A Visit to Newhaven Workhouse

A Visit to Newhaven Workhouse

Let us pass now to another county, and take an altogether different type of institution. The Newhaven workhouse specially deals with the South Downs district. It is a well-built square house situate on a steep hill and with a good and well-kept garden, and two fields in front of it.

The breezes from the downs and the sea blow straight on to it, and so in point of situation it is well off.

The master is an energetic, sensible man, and well suited to his work. Ho said that of course a good many found their way here from the vessels in the harbour, but not in sufficient numbers to deprive it of its character as an Agricultural Workhouse.

Fifty or sixty is the number of the inmates. The children over six are sent to the Hurstpierpoint Orphanage, which is under Government inspection, and to that in Willington, which is under the care of the Hon. Mrs. Campion.

Poverty brought on by drink is found to be the cause of pauperism here as elsewhere, and two-thirds of the children are deserted. As a rule, the fathers are sailors, who having been away on long voyages return home to find that the wives have behaved badly. In their anger they break up the homes and go off never to return, and the wives and children end by coming in here.

Strange people are every now and then admitted here: one a tailor who had owned a large establishment in a good part of London. One day a tall handsome young man, describing himself as a decorator, applied for admittance through the relieving officer. His manner and speech proclaimed him a gentleman, and there was reason to believe he had not given his right name; but there was no time to prove this, for one morning he died suddenly, leaving no clue behind him, and the authorities were never able to discover his friends.

Nearly all the present inmates are chronic invalids, helpless from age, or imbeciles. Very rarely do they get an able-bodied man, which is an improvement upon eight years ago, when a large number of strong fellows were inmates, and might be seen loafing about Newhaven with pipes in their mouths.

The amount of out-door relief, I am sorry to say, has gone up. In the house, the expense per head is three shillings and tenpence halfpenny. Beer used to be freely given to all, but this has been stopped. This leads to many complaints, and it would be well if good beef tea or something like it could be substituted.

The food is good, and the master does his best to vary it; but the guardians here as elsewhere are slow to agree to any innovations which mean extra expense.

A little needlework is done after a fashion by the women, but is of no real use.

The walls and passages are kept whitewashed and painted by tramps.

The night wards contained eight iron bedsteads each, provided with chaff beds much too short. These bedsteads are a mistake, being very clumsy and heavy indeed; much too heavy for one strong man to move.

Seeing how narrow the passages were, and how small the wards, we inquired if the house had been originally built for a workhouse, and were told "certainly"; and, further, that it was built by Lord Chichester, who paid the workmen in pence.

The men's infirmary is at the top of the house, and possesses a lovely view over downs and sea. Five or six old people occupied it; there were pictures, arm-chairs, and a good fire.

The nurse, a good woman, but not certificated, looks after the old men; and as there is no paid cook, she and both master and matron have constantly to turn their hand to the cooking, or there would be nothing to eat.

In the women's sick ward we saw a ship's stewardess aged eighty-five who had just cut two teeth, a poor girl subject to fits, and a woman with a paralysed hand.

The store-rooms were neat and well stocked, and here we found the tired, overworked matron performing the tasks which in other workhouses are done by the able-bodied women; but here there was no one sufficiently capable even to put on a patch decently.

We found the kitchen in the care of a half-witted girl, the daughter of one of the inmates. Outside the kitchen is a deep well which supplies all the water, and to our surprise this again was under the care of an idiot assisted by a tramp. We asked if it were not dangerous to permit this man to have the care of the well, the answer was Yes, but that there was no help for it, and that he was accustomed to it.

In the disused bakehouse the guardians have had a fixed bath built, which is of great benefit.

The last to be visited was the women's day room. There were nine occupants, all more or less imbecile, sitting round the fire and amusing themselves each after her own fashion. One of them had formerly been in the royal service. A second, a tall powerful old woman, took an interest in us and became so demonstrative that the master had to interfere; she has a violent temper, and bites or stabs any one who crosses her. She has many children somewhere in the world, besides two grown-up idiots here, one sitting by her side and the other the woman whom we noticed in the kitchen. The greatest solace and amusement of this woman at present is a large doll, which she exhibited with much pride.

On our way to the casual wards we came upon the only little bit of poetry in the building. We heard a great cooing and rustling, and on the master calling "Charlie," a beautiful blue rock pigeon came flying to him. The manner in which it became an inmate of the workhouse is peculiar. One cold day, two years ago, the master was writing in his office, and a good fire was burning in the grate, when suddenly down the chimney into the fire fell a pigeon, burning its wings and feet badly. One of the old men, who is still in the house, took charge of it and nursed it with tenderness back to health; and now that it is quite well it singles him out for special attention, visiting him in the sick ward and resting on his neck. Evidently the pigeon has no thought of leaving the house; it is quite content, and resists all attempts to give it companions of its own kind.

The casual wards have fixed wooden bunks and rugs, nothing more; they are warmed in cold weather by fires from without. The employment given to tramps is gardening and oakum picking.

There is an isolated block for contagious diseases, should any break out in the house; it was unoccupied and unfurnished when we were there. We thought it a convenient and compact little block, with its two wards and little kitchen and scullery.

The back garden is devoted to vegetables, and looks flourishing. One year it yielded 40l. profit, another year 25l., but if nothing were made of it, it would yet be a blessing to the master, whose sole recreation it is.

The house is square and well built, but it wants money spent upon it inside, and more paid labour. It is a very depressing place, from the fact that youth, health, and brightness are all absent from it, and that the work falling upon so few drags down their spirit and energy.

The only thing of beauty about it is the pigeon, and the only hopeful work the garden.