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workhouse, Kendal
Union Workhouse
Kendal Workhouse
locality:-   Kendal
civil parish:-   Kendal (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   workhouse
coordinates:-   SD51259327
1Km square:-   SD5193
10Km square:-   SD59

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 38 4) 
placename:-  Union Workhouse
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
"Union Workhouse / Vagrants Ward / Girls School / Boys School"

evidence:-   old map:- Jefferys 1770
placename:-  Poors House
source data:-   Map, 4 sheets, The County of Westmoreland, scale 1 inch to 1 mile, surveyed 1768, and engraved and published by Thomas Jefferys, London, 1770.
image
J55193B.jpg
"Poors House"
building/s 
item:-  National Library of Scotland : EME.s.47
Image © National Library of Scotland

evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G8060104, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1806 p.104  "Kendall, Sept. 27, 1802."
"My dear friend,"
"I have just been visiting the workhouse at this place, (Kendall) and am much pleased with the industry, oeconomy, and cleanliness of it, but the ceilings are too low, and the kitchen improperly placed. Doctor Haygarth's rules to prevent infectious fevers are stuck up in various parts of the house, and by the attention of the managers, health is preserved, and labour productive; for none are suffered to be idle who are capable of working. Paupers in the house 99, of these there are children under 5 years of age 22; old and unable to work 12; sick 5; at work 60."
"P.S. The children of the workhouse in Kendall have not their best interests compromised for immediate gain; they are not considered as mere machine, and care is taken to cultivate and improve their minds; and easy opportunity is afforded by means of the READING SCHOOL, of giving to the children of the poor a decent education, without taking them from productive labour. The book is considered as a relaxation from work, and both succeed better; this is most particularly exemplified here; the children not only enjoy the privilege of mixing with other children, and of being raised from a state of extreme degradation, but at the same time earn more than when they confined within the precincts of the house. From the account which I have seen, it appears, that forty-five children have so conducted themselves, as to have received premiums this year (1802) amounting to 14l. 5s. 2d., and to contemplate their decent appearance, and the manner of behaviour, must be truly gratifying to every philanthropist."
"The connexion between gross ignorance, profligacy of character, and abject poverty, is easily traced; for a very large majority of those, who have come under my observation as a magistrate, for felony, or misdemeanours, or vagrants, or to filiate bastards, or even to be examined respecting their settlements, are unable to write their own names."
"Yours, truly,"
"JAMES NEILD."

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