Stanway Workhouse Records, Lexden

[Annui]

My paternal grandfather, Edward James Scott, at age 9 was with his mother, Mary Scott (marked as "single") in Stanway Workhouse in the 1891 census return.  He was born in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, not in Essex.  He didn't appear in the next census return for Stanway, by then he had moved to Yorkshire to find work. His mother was still in Stanway though.  I'd like to know the year they both arrived in Stanway. Does anyone have access to admission records please?  I thought, as paupers, they'd have been registered in a Suffolk workhouse?  In the previous census, 1881 Mary (Mary A. Scott) was listed as housekeeper for her father, a widower, in Wiston, Suffolk.
It's a mystery how Mary and my grandfather, Edward, arrived in Stanway, probably impossible to unravel fully.

[KGarrad]

The workhouses website says nothing much in the way of records survives?!

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lexden/

The parishes covered by the Lexden workhouse were on or close to the Suffolk border.

[Annui]

Thank you!  I had looked at that website, but found it hard to believe that all records would have disappeared for late 19th century.  Maybe there was a fire or some such disaster.   

I checked to which which Poor Law Union for Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk belonged and it was definitely not Lexden/Stanway.  From what I gleaned elsewhere I understand allocations to workhouses were quite strict, because, obviously, it cost money to keep the inmates and P.L.Unions had to count their pennies.

I'm wondering if there was a known father of Edward James and he had hailed from near Stanway, Essex, whether that would have been sufficient to admit the pair there. But without records it's impossible to go further.
 
Anyway, thanks again for responding - the mystery and  brick wall look set to remain.

[KGarrad]

Thank you!  I had looked at that website, but found it hard to believe that all records would have disappeared for late 19th century.  Maybe there was a fire or some such disaster.   

The people in the workhouse were, in some people's eyes, the dregs of society!
And therefore it wasn't considered important to keep any records, by some.

You'll find that a lot of workhouse records simply weren't kept for posterity.

As is usual with records and archives, for those people with money there are heaps of records.
For the poor, very little.

[Annui]

 Oh my - ain't that the truth!?   Don't get me started!
Thanks, once again.

[geno500]

It is a shame your ancestor was not born in the Stanway workhouse because Essex records have the
Register of Births from 1880 -1932 and having looked at it years ago it contains quiet  a lot of detail including in some cases who the father was .

[Annui]

Hi - thanks for responding.  Yes, that thought had struck me too.   It's impossible to find out how long he and his mother had been there, but all sources do give his birth place as Stoke-by-Nayland, so less than 9 years I guess, and perhaps only a shortish time. 
What she was doing in between  1881 and 1891 remains a mystery. I can hardly see her father throwing her out of the house - he was a widower and she was listed as his housekeeper in the 1881 Census.  But you never know!  If the child's father  lived locally and happened to be someone who didn't want his illegitimate child under his nose......

[geno500]

Hi  I suppose you have studied the Stoke by Nayland baptism records,it may not help but I have found in the past to studied all the baptisms ,you get a picture of what the vicar was like,some were hard line others allowed certain latitude,while writing this I see you have not found the baptism there,you will have to search all the parishes around ,sometimes it helps to look at her fathers family and where they are,it is a shame to hit the buffers in the 1880's/90's

[Annui]

Thanks.  I've searched whatever I could find online.  I'm in the USA now, so visiting Suffolk, sadly is out of the question - I should've started this 10 years ago when I was still in England!  Because I'm not familiar with Suffolk (I'm a northerner) the place names aren't familiar, and it's impossible to find a map online with ALL the tiny villages on it at one time.

Mary,  grandad's mother, is in the Christening record as baptised in Gosbeck, which seems (I think)nearer to her father's birthplace, Ashbocking, than to her own birthplace, Hemingstone
(civil parish of Stoke by Nayland), registration district of Sudbury, sub reg. district Bures.  None of the places are very far apart, by our standards, but in those days even 15 miles would be a long way.

Yes, I think I must accept that I'm not going to be able to solve this mystery, and move on to another, equally frustrating, one.  :-)