Visiting Southwell Workhouse: A Place My 91 Year Friend Once Called Home

We recently took a trip into the next county of Nottinghamshire, UK, to visit Southwell Workhouse, which is now owned by the National Trust. Before the 1530s, there was no government help for poor people. They relied on family, neighbours, or the church. When King Henry VIII closed the monasteries, that support ended. Fast forward to the 1601 Old Poor Law, when local property owners ("ratepayers") were suddenly taxed to fund shelter for older and disabled people.

Sadly, the system became overwhelmed. Parishes tried everything from handing out food and coal to forcing people into these strict workhouses. To save money, non-disabled inmates were even forced to carry out meaningless, arduous tasks just to "earn" their stay. By the 1800s, costs had doubled, causing riots and panic among the wealthy. Fast forward to 1930, and the strict Victorian workhouse system officially ended, but the brick buildings didn’t disappear. They were handed over to local councils, and for many years they were used as care homes, hospitals, and shelters for disabled people. To local people, they were still known simply as "the workhouse."

Walking through those historic doors, you instantly get a chilling sense of what it was like for the people who lived here.

During our visit, we spotted a sign showing the original recipe for workhouse gruel, and it really brought home just how bleak life was for the inmates.

Rows of metal mugs used for water or watery gruel, alongside chunks of hard, heavy bread.

​There was a classroom with hard wooden benches. The chalkboard had a scary message warning children about "the road that leads to Hell".

​There were basic iron beds with rough blankets and chamber pots underneath for a toilet. Some beds had curtains around them for privacy when people were sick.

This shows the view looking out from the building. It features high brick walls used to divide up the outdoor spaces and keep different groups of inmates separated.

Beyond the walls, you can see the large vegetable gardens where the inmates were forced to work to grow their own food.

The Clerk’s Office was very basic, with just a wooden desk, a chair, and a candle by the fireplace. The text on the wall shows how cheap it was to keep people in the workhouse compared to what a normal worker earned.

The stairwell was updated in the middle of the 20th century when the building became a social services care home called Greet House. The National Trust kept the bright green paint and linoleum to show how the building changed to a more modern care facility.

I picked up this information booklet during our visit, which filled in a lot of the history. The most interesting part of the visit, though, was a personal connection. I have a 91 year old friend who is disabled, and she has always told me that she lived in one of these workhouses as a child in the late 1930s. It certainly hits home when you are walking around and thinking about what life must have been like for her and her family.