Ripon MuseumsThe Yorkshire Law and Order Museums |
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Ripon MuseumsThe Yorkshire Law and Order Museums |
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Dated plans provide a record of the development of the workhouse complex over time. In addition, workhouse accounting documents offer revealing insights into the circumstances and conditions of the inmates.
The first Ordnance Survey plan of Ripon records the old workhouse, Allhallows Hall, in its final year before demolition to make way for the present buildings. The hall had stood on the site since at least 1776 when it was presented to the city by Hon. William Ailasbie, owner of Studley Royal near Fountains Abbey.
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The large scale 1890 plan shows the Union Workhouse whose main building had been completed by January 1855. The gatehouse had been enlarged in 1877 to accommodate casuals or vagrants. To the north east of the main complex lay the garden which supplied the workhouse with much of its fruit and vegetables.
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This artists impression by Austin Ruddy showing an aerial view of the site as it would have looked in about 1900.
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By 1908 the infirmary wing replaced earlier buildings on the eastern side. The plan has been coloured to show the high percentage of buildings from this period which survive to the present day. Indeed Ripon workhouse is thought to be one of the best surviving in the region.
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Workhouses passed into the control of the County Councils in 1930. In Ripon's case this was the West Riding County Council, which produced this plan showing its new acquisition. By this time the Workhouse had become classified as an 'Institution' and its inmates as 'residents'. The uncertain economic conditions and high unemployment of the time ensured that the casual wards were still in full use however.
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A similar county plan from 1956. Following the inception of the welfare state the purpose of the workhouse had changed, the building, renamed as Sharow View, eventually passed into the possession of the Social Services. Although the closure of the casual wards had begun around 1950, at Ripon the police continued to deliver tramps to the old wards into the 1960's.
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An extract from the Admission and Discharge Book for Ripon Union showing casuals admitted in April 1901. The name, gender, occupation and the place where they had spent the previous night was noted for each admittance. They would later be signed out with a record of work done and of their intended destination.
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Part of the Daily Provisions Account for 1914, meticulously recording the quantities of each food provided to vagrants. It can be seen here that breakfast would typically consist of bread and margarine, washed down with cocoa.
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