Southwell Workhouse and Newstead Abbey

Our first stop on Friday to the Southwell Workhouse was extremely thorough, and I now feel I am much more knowledgeable about the socioeconomic state of Britain in the 1830s-40s and the working conditions of the poor. I learned that the establishment of the Poor Law of 1834 aimed at insuring paupers housing and food in exchange for their labor. Though these houses meant to reduce the cost of caring for the poor while providing them with means to live, it was obvious that workhouses were purposefully structured to be a last resort option. Reading a portion of Dickens’ Oliver Twist made me expect a grungy, dilapidated factory building where the poor slept on the bare floor when they weren’t slavishly working. However, our tour guide at Southwell described the conditions to be almost favorable; it honestly made me feel uncomfortable to hear her praise again and again the workhouses. With these conflicts, it seems the workhouses could not wholly fall into the category of good or bad—they were certainly good for the masters of the houses—but must be judged individually.
I very much enjoyed our next trip to Newstead Abbey, residence of the famous poet Lord Byron. It’s hard to imagine that in the early 1800s, as the poor and homeless were numerous (Byron and his single mother were counted among them,) the rich lived lavishly at Newstead Abbey, located only a few miles from the Southwell Workhouse. This really brought to focus the financial and social gaps between classes in Britain at this time. We learned, too, that Byron was hardly financially able to keep the house since he was a young boy living in Southwell at the time he inherited the house. The curious stories we heard of one Lord’s fascination firing cannons at small wooden boats driven by servants and Byron’s likelihood of having target practice in the great hall of the Abbey made life for the rich seem reckless and for some unfulfilling. It was a stark difference between this and the workhouse—one life was frivolous while the other was tedious and rough —and I think, given a choice (which never would have occurred), I would choose neither.