Care of the poor 11
The new workhouse
Although the Board of Guardians had first discussed the building of a workhouse within weeks of its foundation in 1836, it managed to avoid actually going ahead with construction for many years. Eventually pressure from the authorities forced the Guardians to take serious steps. Even so the Guardians proceeded cautiously, as this entry from March 1873 indicates.
County Archives
R/G/C/8/1/6
The entry reads:-
"The Workhouse Site:
Two sites are now offered but the Guardians decline entering
into any contract for the purchase of either until Mr. Doyle's
next visit to the Board in order that he may select the one most
eligible. Ordered that the matter be deferred accordingly
and that the clerk report same to the Local Government Board."
A choice is made
The Guardians must have known
that they could not avoid building a workhouse for ever and in
May 1873, years after they had considered other sites in the
area, they made a choice as the entry below indicates.
County Archives
R/G/C/8/1/6
The entry reads:-
"The Workhouse Site - The Rev John Williams having
offered to sell to the Guardians as a site for the workhouse,
two acres of land of the Gigrin Meadows, near Rhayader
at the rate of £150 per acre including a certain
outbuilding on the said lands."
The Board agreed to the site and a contract was signed. Even
then the site was switched - with the agreement of all parties
- to a nearby field with the same ownership. The Board appointed
local architect and County Surveyor, Stephen
William Williams as their architect
for the project. Williams was already acting as Inspector of
Nuisances for the Board.
One other change was made before construction could begin. The
Board successfully petitioned the authorities to have the capacity
of the proposed workhouse reduced from 60 to 40, though they
did insist on the erection of "a small outbuilding to
serve as a dead house".
