Activities

The main purpose of the workhouse was to provide work for the able bodied, and adults were expected to work for a set number of hours each day.

In the early years women and girls did spinning, weaving and hemp-dressing. Later on, female inmates were assigned to work in the laundry and kitchen and to clean the premises. They were supervised by a Female Superintendent of Labour.

The men worked in the gardens, which grew swedes, mangold-wurzels, carrots, peas, potatoes, beans and barley. Manure from the pigs fertilised the ground, and water from washing drained into cess pits for irrigation. They also dug gravel from the gravel pits, and vagrants had to break up stones -- both were sold for road-making.

Some inmates served the live-in staff, making their beds, cleaning their rooms and doing their laundry. The staff ate much better food than the inmates, but it was cooked in the same kitchen and served in a staff dining room.