Kent Workhouses
 

Aylsford
Blean
Bridge
Bromley
Canterbury
Cranbrook
Dartford
Dover
Ashford East
Eastry
Elham
Faversham
Gravesend
Greenwich
Hollingbourne
Hoo
Isle of Sheppey
Maidstone
Maldon
Malling
Medway
Milton
Romney
Sevenoaks
Tenterden
Thanet
Tunbridge
Ashford West

The County of Kent

Kent is bounded on the north by the German Ocean and the estuary of the Thames, which ends at the north-eastern point of the Isle of Sheppey, on the west by Surrey, on the south by Sussex, the Kent Water, the River Rother, and the English Channel, which also forms its south-eastern and eastern limit. Kent is the ninth English Shire in size and contains 976,881 acres. The Isle of Thanet, called by the Britons and Romans Taneta, and separated by the Wantsum Channel, through which the River Stour runs, forms the extreme north-east end of the Shire, and contains 26,021 acres, being 10 miles long from east to west, and 6 miles broad from north to south.
Kelly's Directory 1902

Poor Law Unions and Workhouses in Kent

The Poor Law Unions classified within the County of Kent are East Ashford, West Ashford, North Aylesford, Blean, Bridge, Bromley, Canterbury, Cranbrook, Dartford, Dover, Eastry, Elham, Faversham, Gravesend, Greenwich, Hollingbourne, Hoo, Lewisham, Maidstone, Malling, Medway, Milton, Penshurst, Romney Marsh, Sevenoaks, Sheppey, Tenterden, Thanet, Tonbridge

Twenty Second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy
to the Lord Chancellor

From Census Statistical Volume 1901
County of Kent in PP 1902 Cd 1,171
Statistics submitted by Alan Longbottom

Summary of Results.
Workhouses.
Pauper inmates of Workhouse establishments in the Registration County number 7,388 persons of all ages, 4,495 Males and 2,893 Females. 
These represent approximately 0.79% of the general population.
At advanced ages the proportion is far higher; at 55 years and upwards the % is 3.6% and at 65 years and upwards is 5.7%.

Prisons
Prisoners in the Local and Convict Prisons in the Registration County number 563 as against 1,505 in 1891, the reduction being chiefly due to the closing of the Chatham Convict Prison in 1892.

The Blind, Deaf and Dumb
The number of persons returned as Blind is 594, and of these 48 suffer from some other Infirmity also.

Deaf and Dumb persons including 42 returned simply as Dumb, number 545 and of these 28 suffer from some other Infirmity also.

Lunatics
Lunatics number 4,813, including 18 afflicted with some other Infirmity also; and the Imbecile and Feeble-minded 3,225, including 50 otherwise afflicted. The total of these classes is 8,038 as 
against 5,504 in 1891. The increase being due to the change in the categories in the 1901 Census and the erection of an Asylum at Dartford Heath by London County Council.

It may be noted that, of the 8,037 persons returned as mentally deranged, 7,227 were the inmates of institutions, including 6,823 in Public and Private Lunatic Asylums, 404 in Workhouses. The remaining 810 were residing with relatives or in unlicensed houses.

Of the 404 mentally deranged persons enumerated in Workhouses, 24 were returned as a Lunatics and 380 as Imbecile, or Feeble-minded; and of the 810 not enumerated in Institutions, 41 were returned as Lunatics and 769 as Imbecile or Feeble-minded.

Available Records

Kent Archives can be located at:
http://www.kent.gov.uk/e&l/artslib/ARCHIVES/archiveshome.htm 

The Centre for Kentish Studies, 
Sessions House, 
County Hall, 
Maidstone, 
Kent, 
ME14 1XQ 
Tel 01622 694363
http://www.kent.gov.uk/e&l/artslib/ARCHIVES/archcks.html 

Medway Studies Centre
Civic Centre
Strood
Kent
ME2 4AU
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1634 332 714
Fax: +44 (0)1634 297 060
e-mail: local.studies@medway.gov.uk
archives@medway.gov.uk

Useful Links

Link to Herne Workhouse
http://www.digiserve.com/peter/workhs/wh-herne.htm

Link to Kent Workhouses
http://www.digiserve.com/peter/workhs/

Page updated August 06, 2007 by Rossbret