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Introduction
Following the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the Aston 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. Aston Union was made up of the ecclesiastical parishes of Aston, Sutton Coldfield, Curdworth, Minworth and Wishaw, and continued to exist until 1912, when both it and Kings Norton Union became part of the Birmingham Union. Any records relating to Aston Union post-1912 are held as part of the Birmingham Union collection (ref. GP B). The Guardians continued to have authority over poor relief until 1930, when their responsibilities were passed on to Birmingham City Council.
The Board of Guardians
Aston Union had a Board made up of 25 elected Guardians, chosen by the rate-payers of each parish. 18 Guardians were taken from Aston, four from Sutton Coldfield, and one each from the parishes of Curdworth, Minworth and Wishaw. In addition to these, five others were made Guardians ex-officio in their role as local magistrates (see GP AS/2/1/1). 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 Aston Union, each of the parishes contained by it had their own poorhouses, dating back to the early 18th century. One of the oldest was that which stood on the village green in Erdington - whilst its precise date of construction is unknown, a levy to raise the cost of it was held in June 1700. Interestingly, this building was referred to early on as a workhouse rather than the more common 'poor-house', reflecting perhaps Aston's uncompromising attitude towards poor relief. Following the creation of the Union in 1836, the building became the main workhouse for the area, and remained so until the 1860s. In 1868, 10 acres of land was purchased in Gravelly Hill, and a second Workhouse was built on the site. In paying for the new building, sums had been raised from the sale of superseded poorhouses at Curdworth and Minworth (sold in 1837), Wishaw, and Erdington (sold in 1876). The move allowed the union to increase the number of inmates from 123 (on the 1851 census) to over 500 in 1870. The workhouse now forms a part of Highcroft Hospital.
The 1834 Amendment Act introduced the so-called 'workhouse test', and the concept of 'less eligibility'. Conditions within the union workhouse were meant to be lower than those of the very poorest living outside it, thus 'encouraging' potential inmates to become financially independent. This was certainly the case within Aston Union, where the Guardians were keen to remove any unnecessary burdens from the ratepayer. In 1873 the Union was said to have the lowest expenditure in the country, and this awareness of costs is reflected in the Union's meticulous record keeping. The minutes of the Board in particular are indexed at length, and have a far greater level of detail than those of, for instance, Kings Norton Union.
Children in the Union
Prior to the building of the Gravelly Hill workhouse, no reference is made in the Guardians' Board minutes to separate children's accommodation - so that presumably it was shared with the adult inmates. However, after its construction in 1868, a separate children's block was provided (see GP AS/2/1/12). This included a separate schoolroom, although the Union had been employing a schoolmaster and mistress since its inception in 1836 (see GP AS/2/1/1).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there was a growing trend by Unions across the country to move orphaned and illegitimate children out of the Workhouse and into private foster homes. A Poor Law Board Order of 1870 laid down formal guidelines for this practice (see GP AS/1/1/2), with Aston Union adopting it in 1880. Following discussions by the General Purposes, Farm, House Visiting and Stores Committee, a Boarding Out Committee was set up in 1881 (see GP AS/2/3/1-2)
As well as boarding children out, the Guardians had responsibility for apprenticing them to local tradesmen, or putting them into service as domestic servants. Following on from a Poor Law Board Order of 1844, the 1851 Poor Law (apprentices etc.) Act formalised the types of records Unions had to keep regarding apprenticed children. The Union's Relieving Officers were the ones responsible for ensuring these were kept, and a single example of their registers remains (see GP AS/11/4/1).
Further provision for pauper children was made with the founding of Erdington Cottage Homes in 1899. Previously, the Union had boarded out children at Wolverhampton Union's Wednesfield homes (see GP AS/2/1/39), but in 1893-4 the Aston Guardians began discussions with the Local Government Board to find a suitable site for their own homes (see GP AS/2/1/40). The Aston Guardians' parsimonious nature is reflected in the length of these discussions: whilst the Guardians felt the chosen site, close to the Gravelly Hill workhouse, to be adequate, the Local Government Board replied that, since it was 'bounded on three sides by public roads and on the fourth by a railway' (see GP AS/2/1/40), it was not suitable. The Union's attempts to house 600 children there were also regarded as excessive, and only when that figure was reduced to 400 did the Local Government Board sanction the plan. The Cottage Homes finally opened in 1899, with a committee of Guardians also being set up to oversee their administration (see GP AS/2/4).
