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Following the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the King's Norton Poor Law Union was formed in 1836. The Act had been passed in response to the rising costs involved in providing poor relief, and allowed parishes to group together in order to tackle the problem jointly. King's Norton Union was made up of the ecclesiastical parishes of King's Norton, Edgbaston, Northfield, Harborne and Beoley.
Board of Guardians
The King's Norton Board of Guardians was appointed in 1836, at the creation of the Union. The Board was made up of 20 elected guardians, along with 10 others who were made Guardians ex-officio in their role as local magistrates. The Board of Guardians met weekly, meetings that were supplemented by other regular committees. Guardians were elected by the rate-payers within a Union, serving a term of one year, although individuals were eligible to stand again in the following year, and could serve as Guardians in more than one parish at the same time.
The Board's main function was to decide upon all applications for poor relief, and to take the necessary measures to carry out such decisions. Along with this role, the Guardians exercised constant supervision over the administration of the relief system, and in doing so were responsible for the appointment of paid officers to carry out the work of the Union. The Guardians also worked closely with their supervisory body, the Poor Law Commission (later the Poor Law Board, formed in 1847, and the Local Government Board, formed in 1871), by whom all major capital projects or changes to procedure within the Union would have to be passed.
The Union Workhouse
Prior to the creation of King's Norton Union, many of the parishes contained by it had their own workhouses. King's Norton parish opened its first workhouse in 1803, and at the creation of the Union in 1836 it was rented by the Guardians for £45 per annum. Its capacity grew during the nineteenth century - in 1841, the workhouse held 102 inmates, whilst in 1871 that figure stood at 141.
It is unclear when Northfield workhouse opened, although its earliest surviving records date from 1801 (see DRO 14/153-6), and its actual site is still in doubt. The inmates were known to have been employed in the manufacture of nails, with a small profit being drawn from their sale. Following the creation of the Union, the workhouse was closed in October 1837, and its inmates moved to King's Norton workhouse.
Sources relating to Harborne workhouse are less detailed, with both its opening date and site open to some debate. However, after the creation of the Union, it remained in temporary use as a workhouse, the Guardians paying a rent of £35 a year. Edgbaston owned a poorhouse and gardens situated on Harrison Road, near the junction with Somerset Road.
By the end of 1868, land had been purchased for the construction of a new union workhouse in Selly Oak, on what later became Raddlebarn Road. Completed in 1872 at a total cost of £27,758 5s 8d, arrangements were made for the transfer of inmates and the sale of the old workhouse. By 1881 there were a total of 327 individuals lodged there. In 1922 it became Selly Oak Hospital, the former workhouse now being part of the physiotherapy department.
Children in the Union
Prior to the opening of Shenley Fields Cottage Homes in 1887, no reference to separate children's accommodation can be found within the Guardians' minutes, so that presumably it was shared with the adult inmates of the workhouse.
Shenley Fields Cottage Homes were opened in August 1887 for the purpose of removing children from the workhouse, and placing them in the care of foster parents. The original site included eight houses, with four more being added between 1887 and 1910, and a further house in 1936. The rules of the Homes continued the strict discipline of the workhouse, with the children's freedom being rigidly restricted. A special on-site school also ensured their separation from the wider community. In 1912 the Homes came under the authority of the combined Birmingham Union, before passing under the control of Birmingham County Council in 1932. The Homes continued to operate until the early 1980s, when Shenley Fields began to close down, the last children moving out in 1987.
Along with the Cottage Homes, the Guardians also became responsible for aspects of children's lives not directly related to the Poor Law. Vaccination is dealt with below, in the section on 'Medical Care', and two other areas controlled by the Guardians - school attendance and infant life protection - are dealt with in the section on 'Non-poor law duties'.
Medical Care
King's Norton Union provided medical care for paupers at the site of the new workhouse in Selly Oak, but it is unclear how they were treated before its construction. This workhouse was completed in 1872, and inmates were transferred to it. Along with the medical facilities already in place within the building, further work was carried out in 1901 and 1908, adding new receiving wards, offices, stores and a women's pavilion. By the 1912 the infirmary had 500 inmates.
