| Description | The Workhouse Master had responsibility for supervising all aspects of the workhouse, namely the classification of the paupers, their employment, diet and the work carried out by them, whilst also ensuring that the tough discipline of the institution was rigorously enforced. He was also ultimately responsible for those officials employed by the Union to work in the workhouse. The Master was further required (along with other Union officials) to make regular reports to the Board of Guardians. As the Master was responsible for maintaining the administrative records of the workhouse, the post was often combined with that of the Union clerk. King's Norton Union, at its creation in 1836, continued to use the workhouses at King's Norton and Harborne, both of which would have had their own master. |