| Description | A Poor Law Board Order of 1870 stated that the Clerk of each Union should produce, along with the Financial Statement (see GP AS/3/2/1-3), 'a Statistical Statement, showing the number of paupers of all classes actually relieved in the course of the last half year', for submission to the District Auditor and the Poor Law Board. The Order also allowed the Guardians to circulate the statement amongst the ratepayers in their Union. A later Local Government Board Order (in 1880) relieved the Union of this responsibility, whilst still allowing the Guardians the opportunity of preparing it as and when necessary.
The surviving volume contains half-yearly entries for the period 1868-1885. These include details of the numbers of poor in each parish of Aston Union receiving either indoor or outdoor relief. The types of relief are further subdivided into able-bodied, not able-bodied and the insane, with these categories being split into married and single men and women, and illegitimate and other children. More detail is given for those receiving outdoor relief, with families divided into those on relief because of a parent in jail, the families of servicemen, and resident families of non-resident males. Also included for each year are the names of the Medical Officers, and the number of cases attended by them in each Union district and Workhouse. For some of the later entries (post-1881, and in the wake of the second Local Government Board Order), this is the only information recorded. |