Medical Care
Early in the life of Aston Union, arrangements were made to cater for the sick poor. In 1844, an extension to Erdington Workhouse provided them with separate quarters, following on from a Poor Law Commission Order (see GP AS/1/1/1). Further infirmary premises were built in 1872, as part of the new Workhouse at Gravelly Hill, but the infirmary was not housed in a separate building until 1899. A committee was set up to oversee its running, the minutes of which survive (see GP AS/2/9).
For the mentally ill living in and around Birmingham, no formal provision was made for care until 1845 with the passing of County and Borough Lunatic Asylums Amendment Act. This was followed by the Lunatics Act of 1853, which required all boroughs, either separately or jointly, to provide asylums. Following these acts, Birmingham Council made provision for the founding of an asylum, buying land in Winson Green. The building was completed in 1850. With an increase in the need for asylum accommodation, a second institution was founded at Rubery Hill, in 1881. Along with these 2 institutions, some of the less chronic cases would be cared for within the workhouse itself. For Aston, the surviving documents list those individuals from the Union cared for within these institutions, and the amounts paid for their upkeep out of a Parliamentary grant (see GP AS/4/1/1-4).
A further duty of the Guardians, and one that was less connected with the Poor Law, was the responsibility of vaccinating the children within the Union. Two Vaccination Acts passed in 1840 and 1841 afforded increased facilities for vaccination, the arrangements being the responsibility of the Guardians, under the direction of the Poor Law Board. However, in Aston Union provision was already made for public vaccination programmes. A minute from an 1837 meeting of the Guardians states that where no facilities exist, notice should be given 'in the Church or otherwise when and where the parties may apply [and] that a fee of 2/6 be allowed for each case' (see GP AS/2/1/1), although the charge was later reduced, and may have been dropped altogether.
The Union was divided into seven areas for the purposes of vaccination: Bordesley, Deritend, Ashted, Aston Road, Erdington, Castle Bromwich and Sutton Coldfield districts (see GP AS/2/1/6). Any parents in receipt of relief who refused to have their children treated were liable to lose that relief (see GP AS/2/1/5). The process was also very closely monitored by the central authority, with frequent enquiries by the Commissioners as to the number of cases of smallpox and other diseases within the Union (see GP AS/1/2/5 and following). A further re-organisation took place in 1898, when the Union was divided into 3 vaccination districts: Deritend and Bordesley, Duddeston, Nechells and Aston Manor, and Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.
A permanent Vaccination Committee was created in 1869. Some of its minutes, along with the reports and registers of the Vaccination Officers, are to be found at GP AS/29.
Non-poor law duties
Along with their vaccination duties, the Guardians became increasingly responsible for areas outside of the Poor Law proper. In 1837, the Guardians became responsible for the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths, whilst in 1877 they were given the responsibility of ensuring school attendance, if no school board was already in existence. Furthermore, under the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897, 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 Aston, the Board of Guardians.
For Aston, documents relating to the assessment of rates within the Union survive. This assessment became the Guardians' responsibility following the 1862 Union Assessment Committee Act. 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 reports of the Overseers, if the Committee was unsatisfied with this assessment it could order a new valuation, carried out by independent surveyors. This assessment would form the basis of the poor rate, was updated each year, and was open to public inspection and appeal. Following the assessment, the Committee's main task was to deal with these complaints, and, if they were found to be valid, adjust the poor rate accordingly. If the ratepayers were still unsatisfied, a further appeal could be made to the quarter sessions. Minutes from the Union's Assessment Committee survive, covering the period 1881-1912 (see GP AS/30/1/1-7).
Clerk to the Union
Under the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, all Unions were required to have at least one clerk, and in many of the larger unions, the role was shared amongst several individuals. In Aston, one person was initially appointed to the post, receiving an annual salary of £50 (see GP AS/2/1/1). However, by the end of the century, 2 assistant clerks were also being employed by the Union (see GP AS/2/2/1). The clerk's main duties were to take minutes at the meetings of the Board of Guardians, deal with any in-coming correspondence to the Union, particularly from the central governing authority, keep up-to-date financial records and ledgers, showing all income and expenditure within the Union, maintain the Relief Order Book, which detailed the names of applicants for poor relief, and the Order Check Book, containing all orders given by the Guardians re: provisions and stores for the workhouse, and to conduct the elections for the posts of Guardian. The clerk was also responsible for keeping records relating to those children apprenticed by or under the care of the Union.
References: Dr P. F. Ashcrott, The English Poor Law System, Past and Present (London 1902). M. A. Crowther, The Workhouse System. |