For many years the usual way to provide
help for the very poorest people in
the community, including those who were very old and very sick, was to
pay for them to stay in their homes.
The money for this came from the Poor Rate,
collected from the people of the parish, and this system of caring for
the poor was called 'Outdoor Relief'.
But there were many complaints from parishes about the cost of the poor
rate, and wealthy landowners were among those demanding a cheaper
way of dealing with the poor.
The government's 
answer was a new Act of Parliament in 1834 which
forced parishes to combine together into Unions and build
large workhouses for the whole area. These were almost like
prisons, with bare walls, hard beds, and little food. Family members were
split up and could never meet as long as they were in the workhouse. People
were terrified of being sent to the workhouse - and who could blame them
?
One of these awful places was built in 1838
just outside Llanfyllin, and you can
learn more about it from these pages...
