| A classic 1834 Act workhouse.
This is an extremely rare photograph of Swansea Union workhouse taken
between 1895 and 1900. The Mount Pleasant
estate was in the process of being built and streets of new terraced
houses would eventually obliterate this viewpoint. The left hand side of
the picture shows the original barrack blocks built in 1861 and 1862. This
workhouse was developed and enlarged to meet the increasing demands placed
upon it. The buildings on the right are part of the 1884 enlargement. The
fields at the rear of the complex were farmed by the Poor Law Authority
and worked by the inmates. Between 1861 and the early 1900s the fields
were carefully managed by successive generations of inmates. Even today
the soil is of extremely good quality and devoid of the small stones that
characterise the surrounding hills: Probably testament to the large
numbers of children and old men who would have been put to the task of
removing stones which were then used to build the terrace walls and field
boundaries that can be seen in the background.
Although it was expected that the fields would
enable a degree of self sufficiency in terms of food supply, it is
unlikely that they contributed much to the running costs. However, the
fields did supply a useful source of employment for inmates, an important
priority for the early workhouse masters who were expected to make inmates
work for their keep. |