Catalogue description Folios 332-333. Workhouse Inspection Report Form from John Thomas Graves, Poor Law...

Folios 332-333. Workhouse Inspection Report Form from John Thomas Graves, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, reporting his inspection of the Bromsgrove Poor Law Union Workhouse on 23 January 1852. He notes that the greatest number housed during the last winter was 190 and the house holds 320. There is a detached Infirmary and good accommodation for the sick and infectious. There is also a building in the garden where fever cases might be accommodated. There is a separate laundry. The schoolmistress is not a person of much accomplishment but the children are small and appear well taken care of. There are no vagrant wards. The workhouse is regularly inspected but the extracts from the Poor Law amendment were not hung up and the clerk undertook to supply them. There were 133 in the workhouse at the time of inspection compared with 129 the previous year. Greaves noted that rates and expenses in Bromsgrove have been reduced over the last 12 months but the nail trade was now thriving.

Paper Number: 51503/1850.

Poor Law Union Number: 526.

Counties: Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire.