Reigate, Surrey
Up to 1834
A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Beachworth [Betchworth] (for up to 30 inmates), Burstow (15), Chaldon (12), Reigate Borough (30), and Reigate Foreign (40).
In 1795, Reigate and four other parishes formed a union under Gilbert's Act of 1782 and established a common workhouse at Earlswood Common, Redhill. Eden, in his 1797 survey of the poor in England, reported that:
Table of diet: Breakfast—every day, water gruel with pottage, or broth and bread. Dinner—Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, ox beef or mutton, with pease or other vegetables, bread and small beer; Monday, Saturday, stewed ox cheek or legs or shins of beef with small beer; Wednesday, Friday, suet pudding or rice milk, sweetened with sugar, and small beer. Supper—every day, bread and cheese or bread and butter and small beer. One pint of beer is allowed for adults, and a discretionary allowance for children. Before the establishment of the House of Industry the Poor were maintained in the parish Workhouse. The contractor is bound to allow 1s. 6d. a week to such Out-Poor as the magistrates think ought to be relieved at home. The expenditure on the Poor in Reigate borough is about £300 a year, and in Reigate foreign £692. The rate in the borough is about 5s. 8d., and in the foreign 4s. till 1795, when on a new valuation it was reduced to 3s.
Buckland had a parish workhouse on Lawrence Lane in what is now Orchard Farm Cottages.
Former Buckland workhouse, 2004.
© Peter Higginbotham.
After 1834
Reigate Poor Law Union formally came into existence on 25th March, 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 23 in number, representing its 17 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate number of Guardians where this was more than one):
County of Surrey:
Betchworth (2), Buckland, Burstow, Chaldon, Charlwood (2), Chipstead, Gatton, Headley, Horley (2), King's Wood Liberty, Leigh, Merstham, Nutfield, Reigate Borough (3), Reigate Foreign (2), Walton-on-the-Hill.
The population falling within the Union in 1831 had been 11,497 with parishes ranging in size from Gatton (population 145) to Reigate Foreign (1,419). The average expenditure on poor relief for the years 1833-5 had been £9,069 or 15s.9d. per head of the population.
The new Reigate Union continued using the existing Gilbert Union workhouse. It had a courtyard plan with some similarities to those at Hambledon and Farnham. The Reigate workhouse location and layout are shown on the 1934 map below, by which time it had become Reigate Institution.
Reigate workhouse site, 1934.
At the entrance, to the west of the site, was a porter's lodge
Reigate lodge from the north-west, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.
South of the lodge were two further buildings whose function is unknown.
Reigate western blocks from the north-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.
An infirmary was erected in in 1915-16 at the east of the site. Like the main workhouse block, it no longer exists. A U-shaped block stands at the north of the site.
Reigate northern block from the south-west, 1898.
In 1930, the workhouse was taken over by Surrey County Council and became a Public Assistance Institution. In October 1936, the site became Redhill County Hospital. Public Assistance inmates were then transferred to a new location known as St Anne's, Redhill - built in 1884 to accommodate the schools of the Royal Asylum of St Anne's, and later the home of the Foundling Hospital schools. St Anne's later became an old people's home.
Redhill County Hospital, later renamed Redhill General Hospital, closed in 1991 and the site was redeveloped for residential use with most of the workhouse buildings being demolished.
Staff
Inmates
Records
- Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey GU21 6ND. Holdings include Guardians' minutes (1836-1930); Births (1836-48); Register of pauper admissions (1911-29); etc.
Bibliography
- None.
Links
- None.
This page () is copyright Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
