Swavesey & District History Society – April Meeting

46 local residents met to hear Colin Chapman from Gloucestershire speak on The Poor Laws.  The Poor Law of 1601 formalised earlier poor relief measures in England.  It established a nationwide system of poor relief funded by local parishes through a mandatory “poor rate”.  This law aimed to address poverty and vagrancy, providing support for the “deserving poor” while also addressing the issue of the “idle poor”. 

By 1600, attitudes to poverty started to soften and the government decided action was necessary, fearing that the growing number of poor people might gang together and start a rebellion, vagabonds and beggars might turn to crime and the poor might spread disease.  Justices of the Peace (unpaid local officials) were made responsible for poverty-related issues in their parishes.  People were grouped into 3 classes: i) Impotent poor – people unable to work due to age, disability or other infirmity.  Limited relief was provided by the community.  ii) Able-bodied poor – people who were physically able to work but were often unemployed.  The Poor Law provided no relief for these people except employment in the workhouse.  iii) Vagabonds – it was thought vagabonds were lazy and idle.  The 1572 Vagabonds Act took severe action against vagrants who could be whipped, bored through the ear and put to death if caught begging for a third time. 

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 fundamentally changed how poverty relief was provided.  It abolished “outdoor relief” for able-bodied individuals, meaning they could not receive financial assistance unless they entered a workhouse.  The Act also established Poor Law unions, Boards of Guardians, and workhouses, with a new Poor Law Commission overseeing the system.  Each Poor Law union had a workhouse where paupers were housed, fed, and expected to work.  Relief was only available within workhouses, with harsh regimes designed to discourage reliance on public assistance.  The act aimed to compel able-bodied individuals to work by making workhouses the only option for relief.  Conditions were tough, often with insufficient food, inadequate heating and families sometimes split throughout the workhouse.  The 1834 Act was met with some criticism and some viewed the workhouses as “prisons for the poor”. 

Next meeting- 20 May.  The Spinning House: how Cambridge University locked-up women in their filthy, stinking private prison.  Caroline Biggs.