church building history

History of southwell workhouse 1808

In 1808, the Southwell Parish Workhouse was constructed on Moor Lane (now Nottingham Road) in Southwell, Nottinghamshire
. This earlier building is often confused with the more famous Thurgarton Hundred Incorporation Workhouse, built in 1824 and now managed by the National Trust. 
The 1808 Southwell Parish Workhouse

  • Purpose: The workhouse was built to accommodate 84 paupers from the local parish. It was a community solution to the rising cost of outdoor poor relief, where parishes would give food, fuel, or clothing to the destitute. The Reverend John Thomas Becher promoted this idea of combining parish funds to build a central workhouse.
  • Design: It was a small, three-storey brick building designed by Reverend J.T. Becher and an unnamed associate. The structure featured an oval central hub with two short wings.
  • Legacy: After the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, inmates were transferred to the larger Thurgarton Incorporation workhouse on Upton Road. The 1808 building was later converted into a Baptist chapel, which it remains today. 
The system at Southwell, c. 1808–1834
Though the later 1824 workhouse became the notorious national model, the earlier institution on Moor Lane already operated with Becher’s harsh, cost-cutting philosophy. 
  • Deterrence: The system was designed to deter all but the truly desperate from seeking help. The conditions were intentionally basic and monotonous.
  • Moral reform: Becher believed that the poor could help themselves and that poverty was caused by idleness. Hard, repetitive labor was meant to reform the character of the inmates.
  • Segregation: Even at this early stage, inmates were strictly separated by gender and age. This policy broke up families and ensured minimal contact between men, women, and children. 
The shift to the 1824 workhouse
The ideas pioneered by Reverend Becher and his associate George Nicholls at Southwell were influential enough to become a blueprint for the 1834 New Poor Law. This led to the construction of a new, larger workhouse in 1824 for the Thurgarton Hundred Incorporation, which consolidated poor relief for 49 parishes. This new building superseded the 1808 parish workhouse and is the one that is now a National Trust museum.