Union Workhouse Thirsk
SUTTON ROAD, once known as the “Workhouse” and still frequently called by such name, was built at a cost of about £2,500 in 1838. The price included site, deeds, and architects’ percentage. The contract for building was placed in March, 1838, and the house was completed and occupied in January of 1839, and enlarged in 1886, for 123 inmates. It was built to serve the Poor Law Union of Thirsk formed in the year 1837, which we are told was a great improvement on previous arrangements for the relief of poor and destitute people. Such folk had hitherto had a very rough deal as far as accommodation was concerned.
The Poor Law Union of Thirsk embraced an area of approximately 60,000 acres, and included 41 townships or places. The population in 1841 is shown as being 12,728, and the number of houses 2,780. The assessed value of the Union in 1842 was £83,243.
In the year 1838 the total expenditure was £3,373 13s. 4d., and ten years later it was £3,649 10s. 10d. Queues of wretched looking fellow humans could be seen standing or lying outside the entrance to the “Casual Wards” at close of day waiting to be admitted to receive the dole of comfort and work in those times provided by “ The Guardians of the Poor” at the Union Workhouse.
Besides these “Casuals,” the place catered for full time residents. The homeless and destitute without visible means of support were lodged there. If able to work they were put to “tasks” and made to do something towards earning their living, in some cases perhaps earning far more than the amount necessary to keep them in such luxury.’ The sexes were totally separated, whether married or otherwise. This separating of man and wife for the greater part of the remaining days of their lives was perhaps the chief cause of the terrible fear the aged and poor had for that dread place the “Workhouse.” No kindness on the part of the Master, Mistress, or the staff could compensate them for this inhuman separation. The stigma attached to the term Workhouse is such that our modern equivalent of the Poor Law Union has dropped the name entirely, and soon we hope to have “Homes of Retirement” that will be as the name implies, “Homes,” and not merely Houses.
The following extract from a newspaper report of a Board of Guardians meeting held in the year 1893, gives some practical information. “The Clerk reported that he had examined the Relieving Officer’s out-door relief list and abstracts of same, and found that in the 10th week of the present quarter, 252 persons had received out-door relief at a cost of £29 8s. 9d., and in the 11th week 249 persons had received similar relief at a cost of £25 4s. 0d. The indoor maintenance had been for the 10th week £11 8s. 10d., and for the 11th week £31 12s. 7d. The number of vagrants relieved during the 10th week had been 58, and the 11th week 47.”
When the Poor Law Union ceased to exist the buildings became the property of the County Council, though one of the rooms was used as the meeting place of the Rural District Council, and some other rooms as offices for local government officials. The greater part of the building was unoccupied for a number of years, though a small boys’ club had two or three rooms prior to the 2nd World War. During the war the A.R.P. First Aid party were quartered on the ground floor of the building, and the military occupied the rest.
It is interesting to compare some of the foregoing figures pertaining to our R.D.C. (1937), bearing in mind, of course, that the R.D.C. did not carry out the same functions or work that the Guardians did in 1837. The R.D.C. covered an area of approximately 71,650 acres, had a population of about 11,750, inhabited houses 3,486, and a rateable value of £58,888, and revenue from rates of £28,125 in the year 1937.
The workhouse was eventually converted into a furniture factory, when this closed the building was left unoccupied for many years. It has now been “renovated” and converted into flats, the rear grounds now house new houses.
Burials in Thirsk Cemetery (not Churchyard) from the Burial Registers in the possession of Thirsk Town Council.
1911 was not the start of the cemetery, it is believed that the earlier registers are now in the County Archives.
Date given is date of burial, date of death is not recorded in the registers. Grave number is given when name or part thereof is not legible in the register although it most unlikely these graves are marked by a memorial.
