THE WORKHOUSE: Evil Victorian building or early social care pioneer?

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2 ай бұрын

I recently visited The Workhouse, a large Victorian building with an interesting past. This building was one of the infamous poor houses where the destitute of Victorian times wound up. Purposfully harsh they were a place of last resort for many but a life saver at that. Walking round the building you get a sense first of all of the scale of operation but then of what they were trying to achieve.
Was this a needless cruelty of the poor and vulnerable. Or are we viewing it by todays standards and this was one of the first project which could be considered social care? Watch the video and make up your own mind.
#victorian #work #socialcare #history #english #unitedkingdom #solotravel #evil

Пікірлер: 23

@inbetween-days 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing. We visited here a while back. It does make you think about the hard times people went through.

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

Honestly I loved it for being something different. There are a lot of National Trust properties of rich people. Not many from the other side of the scale.

@chrisisjustme7546 2 ай бұрын

I get the feeling they'd have been pretty harsh places to live... that said still a for runner of some kind of social care... thanks for sharing best wishes to you 😊

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

I think it was better than living on the streets, which is where a lot of people would have ended up. But it's harsh that people who were disabled or mentally ill were also treated purposefully harsh.

@ceinwenowen8525 2 ай бұрын

Hi brilliant upload very fascinating.Im a new subscriber to your channel and look forward to more content.Could you tell me where the workhouse is located thanks

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

Hi, thanks for the sub. The workhouse is located in Southwell in Nottinghamshire.

@nuttynatsu2354 2 ай бұрын

Ah Southwell, amazing place to visit. Looks like they have added even more since I last visited with my parents just after lockdown lifted. I highly recommend visiting Quarry Bank Mill, another great national trust property.

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

It was my first time here and I was very impressed. I'll add Quarry Bank Mill to the travel list. Thanks for the tip.

@imtheeternalscholar 2 ай бұрын

I absolutely love old buildings. What I don’t like is when they are modernised along the way. It’s sad when they don’t look like they did originally. Modernising does “upset” the “original” inhabitants. Hence hauntings. Good or bad things happen when places are disturbed. Like it or not, some people become attached to places they love or places where a lot of emotional disruption has happened. Hence the saying: “ If only the walls could talk.” And a lot of people see original inhabitants still doing their daily work just as the used to. And some would be upset that it has been changed. In saying that, some of these beautiful historic places needed drastic work done to help preserve them.🥰

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

Agreed, I think there would be a lot of strong emotion here. Definitely a lot of negative energy. I can see why they would repurpose some of it for homes later on though

@chathamdogend4461 2 ай бұрын

I don't think we can judge the attitudes of the Victorians towards the poor by today's standards. Workhouses may well have saved the lives of people who would otherwise have succumbed to their poverty. They were not prisons, people could leave if they desired. However many entrants may have become institutionalized and then unable to survive outside the walls so to speak.

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

I think it was more the lumping in of the disabled and the like. If you lost an arm in an industrial accident then you couldn't get a job and ended up here. While it is better than the streets it was still needlessly harsh on some of them with little help of getting them out.

@jonathanstempleton7864 2 ай бұрын

Yes, workhouses were unpleasant but that was deliberate. They were designed to deter all but the most genuinely desperate - what were termed the "deserving poor". Otherwise, if you offered free hot meals and comfy beds, you'd have every lazy sod and his uncle (the "undeserving poor") queueing up to get in. Nobody would ever want to work again. Second, nobody was ever forced to go in, so it was not a "punishment for being poor". Entry was entirely voluntary. If you were sick and could not work, you could enter the workhouse and leave when you felt well enough. They were supposed to be a temporary measure and some people would go in and out several times. Either way, it was better than sleeping in shop doorways, but still very much a last resort option. In the workhouse, you at least had a chance of survival.

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

I honestly do think that they started off as a decent idea for helping the poor. Providing a place that could offer temporary respite while you got back on your feet was a good idea. I even understand why you'd want them to be a bit rough. As you say, it was intended so people didn't get comfy on them. However, going through the house you see the failings a little bit. There was nothing in place for the disabled (both physical and mental) who would be stuck in the horrible conditions. Even single women would be shunned and stuck in the houses. This is why I don't condemn the workhouses so much. Compared to anything else at the time they were a years ahead.

@Eldarwen999 2 ай бұрын

Poverty was seen as a moral failing and in some ways still is. A lot of the time you went in there but were never able to leave. Some spent decades in there and sometimes the rest of their lives. Read Call the Midwife trilogy, it has some workhouse stories in there. I am sure that the workhouses started out as something good but corruption, abuse and neglect caught up with it shortly.

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

I'm still not sure if the place was originally intended for noble purposes. I.e to give the poor a last place to go before they were on the streets. But the execution of the idea and subsequent uses of the place for profit certainly left a lot to be desired.

@supernaturalcasebook 2 ай бұрын

Oh i bet that's haunted!

@OutWithABrew 2 ай бұрын

Creepy Victorian ghosts are a classic. Add in the fact that a lot of people were mentally ill as well and it could double as a haunted asylum. Another ghost tradition.