor relief).

The Deserving Poor

The Deserving Poor, who were unable to work due to infirmity, injury or old age, would be taken into the local almshouse or the parish workhouse. The ill would be admitted to the hospital and orphans would be taken into an orphanage if available.

The Undeserving Poor

The Undeserving Poor, who were fit for work but wouldn't, would be taken into the workhouse where they would be set to work on hard tasks such as breaking stones or picking oakum. Oakum-picking was the teasing out of fibres from old ropes and was very hard on the fingers. The loose fibres were then sold to ship-builders for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels. This treatment was to encourage them back to paid employment.

Clophill Workhouse

Little is known about it but, according to Mary Phillips in The Clophill Story, "the old workhouse stood next to the house which up till some thirty years ago was the New Inn." (The New Inn was 120 High Street.)

She also says "Another old workhouse and an old brickyard are mentioned in a deed referring to property in the Back Street area to which Edward Crouch was admitted tenant in April 1877 on death and under will of George Crouch."

Over the centuries different houses could have been used as the workhouse.

In 1777 a government report, "Abstracts of the Returns Made by the Overseers of the Poor", counted twenty paupers in the Clophill Workhouse.

As the population of the village in 1801 was 706 this represents about 3% of the population.

The Square Plan

The most widely adopted of the model plans were those produced by the architect Sampson Kempthorne. His cruciform or "square" design featured an administrative block at the front containing a porter's room and waiting-room on the ground floor, with Guardians' board-room above. At the rear, a children's block linked to the supervisory octagonal hub where the Master's quarters lay. Male and female quarters emanated to the left and right of the hub, while kitchens and stores with dining-hall above stood in the wing at the rear.

Design

Drawing of typical workhouse

Drawing of typical workhouse ground plan

The square perimeter of the building comprised single storey workshop and utility blocks which also served to enclose the various inmates' exercise yards.

Today

Ampthill Union Workhouse. Now the Cedars. Shows the octagonal hub at the centre of the cruciform.

Ampthill Union Workhouse viewed from Ampthill Surgery Carpark

Each of the four areas was often divided by walls into two, allowing up to eight segregated exercise areas. Square-plan workhouse typically accommodated between 300 and 500 inmates.

The New Poorlaw

With the new act, outdoor relief was stopped and the destitute had to enter the workhouse to get relief. It was felt that outdoor relief was abused by the able bodied. People entered the workhouse for many reasons including old age, illness, extreme poverty, pregnancy and, in the case of children, becoming orphaned. Husbands, wives and older children were separated as soon as they entered the workhouse and lived in separate areas.

The Undeserving Poor (the idlers who wouldn't work) were kept away from the Deserving Poor as it was thought that they would corrupt them. The standard of living was kept below that of the poorest independent labourer to encourage the able bodied to leave and start work. The intention was that only the truly destitute would seek relief. The stopping of Outdoor Relief was widely opposed and led to riots, including one in the Ampthill area in May 1835.

Although the Workhouse was feared it did provide better accommodation than most agricultural labourers' cottages and a slightly better diet but still very basic and monotonous (gruel). The inmates received free health care and the children were found work, often apprenticeships.

REGISTER OF BIRTHS

WORKHOUSE PUNISHMENT BOOK

APPRENTICESHIP INDENTURES

Follow David Gudgin's (Gudgeon) life after he left the workhouse.

Inmates of Ampthill Union Workhouse who were born in Clophill

1841 Census

1851 Census

1861 Census

1871 Census

1881 Census

1891 Census

1901 Census

1911 Census