The workhouse is built on a tolerable plan, but wants apartments for the sick. There are 4 or 5 beds in a room: the bedsteads are made of iron, and the beds are stuffed with chaff: white-washing and other means of keeping the house clean, seem rather neglected. It is said that about 15 die in a year in the house. About 20 acres of land were inclosed from the common, for the use of the house, for keeping cows horses, and pigs; raising potatoes, etc.: this plot of ground is much improved by cultivation. Nothing is manufactured for the use of the house. The boys and girls are employed in weaving calicoes, till they are able to earn their living elsewhere. Old women wind cotton; a few, who can work, are employed in husbandry, gardening, and other occupations: no account of their earnings could be obtained.
St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London)[377].
The poor of this parish are partly relieved at home, and partly maintained in the workhouse in Castle-street, Leicester Fields. There are, at present, about 240 weekly out-pensioners, besides a considerable number of poor on the casual list. Of 573, the number of poor at present in the workhouse, 473 are adults and 100 children; of which 54 are boys, 21 girls, able to work, and 25 infants. Their principal employment is spinning flax, picking hair, carding wool, etc.; their annual earnings, on an average of a few years past, amount to about £150. It was once attempted to establish a manufacture in the house; but the badness of the situation for business, the want of room for workshops, and the difficulty of compelling the able poor to pay proper attention to work, rendered the project unsuccessful. Between 70 and 80 children belonging to this parish are, generally, out at nurse in the country: a weekly allowance of 3s. (lately advanced to 3s. 6d.) is paid with each child.
At 7 or 8 years of age, the children are taken into the house, and taught a little reading, etc., for three or four years, and then put out apprentices.
Bulcamp (Suffolk)[378].
The poor of 46 incorporated parishes in the hundred of Blything, are maintained in a house of industry, which is situated on an eminence in the parish of Bulcamp. The expense of erection was 12,000l.; the house was opened for the reception of the poor in October, 1766. The whole annual sum, to be paid by the parishes (which was fixed at the average of seven years' expenditure, previous to their incorporation), was 3,084l. 12s. 8d.; in 1780 half the debt was paid off, and the rates reduced one-eighth, or to 2,699l. 1s. 1d.; in June, 1791, the whole debt was discharged. The rates have been continued at the reduced sum of 2,699l. 1s. 1d. In 1793, the corporation found it necessary to apply to Parliament for farther powers, relative to the binding out poor children apprentices, which cost 350l. 15s.
The work done in this house is chiefly spinning for the Norwich manufacture: clothes and bedding, etc., for the house, are also made at home. The following were the last week's earnings: an account of the annual earnings could not be procured; but it appears that they have been about 8l. a week, or 400l. a year, for several weeks past.
| Worsted spinners | 4l. | 3s. | 1¾d. |
| Tow spinners | 1l. | 12s. | 1d. |
| Sempstresses | 0l. | 7s. | 3d. |
| Tailors | 0l. | 9s. | 0d. |
| Knitters | 0l. | 8s. | 0d. |
| Weavers | 0l. | 7s. | 0d. |
| Shoemakers | 0l. | 16s. | 0d. |
| ———————————— | |||
| Total earnings for one week | 8l. | 2s. | 5¾d. |
| ———————————— | |||
Number of paupers in the house in June, in each of the following years (the average number in the year must, probably, be more), and Table of Mortality:—
| Years. | No. of Persons. | Deaths. |
| 1782 | 297 | 87 |
| 1783 | 298 | 69 |
| 1784 | 265 | 76 |
| 1785 | 295 | 82 |
| 1786 | 143 | 70 |
| 1787 | 256 | 67 |
| 1788 | 290 | 52 |
| 1789 | 207 | 37 |
| 1790 | 192 | 18 |
| 1791 | 235 | 34 |
| 1792 | 243 | 9 |
| 1793 | 260 | 23 |
| 1794 | 270 | 37 |
| ———— | ||
| Average of 13 years | 5011/13 | |
| ———— | ||