|
|
Older readers will remember the Guardians and the Union. They had disappeared before W.W.2 and the ~ and the Welfare State made them unnecessary When did they start? In 1834 the government passed a Poor Law Reform Art: this allowed groups of parishes to form a 'Union' to deal with the poor and to provide workhouses. The maintenance of these were to be administered by 'Guardians' elected by the parishes. In this area, the Union consisted of the following 22 parishes..
Alcester, Great Alne, Arrow, Aston Cantlow, Abbot Morton, Bidford, Coughton, Exhall, Feckenham, Haselor, Inkberrow., Ipsley, Kinwarton, Morton Bagot, Oversley, Oldberrow, Salford Priors, Sambourne, Spernall, Studley, Weethley and Wixford.
That was the Alcester Union. It will not have escaped notice that county boundaries were ignored, for several of the parishes above were in Worcestershire. By 1837 a workhouse was built for the Union, in Oversley parish thus making various parish workhouses redundant. For a while the Guardians continued the old system of 'out relief' to the parish poor, until such time as the workhouse was built and functioning. The lists for 1836 and 1837 are illuminating every one of the 22 parishes gave out relief, even the smallest. But the amount of poverty in this rural union must have been great: in December,. 1837, 299 people in Feckenham (probably heads of families) received aid; 182 in Inkberrow, 114 in Alcester. Medical aid, too, was highest in the centres with the greatest number of out-relief paupers.
The Guardians met regularly to allocate money for the parishes' needs and the needs of the workhouse. It raised the cash by a rate levied on each parish. In future articles, some information on the life of the Union Workhouse at Oversley.
© Alcester & District Local History Society 1991