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Workhouse Quiz

The answers to all these questions can be found on the web site.
You can also check the answers by clicking on the '?' at the end of each question.

1. Which Act introduced the 'workhouse test'?
   Sir Edward Knatchbull's Act of 1723.
2. Where was the first purpose-built Union workhouse erected?
   Abingdon in Berkshire in 1835.
3. Which was the last English union to provide a union workhouse?
   Todmorden in West Yorkshire in 1877.
4. What material was 'picked' in one of the jobs given to workhouse inmates?
   Oakum.
5. According to a 1777 Parliamentary report, which Welsh county had the most parish workhouses?
   Pembrokeshire.
6. What person links postage stamps and smallpox?
   Sir Rowland Hill — postage stamp pioneer and resident of Hampstead where, in the face of much local opposition, a new smallpox hospital was being built for the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
7. In which workhouse did HM Stanley (of Dr Livingstone fame) grow up?
   St Asaph in Flintshire.
8. At which union workhouse was a scandal caused after inmates were revealed to have fought over rotten meat on bones they were crushing?
   Andover in Hampshire.
9. Which Assistant Poor Law Commissioner's workhouse design was based on small dormitories, each the size of a poor labourer's cottage?
   Sir Francis Head.
10. In 1873, what salary was on offer for applicants to the post of Master at Southwell workhouse?
    The Southwell Guardians were offering a salary of £40 a year.
11. What would you do with 'toke'?
    Eat it.
12. Which local officials were responsible for collecting the parish poor rate?
    Overseers.
13. At which Lancashire union was the new 1866 workhouse infirmary described by Florence Nightingale as a 'model for the country'?
    Chorlton.
14. In which Poor Law School did Charlie Chaplin spend 18 months?
    The Central London District School at Hanwell.
15. Where, in 1875, was the first female Guardian elected?
    St Mary Abbots, Kensington.
16. What, musically speaking, was the gruesome fate of the 'Workhouse Boy'?
    According to a popular song, he drowned in a cooking pot and ended up being eaten!
17. Which religious order provided many of the early nursing staff in Irish workhouses?
    The Sisters of Mercy, beginning in 1861 at Limerick.
18. How many inmates were in residence in the Banbury union workhouse in the first week of March, 1838?
    227.
19. What were the ingredients required to make a pint of gruel?
    Oatmeal, 2 oz; treacle, ½ oz; salt and sometimes allspice; water.
20. At which workhouse did 1950s radio personality Gilbert Harding grow up?
    Hereford.
21. What was never on the menu at Easter Ross poorhouse?
    Meat.
22. Which famous architect, later responsible for the Albert Memorial and the Midland Hotel at St Pancras Station, began his career designing workhouses?
    Sir George Gilbert Scott.
23. Which union workhouse did the National Trust rescue and restore?
    Southwell in Nottinghamshire.
24. Which other National Trust property contains two separate workhouses?
    Lacock village in Wiltshire contains two parish workhouses, one of which was later used as the Chippenham Union workhouse.
25. Which workhouse received a royal visit in 1904?
    Newmarket workhouse received a visit from King Edward VII.
26. Which Metropolitan institutions had their own private tramway?
    The River Hospitals at Dartford, Kent — the Long Reach, Orchard, and Joyce Green Hospitals.
27. Which Nursing Superintendent at a large northern workhouse laid the foundations of a skilled nursing system for workhouse infirmaries?
    Agnes Jones at Liverpool workhouse.
28. In 1880, which London workhouse had an African Zulu as an inmate?
    St George's in London.
29. Which former Irish workhouse now houses a city library and museum?
    Londonderry.
30. Which workhouse inmate later became a Labour MP?
    Will Crooks.

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