Andover workhouse scandal facts for kids
The Andover workhouse scandal happened in England in the mid-1840s. It showed big problems with how the 'New Poor Law' was managed. This law was meant to help poor people. The scandal led to important changes in how the law was watched over by the government and how Parliament checked on it.
The trouble started in August 1845. People living in the workhouse in Andover, Hampshire, England were so hungry they ate bone marrow and gristle. These bones were often rotten and were supposed to be crushed to make fertilizer. The food given to the people by the local Poor Law guardians was less than what the main Poor Law Commission (PLC) said was needed to survive. Also, the person in charge of the workhouse was taking some of the money or food for himself.
The Poor Law Commission eventually made the workhouse master leave his job. This happened after two investigations. The way the second investigation was done also caused some criticism.
A new master was suggested, but newspapers pointed out that this new person had left a job at another workhouse while being investigated. The assistant commissioner who suggested him was then told to resign. He did, but he published a pamphlet sharing details about his dealings with the Poor Law Commission and the Home Secretary.
The Home Secretary called the whole thing just "a workhouse squabble." But in March 1846, the House of Commons started a special committee to look into both the Andover workhouse and the Poor Law Commission's work in general. This committee found that the Andover guardians had managed things very badly. They had also been very harsh in how they applied the law. The committee also found that the Poor Law Commission itself wasn't doing its job properly. They weren't holding proper meetings or keeping good records. The committee said the commissioners' actions were "irregular and arbitrary" and made people lose trust in them.
Because of this committee's report and the Andover scandal, a new law was passed in 1847. It replaced the Poor Law Commission with a new group called the Poor Law Board. Important government ministers were part of this new board.
Contents
Why the Poor Law Changed
The Swing Riots: Farmers' Protests
Before 1834, poor people received help under an older law from the Tudor period. Local parishes collected money from landowners and tenants to give relief payments to people who were sick or jobless. As the population grew, more people needed help. Landowners started complaining about the costs, and less money was given out. For example, in 1795, a man needed about three and a half large loaves of bread per week. By 1830, in Andover, this was cut in half to just a quarter of a loaf per day.
Many middle and upper-class people felt they were paying the poor to be lazy. Farmers also paid their workers very little, knowing that the parish would add money to their wages to reach a basic living level.
Then, new machines for threshing grain (separating it from stalks) were introduced. These machines could do the work of many men, threatening the jobs of thousands of farmworkers. After bad harvests in 1828 and 1829, farm workers were worried about the winter of 1830.
The Swing Riots began in Kent in June 1830. They reached Andover and nearby areas on November 19, 1830. This was during the Annual Fair, so the town was full of workers. For the next two days, groups of workers set fire to haystacks and destroyed threshing machines. They demanded higher wages and lower rents.
On November 20, a crowd of 300 workers attacked the Waterloo Ironworks. They pulled down walls, smashed plows, and damaged machinery. The town's leaders asked the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, for military help. By November 21, a huge crowd had gathered in the town center. They broke into the jail and freed one of their leaders. Armed with clubs, they threatened to burn down properties if people didn't give them money. They said they had been "starving with their wives and families on potatoes and bread long enough."
On November 22, soldiers arrived in Andover, and the riots stopped by November 23. Many workers were arrested and sent to Winchester jail. In the trials that followed, ten Andover workers were sentenced to death, but this was changed to being sent to Australia. Two other workers from Hampshire were hanged, and the other convicted men were forced to watch.
The New Poor Law of 1834
After the Swing Riots, the Prime Minister, Earl Grey, set up a special group to figure out how to change the Poor Law system. This group suggested a "New Poor Law" with two main ideas:
- The "workhouse test": If you were able to work, you could only get help by going into a workhouse.
- "Less eligibility": Conditions in the workhouse had to be worse than the life of the poorest working person outside the workhouse. This was to make sure people only went to the workhouse if they had no other choice.
The report also suggested that parishes should join together into "unions" to share the cost of workhouses. A central authority would make sure these rules were followed. The new law, called the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, passed easily in Parliament. It created the Poor Law Commission (PLC) as a central authority. This commission had a lot of power and little oversight from Parliament. There were three Poor Law Commissioners and many Assistant Commissioners, who checked on poor law groups in different areas.
The Poor Law Commission said that the food for healthy people in workhouses should be worse than what the local poor workers ate. The PLC had different standard diets, and they told each workhouse which diet to use. This was the most food the PLC would allow, but local guardians could give even less. Healthy people in workhouses had to work to earn their food. This work should not compete with regular jobs, nor should it be humiliating.
After the new poor law started in the South of England, the cost of helping the poor dropped by 20 percent. People thought the new system was working well. However, this happened during a time when the country was doing well. This good time ended around 1837. Then, there were several bad harvests and a potato disease in the mid-1840s. This led to "the Hungry Forties," a very difficult time that truly tested the poor relief system.
Andover Workhouse: A Closer Look
The new poor law encouraged parishes to form "Poor Law Unions." These unions were big enough to build workhouses that could separate different types of poor people. On July 11, 1835, the Andover Union decided to build a new workhouse for 400 people on the edge of Andover.
Even though Andover had two Members of Parliament, only five of the guardians (the people who ran the workhouse) were from Andover itself. Thirty-two surrounding parishes each elected one guardian, and their opinions usually won. The cost of burying people who died in the workhouse was charged to Andover taxpayers, not to the parish the person came from.
The official clerk for the board was Thomas Lamb, a lawyer from Andover. But his assistant did most of the work. In 1842, it was discovered that the assistant had stolen about £1,380 from the union's accounts. A public meeting in Andover then asked Parliament if they could leave the Andover Union. They believed they could manage poor relief more cheaply and kindly on their own. The Poor Law Commission ordered that the Union's auditor be replaced.
Andover's new workhouse was designed by Sampson Kempthorne. It had a cross shape. The entrance and offices were at the front. From a central area, four wings spread out. Women were on the north side, and men were on the south. The dining hall was also used as a chapel. Schoolrooms and dorms for boys and girls were on the west side, with exercise yards. Sick wards were on the north for women and on the south for men. In 1841, the workhouse had 12 men, 19 women, 32 boys, and 34 girls, plus 9 staff members. The master of the workhouse, Colin McDougal, was a former soldier from the Battle of Waterloo. His wife was the matron.
One common job in workhouses was turning animal bones into bone meal. At Andover, this was done by crushing the bones with a heavy rammer. An assistant commissioner had suggested bone-crushing for the Andover Union, and the workhouse doctor had approved it. Even though the Home Secretary Sir James Graham had often said he disliked the practice, the Poor Law Commission felt they didn't have the power to stop it.
See also
- The Huddersfield workhouse scandal (1848)
