'Life in and out of the Workhouse', a local history talk by Bill Beer
The November meeting saw the return of our own Bill Beer to give us a talk based on the admissions register of St. Mary’s workhouse in Dover.
A number of us find family members who have had to spend time in these institutions, and so this talk helped to better understand some of the aspects around their experiences. Following the lives of a selection of the people who passed through that particular workhouse it was clear to see how difficult it was to break the cycle of poverty, something we see examples of even to this day. One began to see the differences between the “deserving poor” and the “undeserving poor” as some entries showed those using the system as opposed to needing the system. The structure of the workhouse system was clearly intended to be harsh and a driver to getting those unfortunate enough to need the assistance back to supporting themselves.
This was a well presented evening and provoked much discussion and questioning of our speaker, always a good sign that people have the talk interesting and informative. Much appreciated Bill.