Catalogue description Folios 190-193. Workhouse Inspection Report Form from Harry Burrard Farnall, Poor Law...

Folios 190-193. Workhouse Inspection Report Form from Harry Burrard Farnall, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, reporting his inspection of the Mansfield Poor Law Union Workhouse on 8 November 1869; includes details of medical provision, management of the school, the vagrant wards, etc.

The report is generally satisfactory, apart from the women's vagrant wards, described as very poor, and some criticism of the school.

A short report on the school, attached on a separate sheet, stresses the importance of children being 'questioned closely on the subject of their lesson after every leading lesson' but his main criticism relates to the school furniture, which causes difficulty for the teacher 'when the children sit with their faces to the wall and their backs to the teacher'.

He also encloses a copy of his comments to the guardians from the previous year, dated 13 October 1868, after his inspection of the school, when he reported little improvement, saying 'The Arithmetic continues to be inaccurate' and that he thinks the old boys' schoolroom could be boarded to provide a better room. The room should be furnished with 'parallel desks - not with desks fastened against the wall as in the present schoolroom'. He was glad to see boys 'now employed in the garden' as he would be concerned if they were spending too much time with adult paupers.

Paper Number: 51385/1869.

Poor Law Union Number: 337.

Counties: Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.