What Impact did the 1834 New Poor Law have on Gressenhall workhouse in Norfolk?

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Gressenhall Extended Writing Task

       What Impact did the 1834 New Poor Law have on Gressenhall workhouse in

                                                                Norfolk?

Gressenhall workhouse was built in 1776 to cut the rising numbers and cost of the paupers in the Mitford and launditch area. In 1776 M+L was a farming area, new machines made high unemployment with low paid jobs. The costs kept spiralling upwards so the local property owners (middle class) wanted to stop the rising costs of the poor rate. In 1776 work began to build a 'House of Industry'. It averaged totals of nearly 450 people between 1777 and 1794; this reached 650 people in 1801 the highest ever. In1776 life in the workhouse was relatively fare with families in separate rooms with fires

The Government brought in the 1834 New Poor Law to reduce the amount of people seeking relief. It was brought in as some middle class thought that the able bodied poor were lazy. The 1834 New Poor Law said that workhouse should deter the poor and make them less eligible. Families were split up to deter the poor and uniforms were given to everyone. This made the workhouse like a prison. Big walls around the site and gates were constructed to take away the paupers freedom. Walls were built to separate the exercise yard so families could not see each other. A refractory cell was built, this allowed for more punishment and discipline, as the workhouse was stricter. The sack room and leather rooms were converted after 1834 to a laundry. Washing was done by the women and was hard boring work. The old laundry was converted into a boardroom and a waiting room where there were luxury floors and windows, as it was a meeting place for the middle class Board of Guardians. The waiting room was for misbehaving paupers who were about to be sent to the Board of Guardians to decide their punishment. All the cottages for old people were knocked down to make space for 2 large dormitories 1 for men and 1 for women. Before 1834, the beds were comfortable and the inmates were allowed to go out on Sundays.

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The Gressenhall workhouse was severely affected by the 1834 poor law as before this the workhouse was relatively relaxed but then it had to adapt to the new government requirements saying that the work houses were to be as grim as possible. So in order to do this new changes had to occur. The workhouse had to be expanded to cater for the large amount of people because with no outdoor relief and no jobs available the poor had no choice but to go to a workhouse. The Gressenhall workhouse had nice surroundings, it even had an arcade and ...

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