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| Folios 482-488. Letter from the Reverend Stephen Clissold, Rector of Wrentham, to the Poor Law Commission, marked Private. It gives his account of the disturbances at Bulchamp Workhouse [Bulcamp Workhouse] on Monday 21 December 1835, even though White [Harry White, Clerk to the Guardians of the Blything Poor Law Union] has sent a detailed report. Also enclosed is a handbill. Clissold reports that he was chairing a committee investigating the auditors report when the mob assembled. He was asked to take a responsible role, in the absence of Lord Stradbroke [Chairman of the board of guardians of the Blything Poor Law Union] and Sir Thomas Gooch. The causes of the disturbances are alluded to as being: 1. The classification of the workhouse - segregation of the inmates. 2. The relieving officers preventing the paupers having their cases heard by the Board. 3. The number of backlog cases, which if not heard, cause great distress and hardship to the paupers due to the distances they have to walk home and back again. 4. The insufficiency of the relief ordered by the Board. On the last point Clissold observes that, apart from a few exceptions, the paupers did not appear to be in distress as they had money for the alehouse. The arrangements put in place for protecting the house and resisting attack are: 1. 20 members of the Inniskillen military are stationed a 20 minute march away. 2. Four constables are in the workhouse and patrol the neighbourhood. 3. Open communication between magistrates, guardians, constables and the military. 4. 36 men of the Coast Guard could be moved to the workhouse in less than four hours. 5. 50 special constables have been sworn in. 6. 100 staves are available for use by the guardians, gentry and farmers. 7. An extraordinary meeting of the parishes adjoining Wrentham would act as a Board, in the absence of Lord Stradbroke and Gooch. Clissold urges the Poor Law Commission to pass the classification of the workhouse, under the supervision of [Dr James Philip Kay] Assistant Poor Law Commissioner. It was reported that many of the paupers, although having no grievances themselves, came to assist others in attacking the workhouse and guardians, and in particular, Clissold, as he is well known to them. Many of the paupers were from Cratfield, Linstead and the parishes adjoining Stradbroke, where the 'Roundsman' system flourished. It was also reported that a farmer and a guardian overseer had offered money to the labourers, to induce them to join the attack. Clissold feels the threat will extend beyond those districts, as many medical men, petty dealers, shopkeepers and alehouse keepers are hostile to the changes from the old union to the new union. In Wrentham a respectable shopkeeper stated that there was scarcely a single tradesman 'who would not be ready to clap his hands in exultation if he could but hear that the house was pulled down'. Footnote: it was resolved that the clerk [Harry White] send an accurate report of the disturbance to the two county newspapers, together with the enclosed handbill obtained from a servant of Clissold. Enclosed: Copy of a handbill, dated 16 December 1835, which refers to the destruction of part of St Clement's Workhouse, in Ipswich, by a group of men angry with the changes being made to the poor houses. H G Bristo, Junior Bailiff, attempted to read the Riot Act, until a number of the Inniskillen Dragoons arrived to disperse the 'mob'. After both sides sustained several minor injuries, the crowd dispersed in various directions, with some taking refuge in St Clements churchyard. Two men were taken into custody. Handbill printed by Walker, Orford Hill, Norwich [Norfolk]. Annotated: acknowledge and thanks on behalf of the Poor Law Commission. Poor Law Union Number 432. Counties: Suffolk. |
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