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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Glamorganshire => Topic started by: Deirdre784 on Sunday 13 May 18 11:56 BST (UK)
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Anyone know when the workhouse ceased to exist as such and became a hospital. I know it became the Graig hospital for the chronically sick at some point and then eventually the new Dewi Sant hospital was built on the site.
I have a death certificate from 1949 where the death is shown at the Graig hospital; it gives a home address too (with his occupation), and the death was registered by one of his daughters. Family members say that he died at the workhouse but would this have been how locals still looked at the place? Surely with an address quoted, family members in the area and registered by family, this would suggest that he was in the hospital, or at least the infirmary part of the workhouse.
All the other workhouse death certificates i have (from a number of areas around the country), only say the workhouse, and the death is registered by someone from the workhouse. Is this usual?
Views welcome.
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http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Pontypridd/
This site states the workhouse became Graig hospital under the NHS. The NHS started in July 1948
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Thanks Rosie, i know the NHS was in existence at the time of his death and the cert does actually call it the Graig hospital, just trying to establish why the family would say he was in the workhouse (especially as you would kind of expect them to ‘hide’ the fact) 🤔
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If they were anything like my grandmother she still considered a local hospital as the workhouse even though the NHS was established
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Just to say that Workhouses, and Boards of Guardians, legally ceased to exist on Monday 31st March 1930, they were then called Public Assistance Institutions.
Stan
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Thanks Stan, that’s helpful. Guess though as Rosie says, people still regarded (even feared) them as the workhouses.
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I have a book by Keith Jones, that covers Pontypridd workhouse.
I was born there in 1946 it was known as Central homes then
Regards
Heddwch
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I have a book by Keith Jones, that covers Pontypridd workhouse.
I was born there in 1946 it was known as Central homes then.
Regards
Heddwch
Thanks Heddwch, maybe it didn’t become the Graig hospital til 1948 when the NHS took it over.
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My father worked after WW2 at what was formerly Chelsea Workhouse but was renamed "Kingsmead". It was still run along the old lines and was slowly "tarted up" in the 1950s. The old refectory benches and tables were only replaced in the 1960s and the site was finally closed in the early 1970s when Dad took early retirement.
It may not have been called a workhouse in 1949 but that is what it was and certainly would have been how it was regarded for many a year after renaming.
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Thanks diplodocus, that’s really interesting.
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Quote from Keith Jones book
1948
The poor law ended by the national Assistant act of 1948 Following the publication the management committee renames Central Homes as the Graig Hospital to fit in with the surroundings Premises where transferred to the Ministry of Health taken over by the newly formed Pontypridd and Rhondda Hospital Management.
Hope this helps i guess the name changed but the stigma never ever did older folk retained the fear of going into this hospital
Best wishes Heddwch
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Cheers Heddwch, that’s really helpful. I have quite a few ancestors who died in the workhouse so it doesn’t bother me (though very sad), this just seemed a bit strange given the facts.
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I have quite a few ancestors who died in the workhouse so it doesn’t bother me (though very sad).
No, I don't suppose it bothers many of us now but we are blessed by the mists of passing time. Until WW2 in order to obtain any form of monetary relief, the "dole" people would first ensure you had sold off most of your worldly possessions. Given how much more your neighbours knew about what was going on 'down the street', you couldn't hide the fact that you were failing to survive (whatever the reason). "The Workhouse" was viewed by most people as the end of the descent into abject poverty. Whilst some families fell through illness, death or disaster, for others it was as the result of the demon drink. Somehow, inmates usually ended being seen as "the undeserving poor" no matter how unfair that seems now.
Not only did my father work in Chelsea Workhouse, one of my aunts was the matron of another (in Pembrokeshire) and an uncle spent in life in care for the elderly after his first appointment as "Deputy Master of Worcester Workhouse" !!
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Indeed, it must have been absolutely horrible, both the threat and reality. How many of us would have survived 🙁.
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When I moved to Ponty in 1999 it still occasionally got referred to as the old workhouse and some people didn't want to go there for that reason - I guess the threat of it, even when very small, ran deep
A lot of the pubs etc would still be known by names for decades earlier
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:(
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The maternity hospital where I was born was formerly a workhouse. When Dad registered my birth the REGISTRAR entered place of birth as "Tredegar Workhouse". Mum went ballistic!!!! Dad had to go and get it changed in no short order! So yes, the stigma did linger......... and so did the name.
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The maternity hospital where I was born was formerly a workhouse. When Dad registered my birth the REGISTRAR entered place of birth as "Tredegar Workhouse". Mum went ballistic!!!! Dad had to go and get it changed in no short order! So yes, the stigma did linger......... and so did the name.
That’s awful, not surprised your mum went ballistic 🌺
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My dad was born in a mental hospital (apparently in the post war baby boom the turned one section into a maternity home) - on his birth certificate it has the street address, presumably due to the stigma