A wide-ranging source that includes Workhouse Registers, Master’s Journals and various Poor Law administration records.

Following the introduction of the New Poor Law in 1834, the responsibility of maintaining the poor was transferred from the parish to the Board of Guardians.  The new law stated that no more outdoor relief would be provided.  Any person seeking help was to be maintained within the workhouse. In order for the new Act to be effective the main principles were based on ‘less eligibility’ and the ‘workhouse test’.  The workhouse was intended as a deterrent, and the new system would save the ratepayer money as the Act sought to separate the indigent from the indolent.  The able-bodied would be offered relief in the workhouse, and if they refused they were considered to have failed the ‘workhouse test’.  It was then up to the poor to fend for themselves outside the workhouse. It did not state that outdoor relief would cease to others in need such as the sick, elderly, infirm or children.

The workhouse came to be known as the institution that imprisoned the poor for their poverty, which became a symbol of fear and hatred.

Workhouse Bell at Narberth Museum
(Photograph courtesy of Narberth Museum)