A program of public vaccination had been carried out within King's Norton Union since 1837 - a note in the Board of Guardians' minutes refers to two men being employed 'to attend upon the sick poor' within Harborne and Edgbaston parishes, and give details of their payments for each case. 'In cases of midwifery including the subsequent vaccination of the Child and the necessary attendance in consequence thereof,' they were to be paid 10s 6d. 'In all other cases of vaccination and the necessary attendance' the rate was to be 1s (see GP KN/2/1/1). At this point, the Union was divided into four medical districts: the parishes of Harborne and Edgbaston, the parish of Northfield and the Rednall yield [the yield was an ancient division of a parish, used for assessing rates] of King's Norton parish, the remainder of King's Norton parish, and the parish of Beoley.
Further changes to the vaccination system within the Union occurred in the early 1870s, following a number of vaccination acts. The 1871 Vaccination Amendment Act required each Union to appoint a Vaccination Officer. King's Norton Union employed two Officers, and by 1871 the vaccination districts within the Union also appear to have changed. One Officer was responsible for both Harborne and Edgbaston parishes (referred to as the northern district), whilst the other supervised vaccinations carried out in the remainder of the Union (the parishes of Northfield, King's Norton and Beoley, referred to as the southern district).
Non-poor law duties
Along with supervising the vaccination of children, the Guardians became increasingly responsible for areas outside of the poor law. One that was not entirely separate from it, but which had originally been the duty of the Overseers, was the assessment of ratepayers and the setting of the poor rate. King's Norton Union was originally divided into three areas for the purposes of rate collection: the Edgbaston district, comprising the parishes of Edgbaston and Harborne, the King's Norton district, comprising the parishes of King's Norton and Northfield, and the Beoley district, containing the parish of Beoley. Properties were assessed according to the rent at which they could be let, but in many cases - particularly with regard to canals and railways - setting a rate would be difficult, as they were not rented out. Furthermore, the rateable value was only arrived at after the tenant's other rates and taxes were deducted, which again could vary from place to place.
The 1862 Union Assessment Act was an attempt to rectify these problems. This Act directed the Guardians to appoint 'an Assessment Committee of the Union for the Investigation and Supervision of the Valuations of Assessable Properties.' At first relying on the Overseers' valuation, if the committee were unhappy with it, they could order that another one be carried out. This would then form the basis of the poor rate, was updated each year, and was open to public inspection and appeal. Once the rate had been set, the Guardians' main task was to deal with any complaints, and adjust the rates accordingly.
Under the 1876 Elementary Education Act, local authorities were allowed to enforce compulsory education. Where no school board existed, this duty fell to the Board of Guardians, who were required to set up a School Attendance Committee. School attendance officers were to be appointed, and the Guardians were also empowered to pay school fees in certain cases, regardless of whether or not the parents were already receiving poor relief. King's Norton Union appointed their committee in 1877, with a school attendance officer following shortly afterwards.
Finally, under the 1897 and 1908 Infant Life Protection Acts, 'a person receiving more than one infant under the age of five years for the purpose of nursing or maintaining such infants apart from their parents for a longer period than 48 hours' was required to notify the local authority - in the case of King's Norton, the Board of Guardians. However, the Guardians did not formally appoint a Children's Act Committee until 1908. It was the committee's purpose to 'deal with all matters arising under the Children's Act' and also to be 'empowered to engage whatever assistance they may think requisite and generally to act as they deem fit in giving effect to the provisions of the Act' (see GP KN/2/1/42). An official visitor was appointed by the Guardians, whose job it was to inspect the homes where children were being cared for.
References: Dr. P. F. Ashcrott, The English Poor Law System, Past and Present (London 1902). M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System 1834-1929 (London 1981). Chris Upton and Joyce Fellows, 'Birmingham and its Workhouses', The Birmingham Historian No.4 (Spring/Summer 1989). |