Colin McDougal was the Andover Workhouse Master, he was born in 1793 and during his life time he was in the army, during his time in the Army he was most likely treated strictly and the conditions that he had to face were most likely harsh and sometimes inhumane, the army could be a result as to why he was such a strict master who had absolutely no feelings towards others in the workhouse. Reverend Christopher Dodson was the Chairman of the Guardians, he believe that people were born into their station in life and he believed that it was sinful to complain about what you had in life, so he believe that no matter how unbearable things became in the workhouse, that they should not complain because they should have been happy for what they had. Both McDougal and Dodson acted wrongly and only thought about themselves, taking no consideration to the people around them, their actions contributed towards the reason why there was a Scandal at the Andover Workhouse.
Inside the workhouse children were treated appallingly, there is evidence of them being beaten; one person called Mr John Lywood says “his brother had been improperly beaten, and that another boy had also been beaten.” This most likely happened because there was no one around to stop it; older children were split up from their mothers so they would have no one to stand up for them and no one to help stop the violence. This happened all the time and was totally unacceptable; the fact that children were being treated like this is a big contribution to why it became apparent that there was a scandal at the Andover Workhouse.
Unmarried mothers were seen to be irresponsible as they have had a child without being married to the father, this was seen to be wrong in those days and it was seen as a sin. At Andover, it was decided that unmarried mothers would be made to wear a badge, which was known to be called ‘The Badge of Shame’. All unmarried mothers were made to wear this and it was to make them stand out for being unmarried and being mothers. Because of the reputation that unmarried mothers had, the other woman in the work house would generally treat them lower than they would treat other woman. They were also the most vulnerable to be raped by the Work House Master because no other person would believe them if they were to talk about being raped because the badge of shame also gave people the impression that they cannot be trusted and would lie a lot. All women were in danger of being raped though, this was because men and woman were split up in the workhouse and so there would be no husbands or men around to protect them from people such as the Workhouse Master. The fact that woman and unmarried woman were treated like this, would have led to the reason of why there was a scandal in the Andover workhouse.
In the Andover Workhouse the paupers were given only enough food for them to live, the food given to them was very little, and the food that was given to them was not at all edible, but because the paupers would have been so hungry they would have just eaten it anyway. Although that rations that the paupers received were so small, McDougal even stole from them, leaving them with even less food. Samuel Green says “We only had bread and gruel for breakfast.....so we ate the stale stinking meat”, this shows that what they ate was so bad, and they were so hungry that they did it anyway. Diets show that in other work houses there was more variety of food, larger portions more nutrition and that they were healthier, although in Andover the portions are small, inadequate and the people at Andover are starving. As well as this, McDougal would even take the alcohol from the paupers that was prescribed to them.
Bone crushing was the only job that was available for the paupers in the Andover Workhouse; the job was not pleasant at all! The workhouse form stated “Crush half a bushel of bones by hand through a quarter if an inch sieve” the form also stated “No such person should be detained against his or her will” This means that workers are expected to crush bones by hand through a sieve that was a quarter of an inch thick, but it also said that everyone had a choice to do it or not because they are not to be detained against their will. It also states that they must work for 4 hours after the hour of breakfast crushing bones. McDougal may have ignored these rules and may have made people crush bones, and he may also have made people crush bones for much longer times than the stated 4 hours. This can also be linked back to the diet in Andover because paupers would eat the rotting flesh from the bones they were crushing which shows that they really were starving and that they couldn’t survive on the food that they were being given. The fact that McDougal could have ignored the rules and because the conditions of work in the Andover workhouse were much more severe that other workhouses could have led to the scandal in the Andover Workhouse.
The Poor Law Amendment Act could have been the main reason why there was a scandal in Andover, this is because if there was no Amendment to the act, then the Andover Workhouse would have never even been built and there would have never been a scandal. The Poor Law Amendment Act stated that Conditions inside workhouse were to be less eligible than the conditions of the lowers paid labourers in work.
Woman who were not in the workhouse were expected to stay home and work on keeping the home clean and cooking. Women were also expect to do charitable duties, one of which was to visit workhouses and check the conditions and report anything that appeared to be out of the ordinary. There was never anything reported from the Andover workhouse which could show that the visitors did not do their job correctly. McDougal only allowed Visitors into the board room at the front of the Andover Workhouse, this room would have been clean, but the visitors should have questioned why he was not allowing them any further into the workhouse and they should have questioned why they were unable to see any of the people currently staying at the workhouse.
The press had a huge role to play in uncovering the actual scandal at Andover. Charles Dickens didn’t like the new poor law and he believed that there were always something unseen going on in the workhouse, he could never openly criticize the government so he wrote books to highlight some of the bad things that he thought was going on in the Andover Workhouse. One book that Charles wrote was Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens was a trusted person so when he wrote his books people began to get suspicious and began to ask questions. ‘The Times’ newspaper became very interested in what Charles had written, the newspaper was very trusted and it did not make things up. The Times paper published a section to do with the Andover Workhouse and it likened our workhouses to the prison in France called the ‘Bastille’ the Bastille was a prison that was so bad that people were just thrown into cells and left to die. At this time the English didn’t like the French and so the fact that we were likened to them, got people angry and more people began to look into the Andover Workhouse. Eventually an inspection happened at Andover, and all the assumptions were found to be true.
All the above causes can be linked together and all have a part to play in why there was a scandal at Andover. The introduction of the New Poor Law was the main reason why the Andover Workhouse was actually built so I believe that this had a huge part to play in why there was a scandal, without the workhouse nothing would ever have happened. The New Poor Law stated that Conditions were to be less eligible than the lowest paid labourer outside the workhouse; the writing of this was too vague and was open to massive amounts of abuse. Although it says ‘less eligible’, it does not say how bad conditions can actually be, if the stating of the Law was worded better and actually stated how bad Conditions could be, then there may never have been a Scandal at the Andover Workhouse. The food in the Andover Workhouse was in very small quantities, it was rotting, because of this, the workers would eat the rotting flesh off the bones that they were supposed to crush as one of the jobs at the workhouse. I believe that Dodson and McDougal had a very big part to play in the scandal, everything that actually happened in the workhouse and all the rules were down to them. McDougal did whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to do it and he never took anyone else’s thoughts into consideration. He fed everyone little food, he raped the woman who had no protection from the men as they were split up, he singled people out so that they were more vulnerable, he took the food and drink from the paupers. All of this was down to him, and he could have changed it if he wanted to. The vague wording of the Poor Law Amendment Act was open to individual interpretation and it allowed McDougal to take conditions in the Andover Workhouse to extremes.
