 | |
| Predecessor | Monmouth Workhouse |
|---|---|
| Formation | 11 July 1836 |
| Legal status | Defunct |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 51°49′08″N2°42′47″W / 51.8188°N 2.7130°W Coordinates: 51°49′08″N2°42′47″W / 51.8188°N 2.7130°W |
Region served | Parts of Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire, England |
Monmouth Poor Law Union was formed on 11 July 1836 in Monmouth, Wales
In 1835, Monmouth Workhouse, a parish workhouse, was located in Weirhead Street. The building was later demolished. [1]
The Monmouth Poor Union served various parishes of Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. They were: [1]
The Monmouth Union took over the existing Monmouth Parish workhouse at Weirhead Street in 1837. [1]
| Monmouth Union Workhouse | |
|---|---|
 Map Showing the 1870 Workhouse at its location close to the Cemetery in 1880 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Workhouse |
| Opened | 1870 |
| Cost | £10,000 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | G C Haddon of Hereford |
| Main contractor | H. P. Bolt & Co, Newport |
In 1870 a new Monmouth Union Workhouse was built to accommodate 200 inmates. It was located on the West side of Hereford Road and consisted of four blocks of buildings: The Lodge, a receiving building, the principal building and the infirmary. The buildings cost £10,000 to build by H. P. Bolt & Co, Newport, and were designed by G C Haddon of Hereford. [1]
The buildings stopped operating as a workhouse sometime after 1932 and the buildings at Hereford Road now form part of the classroom complex for Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. [1] [2]
The first recorded Workhouse in Monmouth was in Weirhead street. The building dated from 1760. It was Monmouth's workhouse for about 100 years. The parish gave up the control of the workhouse in 1836 when it became the Union Workhouse. As the Union work house it provided accommodation for up to around thirty parishes in the surrounding area including Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. In the time it was a parish workhouse, inmates would have known each other and families stayed together. When it became the Union workhouse occupants were usually strangers and husbands, wives and children were separated. The building was old and space was cramped which led to violent behavior by inmates. [3]
In 1868 it was decided that a new building was needed and a prize of £50 was offered for the best design. The competition was won by G. C. Haddon. The new building was opened on the Hereford road in 1871. The new union workhouse was an unhappy place. Discipline was strict. The cane was used on all including the very young and the very old. solitary confinement regimes were also in place. The Guardians were all men until the first appointment of a woman was made in 1910. Assaults of staff members were common and publicised quite often. Misfortune was rarely taken into account when punishment was dished out. There was also controversy regarding tenders and monopolies on goods and services provided to the workhouse. Undertakers complained of a single provider of coffins which were quite often converted fruit boxes from Birmingham. There was also a failure to distinguish local misfortune with habitual vagrancy. Some local people set up an Anti-Mendacity society in order to dissuade people from giving money and food to tramps. In 1900 the Guardians of Monmouth Workhouse decided there would be no extra treats at Christmas to avoid the impression that the Union was a charitable institution. The same year the Monmouthshire Beacon reported that inmates were refusing to work at the Union in order to be sent to the Gaol at Usk where conditions were an improvement on the Union. [3]
In 1885 the workhouse came under attack when the Guardians found one Gallon of Gin on the books with £60 spent on liquor by the workhouse master who maintained that it was medicinal. However the secretary of the Western Temperance league worked out that the 167 inmates of the Monmouth Union must have consumed as much wine and spirits as 20,542 less fortunate inmates elsewhere. [3]
Monmouth is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Cardiff, and 113 miles (182 km) west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the parliamentary constituency of Monmouth. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8,877 in 2001. Monmouth is the historic county town of Monmouthshire although Abergavenny is now the county town.
The River Wye is the fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some 250 kilometres from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales. The Wye Valley is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Wye is important for nature conservation and recreation, but is severely impacted by pollution.
Monmouthshire, also known as the County of Monmouth, is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales and a former administrative county. It corresponds approximately to the present principal areas of Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Newport and Torfaen, and those parts of Caerphilly and Cardiff east of the Rhymney River.
Welsh Bicknor is an area in the far south of the English county of Herefordshire. Despite its name, it is not now in Wales, but it was historically a detached parish (exclave) of the county of Monmouthshire. It lies within a loop of the River Wye and covers 8,502 acres (13.3 sq mi).
Welsh Newton is a small village and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England. It is located close to the border with Wales to which the parish extends towards Monmouthshire. It should not be confused with Newton, a township-chapelry in Clodock Parish and near Longtown, or with Newton Leominister.
Monmouth School for Boys is a public school for boys in Monmouth, Wales. The school was founded in 1614 with a bequest from William Jones, a successful merchant and trader. The School is run as a trust, the William Jones's Schools Foundation, by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the livery companies, and has close links to its sister school, Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. In 2018, the Haberdashers renamed their group of schools in the town, the Monmouth Schools, and made corresponding changes to the names of the boys' and girls' schools.
West Dean Rural District was a rural district in Gloucestershire, England, from 1894 to 1974. It comprised a number of civil parishes, including, confusingly, one called West Dean, and gained further territory in 1935.
