Andover - Old Workhouse

Image: © Chris Talbot Taken: 25 Nov 2008

Opened in 1836, Andover's workhouse became the location of a notorious scandal that changed the law of the land. In 1846, a Select Committee of the House of Commons investigated alleged abuses of paupers in the workhouse. The Master, an ex Sergeant-Major called McDougal, was known as a drunken bully who mistreated and starved his charges. Many paupers were so hungry they ate the peelings left for the pigs and even sucked the marrow out of the bones they were grinding up for fertiliser. Paupers were often locked in the mortuary as a punishment and female paupers were subject to sexual abuse by McDougal and his son. The workhouse system ensured that similar events would occur from time to time. The low rates of pay offered by the Commissioners meant that the job of Workhouse Master often attracted the brutal or the inept. McDougal was sacked but not punished any further. As a result of the investigation, the Poor Law Commissioners were replaced by the Poor Law Board in 1847. This put the system under closer public scrutiny and government control.

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