Office For The Board Of Guardians - Feb 21

[BikinGlynn]

Office for the Board of Guardians

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A new Walsall Union Workhouse was erected in 1838 at the junction of Peleck Rd & Moat Rd. Its construction cost £7300 and it could accomodate 350 inmates.
The design by W Watson was a relatively uncommon double cruciform plan which Watson also employed for Warwick workhouse.

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The entrance and management offices were at the centre of the building with male accomodation to the north & female to the south.
To the south of the workhouse were receiving wards, tramp wards and stone breaking sheds.
The board of guardians building stood at the Sothern edge of the site.

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The building, which pre-dates the hospital, was built as the offices for the Central Union Workhouse. The two-storey construction has mullion-transom windows, a tower on the right corner and an arched doorway topped by a shield, a corbelled eaves cornice and a lead-clad ogee dome with an ornate weathervane on the finial.
It has been left untouched since 2007 and has fallen into disrepair
But despite it's sorry state, many original features remain. It has been on the market since August 2022.

What is to be said about this one apart from its got some serious tile porn!

Thats all from here
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[Stealthstar79]

That's lovely!

 

[night crawler]

Lovely, some nice Victorian tiles there, What is the elevator for?

 

[BikinGlynn]

Lovely, some nice Victorian tiles there, What is the elevator for?

no idea, It was used by NHS as part of the hospital so may of been something to do with that

 

[Priority 7]

Wow nice set...and one hell of a backlog :-D

 

[wolfism]

Superb glazed tiles, presume they're Minton Hollins or similar.

The very mention of tramp wards and stone-breaking sheds tells you a lot about how horrific the Poor Law/ workhouse system must have been.

 

[Hayman]

Superb glazed tiles, presume they're Minton Hollins or similar.

The very mention of tramp wards and stone-breaking sheds tells you a lot about how horrific the Poor Law/ workhouse system must have been.

Once again, we are looking at 19th century normality through 21st century eyes. Without machinery, most jobs were done by hand, and working for what was received was the norm. In India today, women and children work at breaking stones into cobbles, etc. Different countries, different mores - even now..

 

[wolfism]

True, but IIRC the Poor Law was introduced in the 1830's, and by then quite a few tasks had already been mechanised - spinning mules, weaving looms, steam pumping engines and so on. From what I've read, the workhouse system was deliberately punitive and I think it lasted until the late 1920's? I won't drag Glynn's thread off topic by drawing parallels to certain political policies in modern Britain…

 

[Hayman]

True, but IIRC the Poor Law was introduced in the 1830's, and by then quite a few tasks had already been mechanised - spinning mules, weaving looms, steam pumping engines and so on. From what I've read, the workhouse system was deliberately punitive and I think it lasted until the late 1920's? I won't drag Glynn's thread off topic by drawing parallels to certain political policies in modern Britain…

From Wikipedia: "English Poor Law legislation can be traced back as far as 1536, when legislation was passed to deal with the impotent poor, although there were much earlier Plantagenet laws dealing with the problems caused by vagrants and beggars. The history of the Poor Law in England and Wales is usually divided between two statutes: the Old Poor Law passed during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and the New Poor Law, passed in 1834, which significantly modified the system of poor relief. The New Poor Law altered the system from one which was administered haphazardly at a local parish level to a highly centralised system which encouraged the large-scale development of workhouses by poor law unions."

Also: "Poverty in the interwar years (1918–1939) was responsible for several measures which largely killed off the Poor Law system. The Board of Guardians (Default) Act 1926 was passed in response to some Boards of Guardians supporting the miners during the General Strike. Workhouses were officially abolished by the Local Government Act 1929, and between 1929 and 1930 Poor Law Guardians, the "workhouse test" and the term "pauper" disappeared".

You are right about the mechanisation that the Industrial Revolution brought in, but 'something for nothing' (now seen in parts of today's benefit system) was the very opposite of 19th century ideology.
There had to be an incentive to get people to work for what they received (no 'free lunches') - and that is where the harshness came in. Also, there was the very strong 'work ethic' that came from the churches that was behind much of everyday living then.

 

[wolfism]

Yes, it was the New Poor Law that I was thinking about, as the one or two derelict workhouses I've visited were created under that system. Walsall Union Workhouse in Glynn's photos is far more impressive than those others, for example the Bron-y-Garth Hospital at Porthmadog was a workhouse at one point and if you've been there, you'll know it was grim. Another one further south seemed better, but that was probably thanks to it being out in the sticks.

 

[Hayman]

Yes, it was the New Poor Law that I was thinking about, as the one or two derelict workhouses I've visited were created under that system. Walsall Union Workhouse in Glynn's photos is far more impressive than those others, for example the Bron-y-Garth Hospital at Porthmadog was a workhouse at one point and if you've been there, you'll know it was grim. Another one further south seemed better, but that was probably thanks to it being out in the sticks.

I haven't visited any former workhouses, but some of the Victorian buildings I have known had the same, dare I say, touch of elegance about them. I imagine the patterned windows and ceilings, and the tilework designs were seen as being 'uplifting' and beyond the utilitarian. It was not until the 1930s that architects thrust aside decoration, instead creating bland, brutal designs. It was in 1932 that Aldous Huxley wrote "Brave New World". Today's concrete cube blocks of flats, offices, hospitals having nothing comforting or reassuring in their structure. The likes of The Shard are equally hard in their outlines. Reflections of life today?

 

[TeeJF]

Nice! That reminds me of one we did near Brum. We literally walked in through a wide open door then half an hour in to the explore workmen rocked up and boarded us in!!! happy days!

 

[HughieD]

Let's get there thread back on topic. Boss report that mate...

 

[Hayman]

Let's get there thread back on topic. Boss report that mate...

I would hope that the human side of the places featured is as important as the strutctures themselves. After all, it it were not for people nothing would be built, then sometimes abandoned. The Walsall Union Workhouse could have been a plain utilitarian lump of a place; but care went into its design. Even the word "Guardians" shows a degree of caring.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Nice! That reminds me of one we did near Brum. We literally walked in through a wide open door then half an hour in to the explore workmen rocked up and boarded us in!!! happy days!

It is wasall could b the same one? Was climb through window job when we went

 

[BikinGlynn]

I would hope that the human side of the places featured is as important as the strutctures themselves. After all, it it were not for people nothing would be built, then sometimes abandoned. The Walsall Union Workhouse could have been a plain utilitarian lump of a place; but care went into its design. Even the word "Guardians" shows a degree of caring.

Interesting discussion

 

[TeeJF]

It is wasall could b the same one? Was climb through window job when we went

No mate, our ‘lock in’ was a home/school for orphans with a bit of a dark history, inevitably of abuse of the children in the priests care.

http://jarrelook.co.uk/Urbex/Saint Edwards Boys Home/Saint Edwards.htm