Site of the Wellington Workhouse, Walker Street

Image: © Richard Law Taken: 31 Jan 2019

Probably not the original buildings of 1797, but this terrace of houses lies on the site of the Union Workhouse for the town, which was moved here from Street Lane (Watling Street) at that date. It was enlarged in the late 1830s or early 1840s to house up to 160 paupers, who would have been working at a variety of (rather menial) tasks such as cooking, cleaning, stone-breaking, animal husbandry, tailoring and so on. Workhouse life was not generally a happy one. The site was used later as offices by the Poor Law Union administrators, and subsequently as part of the Union Brewery. The 1861 census of inmates records some comments and reasons for residency in the workhouse; these include "Old age and general debility", "Blind", "Unable to work in consequence of bad health" (all fair enough) but also "Had an illegitimate son", "An idiot from birth" and "A person of weak intellect"... these were undoubtedly different times. In the mid 1870s, this building was replaced by a new, much larger workhouse on Street Lane (speculatively on the site of the original workhouse there) which is now used as The Wrekin Professional Centre, housing a number of care and medical facilities Image

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