Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree.

  • Seebohm Rowntree
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    403/472 (page 367)
    The York Workhouse is an old building, and has consequently many structural deficiencies. In January 1901 there were only twelve nurses, including the superintendent nurse and the night nurses, and of these twelve, only a few were fully qualified. The number on duty never exceeded nine, for close upon 300 patients. The inadequacy of this staff is rendered still more apparent when it is stated that among the patients on January 1 there were 88 imbeciles and epileptics. In consequence of the small staff of nurses, pauper attendants are still employed at night, notwithstanding the Nursing Order of 1897. Improvements are, however, now being effected in the nursing arrangements, and in the management of the Workhouse generally. A laundry and a fine new dining-hall have been recently erected, but, in spite of these improvements, the Local Government Board Inspector, speaking in May 1901, said “he felt that the Workhouse was not up to the standard of those in other places of the same population as York.” Whilst fully realising the supreme importance of the view so strongly held by the Poor Law Commis- sioners of 1834, that the condition of the pauper should never be made more eligible than that of the independent labouring poor, it is nevertheless to be regretted that, owing to want of space, no attempt is made, as in Sheffield and elsewhere, to sub-classify the inmates according to their character. Those who have lived steady and respectable lives, but who nevertheless have to seek a refuse in the Workhouse