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Birmingham Workhouse Dudley Road Western Road opened 1852

I have done a quick map search and can't find 88 Dudley Road - looks as if even numbers were opposite the workhouse/hospital. The maps with numbers may be more modern but the numbers jump from 84 (a pub) to 92 on the maps I saw.
 
No 88 post 1878 would correspond to the Old Windmill Inn from 1880. However, between 1878 and 1879 the numbering changed from consecutive to odd numbers one side of the street, even the other side of the street. I did think it might refer to this earlier time, but , as can be seen from the map, there do not seem to be any number 88 , unless Heath Green cottage or Summerfield Cottage were numbered that way
map c 1889 showing dudley road around Summerfield park.jpg
 
The original workhouse was built in 1733 in Lichfield Street round about were the Victoria Law Courts are today.The Picture shown in Reply 3 the wing on the left (built 1766)was the Infirmary and the wing on the right (built 1779)was a place for labour,both of the wings built at a later date.
Hutton wrote "The stranger would rather suppose it was the residence of a gentleman than of Six Hundred paupers"
This was knocked down when the new workhouse was built at Western Rd (Dudley Rd) in 1852 in 1889 the Infirmary was built.
Marston Green Orphanage was part of the Birmingham Workhouse and opened in 1880 which could house 466 children drafted from the Birmingham Workhouse, the boys learnt a trade and the girls household work. It was erected by the Birmingham Board of Guardians which ran the Workhouse till 1929 were it was transferred to the local authority and transferred to Regional Hospital in 1946
We no longer seem to have an image on this thread of the early Birmingham Workhouse on Lichfield Street. Here it is.

Screenshot_20230827_150959_Chrome.jpg
 
lichfield st has for some reason always interested me...we have a thread here with some great photos

 
I remember an entrance in Western Road to the Workhouse and it doesn't look inviting at all , how those poor misfortunes felt all those years ago entering there it's not worth thinking about . I know that it was converted to the geriatric unit to City Hospital , years ago in my youth it was feared by the elderly, the saying among them was "if you go in there , you won't be coming out" . I often wondered as I grew up if this was a possible heirloom of the old workhouse sad days indeed .
 
Yes we always heard and said " if you go in there you wont come out"......always thought they meant Selly Oak Hospital as it always happened to relatives.
 
what we must remember is that the workhouses were there for a good reason...people went there out of sheer desperation due to things like no jobs and no jobs meant they could not afford to pay the rent or eat...women left widows with half a dozen children to look after but no way of doing it with no working husband around...yes the workhouse may have been a daunting place to enter but they at least provided men women and children with a roof over their heads and food to eat..most workhouses also had an infirmary for medical attention which they would otherwise not be able to afford to pay for and they provided work as well...also remember that most people did survive the workhouse and come out and make good of their lives so surely this had to be better than roaming the streets with nowhere to go and no food to eat...workhouses are part of our social history and in todays world seemed harsh but we cant change history..

even today we still see poverty and desperation on our streets so has it really changed that much

lyn
 
I have read with great interest the thread on the Birmingham Workhouse.

The parish was the main administrative body for local services until the nineteenth century. It was responsible for law & order, upkeep of roads and the poor. They were run by people who could read, write and keep accounts.

Parliament imposed duties on the parishes. It made them responsible for collecting voluntary monies to look after the poor in 1536. In 1601, after several acts about the poor, Parliament made each parish fully responsible for looking after the poor of their parish and allowed parishes to levy a rate to fund this. These duties would remain largely unchanged until the nineteenth century and the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which allowed parishes to join together and build a “union” workhouse.

Let us not forget that the “poor law administration” was controlled by the rich and the powerful. On paper the aims were laudable; the reality was often different. In many cases it was simply a question of keeping the costs of looking after the poor to a minimum. Workhouses were a way of providing for the poor at a central location at the minimum cost; a policy continued by building Union Workhouses. They were horrible places.

This is a quote from “Historic UK” which sums it up much better than I ever could:

The Victorian Workhouse was an institution that was intended to provide work and shelter for poverty stricken people who had no means to support themselves. With the advent of the Poor Law system, Victorian workhouses, designed to deal with the issue of pauperism, in fact became prison systems detaining the most vulnerable in society.

The harsh system of the workhouse became synonymous with the Victorian era, an institution which became known for its terrible conditions, forced child labour, long hours, malnutrition, beatings and neglect. It would become a blight on the social conscience of a generation leading to opposition from the likes of the Charles Dickens. [https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/]
 
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