James Hewison 19/4/11 Age 63
Joseph Ellington 17/11/11 Age 68
Ralph Wilkinson 27/12/11 Age 46
Patrick ? 2/1/12 Age 72 Grave 83DD
Margaret Tomlinson 23/1/12 Age 58
George Harrison 27/1/12 Age 78
Esther Blanch 14/3/12 Age 50
Frank Newbould 25/7/12 Age 67
William Holmes 18/1/13 Age 8 weeks
William Flintoff 30/1/13 Age 79
Mary Ann Palliser 11/2/13 Age 84
William Hewitt 7/3/13 Age 80
Mary Boddy 3/5/13 Age 83 from Union W/House Stockton
Alice McMahon 5/7/13 Age 6 weeks
Charles Firth 14/3/14 Age 89
George Cain? 7/5/14 Age 76 grave80FF
James ? 17/6/14 Age 71 grave 54CC
John Robert Davison 28/7/14 Age 49
Mary Anne Massheder 17/11/14 Age 2 months
Mary Ann Campbell 28/1/15 Age 89
William Porritt? 6/2/15 Age 84
Mary Jefferson 21/2/15 Age 68
Thomas Coates 25/2/15 Age 82
Mary Close 2/3/15 Age 73
Charles Henry Fawcett 24/3/15 Age 55
William Dobson 27/3/15 Age 81
Elizabeth Green 3/4/15 Age 55
William Grice 13/4/15 Age 74
Sarah Jane Fletcher 22/4/15 Age 71
Robert Park 29/5/15 Age 52
John Bannister 18/6/15 Age 91
Joseph ? 22/10/15 Age 60 grave 54FF
Francis Thompson 18/12/15 Age 37
Richard Wright 2/1/16 Age 70
Joseph Ripley 13/1/16 Age 61
Mary Dodsworth 9/3/16 Age 74
Elizabeth Wright 23/3/16 Age 79
Harry Dodsworth 9/3/16 Age 74
Hudson Barker 27/5/16 Age 84
William Smith 14/11/16 Age 79
Mary Maynard 30/12/16 Age 76
William Christopher Daniel 2/3/17 Age 62
David Stappleton 3/4/17 Age 66
John William Gamble 12/4/17 Age 67
Mary Gatenby 2/6/17 Age 69
Harry Shelton Weatherhead 12/6/17 Age 67
George Hutchinson 22/1/18 Age 60
Vincent Paylor 5/2/18 Age 84
George Scurr 23/2/18 Age 83
William Kendall 24/9/18 Age 71
? ? 1/11/18 Age 48? grave 83GG
Anthony Quinn 8/11/18 Age 49
John Scott 20/11/18 Age 67
Jonathon Davison 23/11/18 Age 74
? ? 26/11/18 Age 23 grave 61GG
Florence Thompson 30/11/18 Age 23
James Kettlewell 14/12/18 Age 75
Ethel Francis 31/12/18 Age 30
John Moreland 4/1/19 Age 86
Jack Francis 4/1/19 Age 6 months
Joseph Clayton 12/2/19 Age 85
John Dinsdale 21/2/19 Age 70
John Jones 25/3/19 Age 66
John Coates 24/5/19 Age 68
Anne Sheard 13/8/19 Age 65
William Carr 5/8/20 Age 84
Abraham Wilson Potter 21/12/20 Age 69
James Brannan 11/10/21 Age 55
John Mann 9/12/21 Age 74
Dorothy Jane Darnborough 23/12/21 Age 82
James Fowler Milnthorpe 28/1/22 Age 84
John Lofthouse 8/4/22 Age 55
Christopher Vacey Milner 26/8/22 Age 61
Elizabeth Leyland 29/8/22 Age 61
Esther Elizabeth Hale/Hare? 24/1/23 Age 74 grave 55LL
William Shepperd 29/12/23 Age 66
Harry Rushton 6/3/24 Age 66
John Edward Collins 13/3/24 Age 2
George William Potter 26/3/24 Age 77
Samual Oates 2/4/24 Age 71
Walter Carter 10/5/24 Age 50
Matthew Ferguson 17/5/24 Age 73
Alice Gamble 18/10/24 Age 51
Thomas Croft 28/4/25 Age 60
John Kay 3/6/25 Age 74
Alfred Foster 20/10/25 Age 65
Mary Ellen Fawcett 3/11/25 Age 69
Herbert Bacon 30/12/25 Age 59
Harry Bottomley 8/4/26 Age 78
Mary Ann Bolton 30/4/26 Age 63
Michael Harland 8/5/26 Age 85
William ? 8/6/26 Age 79 grave 67MM
Peter Winn 20/1/27 Age 75
Sarah Lumley 10/3/27 Age 74
George Pringle 12/3/27 Age 71
Nancy Spence 19/3/27 Age 76
B???? (Kathleen) Sills 7/5/27 Age 64 grave 82LL
William Binks? 16/5/27 Age 73 grave 22KK
? ? 20/9/27 Age 10months grave 64NN
Lydia Stubbs 22/12/27 Age 63
May Ellen ? 20/3/28 Age 80 grave 53H
John Morrell 20/4/28 Age 70
John Brown 24/3/28 Age 63
Hannah Jessop? 14/8/28 Age 67 grave 54H
William Jessop? 21/12/28 Age 70 grave 55H
James Burke 3/1/29 Age 69
Emily Ann Powell 8/1/29 Age 11 weeks
? Wills? 22/2/29 Age 74 grave 67OO
Arthur Robert Jamison? 4/5/29 Age 49 grave 69OO
Eliza Bailey 28/9/29 Age 48
Robert William West 2/1/29 Age 58
John William Wilson ? 28/1/30 Age 72
Matthew Gillow/Yellow? 21/2/30 Age 69
Sarah Harland 29/3/30 Age 60
Wilfrid Yeadon 29/4/30 Age 69
? Paylor 9/5/30 Age ?? grave 57H
Matha Smedley? 27/5/30 Age 73 grave 38NN
Thomas William ?? 5/6/30 Age 78
William Thomas Harland 19/2/31 Age 76
Gilbert Cousins 20/4/31 Age 36
Charles Robinson 28/4/31 Age 69
Mary Bradford 5/9/31 Age 68
Emily Robinson 6/12/31 Age 67
Mary Seymour 9/12/31 Age 68
William Bell 3/2/32 Age 78
John William ?? 28/5/32 Age 51 grave 60QQ
Francis William Whitwell 3/8/32 Age 75
John Hayton 20/8/32 Age 72
?? ?? 21/12/32 Age 51 grave 68QQ
George ? Hancock 5/6/33 Age 18 hours grave 58V