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Date Posted: 13:46:19 09/09/02 Mon
Author: More later
Subject: Strabane Workhouse

STRABANE WORKHOUSE

THE ARCHITECHS WERE MESSRS. PATTERSON AND CATCHSIDE, WHO ALSO HAD THE CONTRACT FOR THE UNION WORKHOUSE IN DERRY, AND THE BUILDING WAS COMPLETED FOR THE SUM OF £8,000

First paupers admitted on 8th. December 1841, when 65 people were admitted. That number rose to 267 by October the following year.

Food was prepared in two 400 gallon boilers which could cater for 600 people. A 100 gallon boiler was used to prepare stirabout. Buttermilk was given to everyone except young children and the infirm, who were given sweet milk. The strength of the milk was approximately half of that delivered to Lifford Gaol. As a result locks were fitted to the containers, with one key being kept by the supplier and the other by the workhouse master. This effectively meant that the supplier was held responsible for the quality of the milk.

Only the minimum amount of food was allowed that was required to promote and maintain life.

Like most workhouses Strabane applied the Poor Law strictly. Families were segregated on entry and not allowed any contact with each other. Visits from relatives and friends were conducted in the presence of an officer on Fridays between noon and 2 p.m. No gifts were allowed to be given to the inmates.

The residents could not leave the establishment without the permission of the master.This was generally only given on being hired out to work, or with emigration being arranged by the Board of Guardians, who paid for the fare and the supplies needed for the voyage. This system of emigration was used to reduce the numbers of long stay people in reasonable health.

There are records which reveal that physical punishment was used, numbered in terms of “stripes of a rod” 12 to 20 was not uncommon, used ven against grown men. Being confined , or being denied meals or milk rations, or being forced into a cold shower, frequently on multiple occasions, were also regular punishments. Being put on Hard Labour was another punishment frequently imposed.

There was one resident doctor to take care of the sick. They uses leeches as part of their cures. The crowded confines of the workhouse was a very easy place for disease to spread. A lot of the inmates were in very poor health
before they admitted defeat and accepted the humiliation of receiving charity in the workhouse. Their wasted bodies could not provide any resistance to infections or disease. The average cost to maintain an inmate in the Workhouse for one week in 1840 was one shilling, compared with 1/7d in
hospital.

The winters of 1846 and the spring of 1847 witnesses greatest hardship. In one week alone (May 1847) 99 new paupers were admitted. The workhouse was so badly overcrowded from January of that year, and in the last week of March so many deaths occurred that the Board of Guardians carried out an inquiry.

The Tyrone Chronicle of 2nd April reported that 45 paupers died during the previous week, 32 of whom were under 10 years of age; 4 of middle age, and 9 over 60 years of age. Of the above, 28 died of diarrhoea and measles combined, 12 of measles, and 5 of old age, and of the entire number, 18 died within ten days after admission.

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