| Description | The Stores committee was founded in 1868 as the Store and Reference committee. Consisting of 12 Guardians, it was their job to 'arrange the samples at the Workhouse and the quantities required and generally to superintend all questions regarding the Contracts and Stores.' The committee would put out a request for tenders to supply the workhouse, and then decide on the most competitive offer. The stores themselves covered all of the materials and functions necessary for the running of the workhouse, including the food that the inmates ate, the drugs used in the infirmary, the furnishings and fittings for the workhouse itself, and the burial of the dead.
At some point between February 1886 and February 1890 the committee changed its name, becoming simply the Stores committee. However, there appears to have been no change to its functions, and it carried on with the same remit as before.
The volumes contain information on the processes involved in the issuing of requests and the taking up of tenders, and include correspondence from individual companies and tradesmen. The committee's interaction with the other Union committees is also discussed in some detail, with many issues being referred to the Stores committee for its consideration. |