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Workhouse labour, less eligibility and the new poor law

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Darwen, Lewis (2025) Workhouse labour, less eligibility and the new poor law. English Historical Review. ISSN 0013-8266 (In Press)

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Abstract

The principle of less eligibility, which required pauperism to be less appealing than living independently, underpinned the New Poor Law of 1834. It was to be achieved above all via deterrent workhouses, which would ‘test’ the destitution of relief applicants and ensure only those genuinely in need were assisted. The requirement for physically able workhouse inmates to work formed a crucial facet of this strategy. Indeed, images of workhouse inmates picking oakum and breaking stones hold a central place in our popular contemporary understanding of the Victorian workhouse. Yet, the nature of workhouse labour in the Victorian period has received little close attention. Most notably, there has never been a sustained national study of work in the workhouse. Thus, we know relatively little about the specific types of work inmates did, the purpose of such labour, and how indoor labour regimes varied across time and space. We know little, too, about how workhouse labour varied by demographic group—between children and adults of different ages, and between males and females. This article presents new evidence on workhouse labour in England and Wales during the second half of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates that workhouse labour was far from homogenous, and that there was a markedly regional flavour to its character. Moreover, its shows that women and children were seldom subjected to hard labour of any kind. Above all, the article contributes to a burgeoning poor law historiography which seeks to understand its local and regional dimensions beyond national legislation and regulation.

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