Totnes

Totnes

Totnes Poor Law Union and Workhouse

Situated by Bank Lane, Totnes.

1851 census - HO/107/1874 Folio 146 Page 2
John Whiteway - Master of the Workhouse
Mary Whiteway - Matron of the Workhouse

The only records available to research regarding Totnes Union Workhouse are the correspondence and Staff registers which are held at Kew. No known individual records are known to have survived unfortunately. There is a mortgage loan for Totnes Workhouse which is held at the record office in Barnstaple.

Totnes Union - White Directory

The total average annual expenditure on the poor during the 3 years preceeding the formation of the Union, was £13,879. The expenditure of the Union in 1838 was £11,893; & in 1840, £13,183.

The Workhouse is a large stone building, erected in 1838/9, at the cost of about £6000 & has room for 380 paupers.

W F Windeatt Esq is the union clerk & supt.registrar; Rev F H Hele, chaplain; Mr Richard & Mrs Martyn, master & matron of the Workhouse; & Thomas Irish & Samuel Randle are the relieving officers.
Source: White Directory 1850 p.507
Submitted by Betty Longbottom

Inmates

Workhouses, List of those visited in 1867 With Name of the Workhouse and numbers of insane, idiotic, and imbecile inmates.

WORKHOUSE	MALE	FEMALE	TOTAL
Totnes	9	4	13

Source: 22nd Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor. Submitted by Alan Longbottom.

Brixham Workhouse
There was a Workhouse at Brixham in what was
then called "Beggar's Hill" now "Baker's Hill" until the 1870's.
It later became Baker's Hill School. The building still exists.
When this was closed the closest Workhouse was at Totnes.
Source: Submitted by Graham J. H. Parnell

Page updated August 06, 2007