Author Topic: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941  (Read 16722 times)

Offline rthom

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 11 March 10 03:30 GMT (UK) »
Hi Sally:

Yes, it's easy to understand how the dread "Workhouse" still carries an enormous stigma when we hear it mentioned. Yet, before the social welfare system, it is all the destitute or infirm had, short of living rough on the streets, if they had no relatives to support them. And this really wan't that long ago. 

Definitely food for thought, especially for those of us in the the US currently struggling to overhaul a disfunctional health care system.

Regards, rthom
Surname interests: Acfield (Ackfield, Hackfield) - SFK, LON / Adams - BDF / Askham - NHT / Baldrey - SFK / Charlwood - LON / Hall - NFK, ESS, LND / Hemmings (Hemings, Heming) - WAR, OXF, NHT, LON / Hibbert - BRK / Ivey - LON / James - OXF / Manning - NHT / Mason - NHT / Pearson - WAR, NHT / Pizzy - SFK / Polly (Polley) - OXF / Rivers - SFK / Sargeant - WAR, SRY, LON, USA / Simons (Simonds) - BDF / Taylor - NHT / Wiggins - OXF

Census information is Crown copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.

Online ShaunJ

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #10 on: Thursday 11 March 10 08:14 GMT (UK) »
By that time the old union workhouse in Dorking Road had become the Epsom "Guardians Institution". Its infirmary would have been the main provider of free medical care to the people of Epsom before the advent of the NHS into which it was subsumed in the late 1940's.

"Epsom Union Workhouse was recorded in many official documents as Middle House or 49, Dorking Road, Epsom. This probably stems from the 1904 guidance issued by the Registrar General that workhouse births should be disguised by the use of non-committal addresses. Similar guidance relating to deaths was only issued in 1919. After the workhouse was closed the buildings became Epsom Hospital."

http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/EpsomCemeteryBurialsH.shtml

http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/WorkhouseEpsom.html

UK Census info. Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline alunno-a

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #11 on: Thursday 11 March 10 11:16 GMT (UK) »
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right-- this has caused me a bit of a flutter, and I am now going to have to do some serious investigation on this!!!

When my great grandmother died the family were far from poor, although not actually rich! They were educating at least one daughter ( apparently) at a fee paying school, and 4 children were in employment. But great Grandfather was a merchant seaman, and away a lot of the time-- 

I will get back on this!!!

Sally
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Online ShaunJ

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #12 on: Thursday 11 March 10 12:56 GMT (UK) »
The Poor Law infirmaries were reformed by the Local Government Act of 1929 which put them on the same footing as other local authority services, opening them up to all in need. It was no longer necessary to rely on the Poor Law in order to get treatment or care.
UK Census info. Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk


Offline rthom

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #13 on: Friday 12 March 10 13:14 GMT (UK) »
Many thanks for the great insights.

This really is a very interesting topic -- almost worthy of a "sticky" elsewhere in RootsChat.

Regards, rthom
Surname interests: Acfield (Ackfield, Hackfield) - SFK, LON / Adams - BDF / Askham - NHT / Baldrey - SFK / Charlwood - LON / Hall - NFK, ESS, LND / Hemmings (Hemings, Heming) - WAR, OXF, NHT, LON / Hibbert - BRK / Ivey - LON / James - OXF / Manning - NHT / Mason - NHT / Pearson - WAR, NHT / Pizzy - SFK / Polly (Polley) - OXF / Rivers - SFK / Sargeant - WAR, SRY, LON, USA / Simons (Simonds) - BDF / Taylor - NHT / Wiggins - OXF

Census information is Crown copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.

Offline behindthefrogs

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #14 on: Friday 12 March 10 15:26 GMT (UK) »
As workhouses performed the function of a local infirmary many people who couldn't afford private nursing found themselves using them much in the way that we use hospitals today.  When they ceased to function as workhouses most of them retained a function as part of the public health system.  While newer hospitals took over the more complex medical functions which required modern facilities most were retained as nursing homes or natal hospitals for the poorer people.  Others became asylums.  The foundation of the NHS had little imediate effect on this situation.

Many are still nursing homes run by the NHS or annexes to modern hospitals.

David
Living in Berkshire from Northampton & Milton Keynes
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Offline oldcrone

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #15 on: Tuesday 07 December 10 18:55 GMT (UK) »
Thank you so much for posting this original post, because it confirms my suspicion that my grandfather's wife and 4 children ended up in the Epsom workhouse in 1914, when they returned from his army service in India.

It seems incredible but: my grandfather was serving with an Irish regiment in India (1911-1914) and his family went out there with him; my uncle Len was born out there.  When WW1 was imminent, my grandfather's battalion was recalled, only to be sent out as part of the expeditionary force to France in 1914.

As far as I can make out, on a private's wage, his family weren't terribly well off.  But it seems that they ended up in the Epsom workhouse during the WW1 years.  My late aunt Betty was born in Middle House in 1919, when grandad had obviously returned from the war.  He is listed, at her birth, as living at 'Press Forward Lodge, Leatherhead'.

Something I'm really interested in is: what were the conditions of living in the workhouse at this time (ie early 20th century) and also how were workhouse inmates regarded? 
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Offline rthom

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 08 December 10 15:08 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for your input. As I said earlier, this daunting topic really provides food for thought for us all.  Perhaps someone else will be able to jump in with some insights into the conditions in the original Middle House when it was a workhouse.

Regards, rthom
Surname interests: Acfield (Ackfield, Hackfield) - SFK, LON / Adams - BDF / Askham - NHT / Baldrey - SFK / Charlwood - LON / Hall - NFK, ESS, LND / Hemmings (Hemings, Heming) - WAR, OXF, NHT, LON / Hibbert - BRK / Ivey - LON / James - OXF / Manning - NHT / Mason - NHT / Pearson - WAR, NHT / Pizzy - SFK / Polly (Polley) - OXF / Rivers - SFK / Sargeant - WAR, SRY, LON, USA / Simons (Simonds) - BDF / Taylor - NHT / Wiggins - OXF

Census information is Crown copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.

Offline St Helier Boy

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Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House" in 1941
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday 19 January 11 20:12 GMT (UK) »
Re: Epsom Workhouse "Middle House"
Don't know if this info is of any use to provide a "link", but here goes:-
 :-\ During the Blitz of 1940/41 I was 8-9.  I had a blister on my knee.  I picked it (of course!).  It turned septic and my leg swelled-up like a telegraph pole! Mum brought me from Sutton & Cheam ("Struggle & Scream") Hospital by 164 to Sutton "The Cock", thence by green 470, to Epsom District Hospital AKA "The Workhouse".  I was about a week in an upstairs ward with open balcony guarded by diamond mesh screen.  Overnight we could hear the bombing- more over Morden, Carshalton direction.
Bill- aka "St Helier Boy"