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1891 census
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Blackburn Poor Law Union and Workhouse
Situated on Haslingden Road from 1864 it was renamed under the NHS as Queens
Park Hospital.
The new union Workhouse, was constructed on a thirty- acre
site on a hill to the south east of the town center, at a cost of £30,000. It
opened on the 2 April 1864 and was designed to hold 700 inmates.
It was deliberately built in such a prominent situation to serve as a
continuing reminder to Blackburn's population of the consequences of failing to
work hard.
Source: Submitted
by Matt Sowerbutts
Link to
Photo
Album with photograph of Blackburn Workhouse
Commissioner in
Lunacy
BLACKBURN UNION WORKHOUSE.
REPORT MADE BY W. TRERE. VISITING COMMISSIONER, IN LUNACY.OF HIS
VISIT TO THE ABOVE UNION ON THE TWENTY EIGHTH DAY OF FEBRUARY 1889.
In the workhouse, containing 218 patients classed as of unsound mind,
there is only one paid officer by day and one at night in each division.
3 pauper inmates assist the male officer by day and the female officer
has 5 to help her. One of each sex assist the night attendates, there are
35 male and 30 female epileptics,it is quite that the work of supervision,
attending the sick and bedridden( of whom there were 8 on the male and
14 on the female side) taking the patients out for walks and superintending the
bathing, must be beyond the powers of the paid officers, and a second attendant
on each side seems to be absolutely needed.
During my visit I noticed as requiring in my opinion asylum care,
William Dawson, Pat Ryan, John Tayor, Emily Aspin, Annie Deakin
and Mary J Riding, I doubt the insanity of James Holland who seems
to me to be a idle lazy fellow. I detect no unsoundness of mind in
William Rushton, who I think was temporarily affected by drink.
F. J Connor's case seems to me hard, and I would ask the guardians
if they can see their way to petition the secretary of state to restore
him is pension, he was a sergeant in the army and retired on a pension.
He was tried for fowl stealing, he was undoubtedly guilty and sentenced
for the felony to 6 months hard labour, thereby forfeiting his pension.
He is quite recently liberated, and judging by his state at the present,
there can be hardly any doubt that he was insane when he committed
the theft, but his insanity was not recognised.
One of the matters which I wish to urge upon the committee, is the
desirability of collecting together in one room all those in each division
requiring constant supervision by night and this be easily done.
The tell tale blocks are so placed that the night watch man on the male
side need not enter the dormitories at all, and the female side need
only enter but not pass through. Means of escape by staircase from the extreme
ends of either building is required. The fire buckets were not as they should
have been in the male side they should have been filled with water. And the
screens in the female bathroom have not yet been provided.
A fair proportion of patients are usefully employed, about 40 men
work out of doors, and about 25 in the wards, and dormitories etc,
from 40 to 50 women are engaged at the laundry, kitchen and
domestic duties, or knitting and needlework. Nearly 100 of both sexes attend
Church, and 20 at the Roman Catholic Chapel.
The men's shirts were as a rule dirty, and I think every patient ought to
have 2 clean shirts a week, or at any rate every working patient.
At the present the privilege of having more than one shirt a week is
confined to the dirty destructive, and demented patients.
If another day attendant were appointed in each division and the epileptics all
brought together to sleep under continuous supervision by night and an exit made
to render the patient safe in the event of fire, I could then report that I
considered accommodation in the workhouse very good, and that all reasonable
steps had been taken to promote the care, comfort and safety of the imbecile
poor at the Blackburn Union.
Source: Submitted by Joan Law
Page last updated
06 August, 2007
by Rossbret
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Blackburn