Rotherham's workhouse days recalled in exhibition

Taken from items within the Rotherham Poor Law Union (Workhouse) collection, the documents on display, from the Rotherham Archives and Local Studies archive collection, include a Workhouse birth register, copies of photographs of the Rotherham Workhouse building, newspaper articles and a colour copy of a minute book frontispiece.

Following the Poor Law Act of 1834, parishes were formed into “Poor Law Unions”, each with their own workhouse.

The Rotherham Poor Law Union came in to existence in 1837 and built a workhouse on Alma Road which was opened in 1840. The building itself was extended throughout the second half of the nineteenth century to accommodate its inmates.

The workhouse building was three-stories with side wings, running from east to west, together with an arched entrance block.

Males and females were segregated separating husband and wives, females were accommodated at the north of the site and men at the south.

A hospital block lay at the east of the site.

After 1930, the Workhouse was renamed the Alma Road Public Assistance institution, then later becoming the Moorgate General Hospital which then closed in 1980.

By about 2000 only a few of the workhouse buildings had survived.

These documents bring to life what the workhouse would have looked like, and what it might have been like to have been an inmate living in the workhouse.

The collection of documents will be on display until June 13 in the Rotherham Archives and Local Studies Service at Clifton Park Museum.

The archives and Local studies service is also hosting an Archives Skills workshop on Friday May 10, from 10am until noon.

This workshop will give participant the opportunity to get hands on with original archives, and discover and learn about the Workhouse and Poor Law in Rotherham.

Resources available to look at will include Workhouse registers, charity and poor relief records, minute books of the boards of guardians, creed registers, registers of births and wage and account books.

The workshop costs £4 per person. To book please call 01709 336633.

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