Completed.Thanks.Was there a Workhouse in Shrewsbury 1901?

[Barbara348]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there was a Workhouse in Shrewsbury in 1901 please.

On the 1901 Census, my Grandma shows as being at The College, St Chads, Shrewsbury, along with loads of other people.

I've never been able to confirm what sort of place it was and a friend has suggested that it may have been a Workhouse.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

Cheers

Barbara.

[CaroleW]

Hi

Have a look at this link

 http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Liverpool/Liverpool.shtml

On left hand side choose Workhouse locations and then English Poor Law Unions then Shropshire

[AileenP]

The workhouse was what is now known as Shrewsbury School!  A famous public school in Kingsland Shrewsbury in the parish of St Chads and sits on top of a bank looking over the river Severn and Quarry Park.  It is such a grand building to look at but you wouldn't have thought it was once used for the poor.

I found out recently that my great grandmother and her family had a spell of 2 weeks in there before moving  to a tenement block in Shrewsbury it was never spoken about as they were shamed by it bless them.

[mauricej]

The workhouse was what is now known as Shrewsbury School!

But from the Shrewsbury School website:
"In 1882 Headmaster Henry Whitehead Moss oversaw the relocation of the main school building to premises that had previously housed Captain Coram’s Foundling Hospital and the town’s House of Industry"
The old Shrewsbury School buildings now being the town library.

..and from the Shrewsbury page of the Workhouses website:
"It was under this regime that the workhouse was to continue until its eventual closure in 1871. The building was purchased by Shrewsbury School"

So the workhouse was not at the Shrewsbury School site in 1901 having closed in 1871 and the school relocated in 1882, and the only workhouse for Shrewsbury in 1901 was, I believe, the Atcham workhouse at Cross Houses.

Which doesn't help find out what The College, St Chads, Shrewsbury was in 1901, sorry.

Maurice

[AileenP]

I'm wondering if it was College Hill in Shrewsbury?  That is in the parish of St Chad's and backs onto where the Old St Chads Church once stood.  It was and still is a very affluent area with big grand houses.

[Barbara348]

Hi,

Finally found time to sit down & thank you all for your comments.

Carole:Thanks for the link, I have looked at the site in the past but had forgotten about it.
I've had another look but cannot find anything there to help me with my query.Thanks anyway.

Maurice:
Thanks very much for the info, it at least confirms to me that 'The College' was not the Workhouse in 1901 when my Grandma was there.

AileenP:

What a puzzle this is but I believe you may be correct in thinking that the location was College Hill in Shrewsbury.

I have had another look at the 1901 Census on which my Grandma appears at No 2 The College, (prior to that entry, it lists College Hill).

Along with my Grandma there appears to be 13 Sisters of Mercy and my Grandma is one of 11 girls listed as being in Training for Domestic Service.

It must have been some sort of live-in workplace but goodness knows if I'll ever find out exactly what it was.

Thank you all again for your input.

Cheers

Barbara.

[mauricej]

Hi Barbara.

Found this link to 'Colleges of secular canons, the College of St Chad, Shrewsbury:   
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=39946

From this site, it appears that, although the college closed in June 1548, some of the buildings survived and the south range of College Court was rebuilt as 'three substantial Georgian houses' which became St. Winefride's Convent, No. 3 College Court, and Clive House.

So, perhaps a link between St. Winefride's Convent and your 13 Sisters of Mercy.

Regards,
Maurice

[silvery]

It sounds as though it may possibly have been a convent, and a place for girls who would otherwise have been in the workhouse or an orphanage.

This was the one for Birkenhead and Chester http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/askalocal/pages/hist22.shtml
Lots of people would like to find the records for it.   

[Barbara348]

Hi Maurice,

Thanks for looking that up for me.

From that info I'm inclined to think that No 2 The College was in fact the Georgian House which became St Winefride's Convent.

I seem to recall my mother telling me that her mother (my grandma) had worked in the Laundry for the Nuns.
She was baptised into the Catholic faith which might explain that.

My Grandma was an orphan,she was born in 1886,  her mother died in 1894 and her father in 1898 so she was an orphan aged 15 when shown as a resident of No 2 The College on the 1901 Census.

Oh it would be great if there were some records existing somewhere but I do believe there's not much chance of that.

Thank you very much again for your comments.

Cheers

Barbara.