There are few experiences that are the same more than 150 years later. However the bell which rang to punctuate the days of the Ledbury Workhouse inmates sounds the same today as it did in 1834. You can ring the bell by permission of the supervisor in the Butcher Row Folk Museum (pictured on the left) in Ledbury.
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
There is nothing today like the Poor Law and no system as cruel as that which was active in Workhouses throughout the UK. This was in no small part due to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Of central importance to this new law was "Less Eligibility".
Less Eligibility for the Unemployed Inmates of Workhouses
"Less Eligibility" meant that the conditions inside the Workhouses, after 1834, must be worse than those outside. Workhouse inmates must be less comfortable and less nourished than the most lowest paid labourer on the outside. Entire families went into the Workhouse but, like everybody else, they were segregated. Men and women were housed separately and the young were removed from adults.
Ledbury Workhouse
The Ledbury Workhouse was in Union Road which is now Orchard Road.
To be updated...