Whitchurch was a rural district in Herefordshire, England from 1894 to 1931.
The A466, also known as the Wye Valley Road, is a road from Hereford, England to Chepstow, Wales via Monmouth, Tintern and the Wye Valley.
Dixton is a small village located 1 mile (1.6 km) north east of Monmouth, on the banks of the River Wye, in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. The parish originally comprised the two manors of Dixton Newton and Dixton Hadnock, on either side of the river.
The Cleveland Street Workhouse is a Georgian property in Cleveland Street, Marylebone, built between 1775 and 1778 for the care of the sick and poor of the parish of St Paul Covent Garden under the Old Poor Law. From 1836, it became the workhouse of the Strand Union of parishes. The building remained in operation until 2005 after witnessing the complex evolution of the healthcare system in England. After functioning as a workhouse, the building became a workhouse infirmary before being acquired by the Middlesex Hospital and finally falling under the NHS. In the last century it was known as the Middlesex Hospital Annexe and the Outpatient Department. It closed to the public in 2005 and it has since been vacated. On 14 March 2011 the entire building became Grade II Listed. Development of the site began in 2019 by current owner University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Charity as a mixed-use development including residential, commercial and open space, but construction has been held up by the necessity to remove human remains stemming from the use of the area around the workhouse as a parish burial ground between 1780 and 1853. There has also been controversy about the amount of social housing to be included in the development.
Monmouth Priory, in Priory Street, Monmouth, Wales, is a building that incorporates the remains of the monastic buildings attached to St Mary's Priory Church. The priory was a Benedictine foundation of 1075, and parts of the mediaeval buildings remain. The buildings were substantially redeveloped in the nineteenth century for use as St Mary's National School, and now form a community centre. The complex is a Grade II* listed building as of 27 June 1952. It is one of 24 sites on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
The County Gaol, situated in North Parade, Monmouth, Wales, was Monmouthshire's main prison when it was opened in 1790. It served as the county jail of Monmouthshire and criminals or those who fell foul of the authorities were hanged here until the 1850s and some 3,000 people viewed the last hanging. The jail covered an area of about an acre, with a chapel, infirmary, living quarters and a treadmill. It was closed in 1869. In 1884 most of the building was demolished, and today nothing remains but the gatehouse which is a Grade II listed building. Within the gatehouse, there exists "a representation in coloured glass of the complete original buildings". It is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
Monmouth Cemetery is a cemetery located at Osbaston Road, Monmouth, Wales. It was available for burials between 1852 and 2012.
The Monmouth Alms Houses of Monmouth, Wales are funded by the charity established by the haberdasher William Jones before his death in 1615. That charity also established schools in Monmouth and a lectureship in London. The Haberdashers' Company served as trustee of the charity from 1613 until 2011, when the trusteeship was transferred to Bristol Charities. A second charity established through a separate bequest by Jones enabled the building of the Newland Alms Houses in the Forest of Dean. The original Monmouth Alms Houses were constructed in 1614; they were rebuilt in 1842 and 1961. The fourth version of the Monmouth Alms Houses was completed in 2013 and is named 'Cwrt William Jones Almshouses' and is owned and managed by Bristol Charities under the name of 'William Jones Almshouse Charity'. The original alms houses were located on what is now known as Almshouse Street. The most recent houses are located off St James' Square.
The Monmouth town walls and defences comprise the defensive system of town walls and gates built in Monmouth, Wales between 1297 and the early part of the following century. Wye Bridge Gate, East Gate, Monk's Gate, and Monnow Bridge Gate were access points to the town. West Gate, across Monnow Street, also provided access. Only the Monnow Bridge Gatehouse survives intact, albeit in a substantially modified version from the original.
Monk Street is an historic street in the town of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. A portion of it was in existence by the 14th century, and appears on the 1610 map of the town by cartographer John Speed. It runs in a north-south direction, extending northward from its intersection with Whitecross Street. The name of the street relates to the nearby Priory, as well as the gate which was originally on this road and provided part of the town's defences, Monk's Gate. Monk Street is lined with numerous listed buildings.
St James Square is a historic square in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located at the eastern end of Whitecross Street, within the medieval town walls. The area features the Monmouth War Memorial and the controversial, historic Indian Bean Tree. In addition, in 2010, the square was the site of discovery of the first Mesolithic artefacts in Monmouth. St James Square is lined with numerous listed buildings. It is also home to the Monmouth Catalpa Tree.
Newton Court is a neoclassical house, completed in 1802, situated on the hillside above Dixton, 1 mi (1.6 km) north-east of the town on Monmouth, in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is a Grade II* listed building. The stable block is listed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), noted for as a breeding site for lesser horseshoe bats.
The Bedwellty Union Workhouse was situated in Georgetown, Tredegar. It is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) from the Nanybwtch Junction A465. The building was in existence for approximately 127 years. The workhouse building was also used as a hospital. Today, the site where the building once stood, there is a housing estate known as St James Park.