Ancestry UK

Uttoxeter, Staffordshire

[Up to 1834] [After 1834] [Staff] [Inmates] [Records] [Bibliography] [Links]

Up to 1834

A workhouse existed at Uttoxeter from around 1728 (Hitchcock, 1985).

A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Abbots Bromley (for up to 30 inmates) and Leigh (30 inmates).

A workhouse was erected in 1788 at the north side of Holly Road to the north-west of Uttoxeter.

After 1834

The Uttoxeter Poor Law Union formally came into being on 29th May 1837. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 22 in number, representing its 16 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

County of Stafford: Abbots Bromley (2), Bromshall, Croxden, Draycote in the Clay, Gratwick, Kingston, Leigh (2), Marchington, Marchington Woodlands, Newborough, Rocester (2), Uttoxeter (4).
County of Derby: Boylstone, Doveridge, Somersall Herbert, Sudbury.

The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 12,837 ranging in size from Bromshall (population 116) to Uttoxeter itself (4,864). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1834-36 had been £4,112 or 6s.5d. per head of the population.

A new Uttoxeter Union workhouse was erected in 1838-40 on the site of the old workhouse on Holly Road. It cost £3,900 and could accommodate 200 inmates. It was designed by the partnership of George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt who were the architects of a large number of workhouses including those at Burton-upon-Trent, Lichfield and Uttoxeter.

Scott and Moffatt's design for Uttoxeter comprised a single-storey entrance range with a central archway, a T-shaped main block to the rear, and what was probably an infirmary together with various outbuildings at the north of the site. The workhouse location and layout are shown on the 1920 map below:

Uttoxeter workhouse site, 1920

Uttoxeter workhouse entrance block from the south-east, early 1900s.
© Peter Higginbotham

None of the workhouse buildings survive.

Staff

Inmates

Records

Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.

Bibliography

  • Hitchcock, T.V. (1985) The English workhouse: a study in institutional poor relief in selected counties. l695-l750. (DPhil thesis. University of Oxford.)

Links

  • None.

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