In 1836 the Andover workhouse was established and located at the west side of Junction Road in Andover. The architect, who designed many Union Workhouses including those for Basingstoke, Droxford, Lyminton and New Forest

The workhouse building was later used as an annex for Cricklade College and is now residential accommodation.

The Andover Workhouse Scandal

Master Colin M'Dougal was responsible for providing the Andover Workhouse with a strict reputation. He was a former sergeant-major who had fought at Waterloo in 1815. His wife, Marry Ann, was described as a "violent lady" by the Chairman of Guardians.

The M'Dougals ran the workhouse like a penal colony, keeping expenditure and food rations to a minimum, much to the approval of the majority of the Guardians. Inmates in the workhouse had to eat their food with their fingers, and were denied the extra food and drink provided elsewhere at Christmas or for Queen Victoria's coronation. Any man who tried to exchange a word with his wife at mealtimes was given a spell in the refractory cell.

Able-bodied men were given the exhausting task of crushing old bones to turn them into fertilizer. In 1845 rumours spread that men in the workhouse bone-yard were so hungry that they had resorted to eating the marrow and gristle attached to the old bones they were supposed to be crushing. When succulent bones were found, riots almost broke out.

Guardian, Hugh Mundy was so concerned he raised the issue at a board meeting to the other guardians but only managed to get bone crushing suspended during hot weather. He took the matter to his local MP, Thomas Wakeley, who on Friday 1st August, 1845, described how the paupers of Andover "were in the habit of quarreling with each other about the bones, of extracting the marrow... and of gnawing the meat." The Home Secretary was not convinced but launched an inquiry. The next day, Henry Parker, the Assistant Poor Law Commissioner responsible for the Andover union, was dispatched to investigate the matter.

Parker discovered the allegations were true and additionally the inmates were given less than their owed ration of bread. Parker was under pressure from his superiors to complete the investigation as soon as possible and also by the press who paid close attention to the case. On September 29th M'Dougal resigned as Master. Supportively Parker recommended the unemployed former Master of the Oxford workhouse but it soon transpired that the man had been dismissed for misconduct. In October Parker was used as a scapegoat and pressured to resign by the Poor Law Commissioners who were under attack from Parliament, the press, and the public.

Parker published a pamphlet defending himself and his cause was quickly taken up by a group of anti-Poor Law MPs. Support came from William Day who had been recently dismissed as a Assistant Commissioner and Edwin Chadwick, Secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners, who had always been resentful at not being made a Commissioner himself.

A fifteen-strong "Andover Committee" began work. A succession of witnesses revealed the grim and gory details of bone-crushing. Apart from the appalling smell, it was back-breaking and hand-blistering work, yet even boys of eight or ten were set to it, working in pairs. Men suffered scarred faces from the flying shards of bone. Bone crushing however made a good profit for the workhouse. It was revealed during the inquiry that some of the Andover Guardians had bought the ground bones.

It emerged M'Dougal gave unfair food rations, was drunk and would badly beat his wife who had threatened suicide. As well as this, M'Dougal and his 17 year old son would attempt to seduce some of the young women inmates.

M'Dougal's treatment of the dead was no better than that of the living. On one occasion, a dead baby was buried with an old man to save on the cost of a coffin. Babies born in the workhouse were rarely baptised as this cost a shilling.

A report was published in August 1846 which criticized everyone involved in the scandal. The M'Dougals were found to be totally unfit to hold such posts:

* The Guardians failed to visit the workhouse & allowed the inmates to be underfed

* Assistant Commissioner Parker was competent but placed too much confidence in the Andover guardians

* The Poor Law Commissioners had dismissed Parker and Day in an unfair manner and had mishandled the whole affair.

Although no direct action was taken against the Commissioners it undoubtedly led to its abolition the following year when the Act extending its life was not renewed. In its place, a new body "the Poor Law Board" was set up.

Anwar Ali