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    Workhouse dietary table, 1883

    Mar 10, 2020 3 minutes
    INTERVIEW BY ROSEMARY COLLINS

    The workhouse system our Victorian ancestors would have known came into being because of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. This established a Poor Law Commission to supervise the workhouses, which were administrated by local boards of guardians. Living conditions in workhouses were meant to be worse than living in poverty outside, to discourage all but the truly destitute from living off parish funds. A dietary table from Plomesgate Union Workhouse in Wickham Market, Suffolk, reveals the poor diet that paupers were offered,

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