Welsh Journals

THE NEWTOWN AND LLANIDLOES POOR LAW UNION WORKHOUSE, CAERSWS, 1837-1847 BRIAN OWEN Introduction On 14th August 1834 an Act for "The Amendment and Better Administration of the Laws Relating to the Poor in England and Wales" was passed by Parliament. The Act's stated objectives included, To raise the labouring classes from the idleness, improvidence and degradation into which the maladministration of the laws for their relief has thrown them, [and] to immediately arrest the progress and ultimately to diminish the amount of the pressure on the owners of lands and houses.' It is from a natural division of the administration of The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) that I have determined the period for a detailed examination of the "Workhouse System" in the Newtown and Llanidloes Poor Law Union. From 1834-1847 the Poor Law, on both the national and local basis, was administered by three commissioners: Mr George Nicholls, Mr John Shaw Lefevre and Mr Frankland Lewis (of Harpton Court, Radnor). Their secretary was Mr Edwin Chadwick who possessed in addition the assistance of a small number of clerical staff based at the commission's headquarters in London. The 'Sir George Nicholls, A History of the English Poor Law (London 1854, revised edition, London 1967), Vol.2, pp.270. Plate: A contemporary view of the imposing front of the former Caersws Workhouse