| Description | The Central Relief and Dispensary committee was first known as the Central Outdoor Relief committee. The earliest surviving minutes date from January 1877, but the committee was actually founded in April 1870 'to facilitate the developement [sic] of an uniform principle in the administration of Out Door relief.' (see GP B/2/1/38) The committee originally consisted of six Guardians - the chairman, and one representative from each of the five relief districts. As an examination of the Relief committee's minutes shows (see GP B/2/7/1/1, above), during the 1840s the Union was split into four relief districts, but when and why this number was increased remains unclear.
The committee changed to become the Central Relief and Dispensary committee in April 1887. Standing orders of the Guardians, pasted into the minutes for March 1887, appear to indicate that this occurred because of the committee's amalgamation with the Vaccination and Dispensary committee (of which a single volume of minutes survives - see GP B/29/1), but it is not known why this took place (see GP B/2/1/55).
The committee dealt with all aspects of out-relief, and the minutes reflect this. They contain details on the levels of out-relief given by the Guardians, changes made to the relief districts and the Relieving Officers who administrated them, and some information on individual cases. The volumes are not indexed. |