| Description | It is unclear when the House committee was founded, but the earliest entry relating to it can be found in the Board of Guardians minutes for April 1839, when a report from the House committee was presented to them (see GP B/2/1/4). In the previous February, the Guardians had appointed a committee 'to enquire into the condition of the present workhouse, the expense of adapting it to the wants of the parish and also to ascertain the cost of erecting a new workhouse.' It is not named as such, but this minute could refer to the creation of the House committee. Initially made up of nine Guardians, the duties of the committee also included the receiving of regular reports from the workhouse master, and the examination of his accounts, and the appointing of a committee of workhouse visitors, whose job it was to inspect the workhouse and infirmary, and ensure that the conditions were satisfactory (see GP B/2/3/1/1).
The committee's minutes suddenly end in 1848, with the surviving volumes giving no clue as to why this happened. A brief survey of the Board of Guardians minutes for the next 20 years failed to find any reference to the House committee, but whether it ceased to be active is unclear. However, the Board of Guardians minutes do refer to frequent reports made by the workhouse master, so that the main function of the committee continued even if the group itself did not. Following the merger of the Birmingham, Aston and King's Norton Unions in 1912, a new House committee was set up, the minutes of which are listed below (see GP B/2/3/13). - The minutes contain information on those Guardians present at each meeting, details on conditions within the workhouse, reports from the workhouse master, and some minutes regarding individual inmates. Unless stated otherwise, the volumes are not indexed. |