Forden workhouse - in and out of the workhouse

The workhouse at Forden
Care of the poor

	In and out of the workhouse
To find out more about workhouses in general, click on the image above.	Once a poor person had taken the desperate step of asking the Union for help he or she would usually shut away in the workhouse. Once inside it was very difficult to get out again. The Union would only let you out if you could support yourself. The workhouse's Day Book for the early Victorian period has survived and it records those coming into the workhouse and those discharged. Here are the entries for February 1850 -

	It reads: " 24th 1 Dead - Jemima Austin - Berriew, 1 committed to the House of Correction - Ann Williams P[ool] Lower 24th 1 admitted - Robert Bufton - Pool Lower 23rd 1 dischd - Sarah Beady - Worthin [Worthen]"
	Here three people left the workhouse but only Sarah Beady left for normal life on the outside. Poor Jemima Austin of Berriew left to be buried and Ann Williams of Welshpool left the workhouse to go to prison.

	Many elderly couples who were simply too old to be able to work ended up in the workhouse. Here they were separated and spent the last days of their lives. This was a fate that thousands of working people across the land dreaded. .
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