The first workhouses were set up following the [?] Poor Law Act. Previously, the poor and [?] had been reliant on the charity of members of their local community. People without work, elderly men and women without any family to support them as well as the sick and the injured would been forced to beg in the streets or outside the doors of their local parish church on a Sunday morning. Now hundreds of workhouses were set up all over the country. They were administered by Poor Law [?] who appointed a board of [?] to manage each institution. The poor had to register with their local workhouse, where they would receive food and shelter in return for working a full day. Inmates also received a small [?], but this was set at lower than the wage of the poorest paid worker in the local community, to discourage people from seeing the workhouse as a soft option.

When they were admitted to the workhouse, men and women and their children were separated. They were submitted to a harrowing medical [?]. This was particularly distressing for women, as there were no female doctors. Inmates would be cleaned, to make sure they had no lice and if they were deemed unfit for work, they would be sent to the [?], a sort of hospital. Everyone was made to wear a uniform as well.

The Victorians were much more religious and moralistic than people in Britain today and there were strict rules of conduct. [?] playing and drinking were forbidden, as was male inmates mixing with women. Meals were often eaten in silence and attendance at [?] was compulsory. If any of these rules were broken, you could expect to be put on rations of bread and water or isolated from the other inmates by spending time in the cellar.

Your day was carefully mapped out for you. Typically, inmates would rise at dawn and work through to the evening, with only short breaks for lunch and dinner. Work often took place outside in the yard, as lighting was poor inside the workhouse and there was more chance of accidents. Picking [?] to use as waterproofing on royal naval vessels was one popular, though tedious task. Children often did the same work as adults, but frequently received terrible injuries.

One of the benefits of workhouses was that children did receive a rudimentary education. The focus was on the [?], but some did learn basic maths and reading and writing. There is evidence to show that some people who left workhouses took on skilled jobs, for example as tailors’ apprentices or cobblers, but many went to work as labourers in factories or farms, where the work was just as difficult and boring as the tasks they did in the workhouse.