Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Benjamin Woodcock master of the Barnet Workhouse commenced his diary on 1 September 1836 just over a year after his appointment. Although the site for the new workhouse had already been selected the district’s paupers were still being housed in some of the old parish poorhouses. The diary which ends on 10 May 1838 covers the period of the building’s completion in the late spring of 1837 the transfer of the inmates from the Barnet Shenley and East Barnet poorhouses to the new building and the establishment of a settled routine for staff inmates and Guardians. Woodcock’s entries describe his daily routine admitting and caring for the workhouse inmates his handling of the problems that he experienced in creating a smooth-running regime in the new buildings and in coping with the demands of the many visitors who took an interest in this newly conceived method of dealing with the poor. As a record produced by the master of one of the first workhouses established under the 1834 Poor Law the diary provides readers with unique insight into the running of an early workhouse the views and actions of the master and of the Guardians and the paupers Readers should bear in mind however that it was produced to be seen by the Board of Guardians and therefore that Woodcock wished to show his management of the workhouse in the best possible light.