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Taken from Raymonds County Down Website. Banbridge Workhouse 1841-1851 Banbridge workhouse was part of a national system created to tackle the problem of poverty in Nineteenth century Ireland The poor law act of 1838 committed Ireland to following the English example despite the protests of Irish M.Ps of every shade of opinion. Opponents of the proposal argued that the Irish problem was on a far greater scale, as there was no work for a large proportion of the population, a system based on indoor relief, could not be effective. However in 1839 Ireland was divided into 130 Poor Law Unions, based on the main market towns and the building of workhouses began. Each workhouse was to provide for all the old, sick, disabled and able-bodied poor. Those who entered the workhouse could not own more than one quarter acre of land, and no outdoor relief was to be provided. Beggars were to be sent to prison, Each workhouse was to be situated within one days walking distance (10miles) of all parts of the union. Almost all the workhouses were built to a standard plan by George Wilkinson, the architect employed by the Irish poor law commissioners, and they offered varying accommodation from the smallest of about 200 inmates to the greatest with over 1,000 places. Irish workhouses were cheaper to build than the English workhouse as the floors were of mortar or earth, the dormitories consisted of raised platforms, the walls were unplastered and there were no ceilings. At the front of each workhouse was an entrance block and remains of the walls can still be indentified on the way into Banbridge Hospital. Here details were taken, clothes exchanged for workhouse garb, new inmates deloused and separated from their familys. Banbridge workhouse opened on the 14th of June 1841, situated on the present site of Banbridge Hospital it occupied just over 5 acres and cost £10,037 to complete. It was built to accommodate a maximum of 800 paupers and served a population of 87, 323 (1841) in an area stretching from Tandragee in the east, Leitrim in the west, Dromore in the north and Glaskermore in the south. In the early 1840s the number of occupants seldom passed 300, this was no doubt due to the employment provided by the linen industry, although agricultural prices had fallen and the wages in the linen industry were low (weavers earned from 3 shillings a week to 8 shillings a week) there was no shortage of work, as Charles Magee, the Whyte estate agent, stated in evidence before the Devon commission on the 30th March 1844, here there is scarcely anyone that need want employment if they are willing to work. Eighteen miles along the Bann between the Corbet and Guildford seemed to guarantee relative prosperity for all, the Ordnance Survey Memoir for Seapatrick Parish (1834) seems to confirm this picture "to the man with comfortable cottages, the snowy appearances of the bleach greens and noisy manufactories with the growing villages around them and the noise of the busy shuttle, which may be heard in nearly every house, will fully compensate for the want of picturesque beauty". However this picture was soon to change as the effects of the failure of the potato crop began to be felt. Perhaps a third of the rapidly growing population of the Banbridge poor law Union, depended on the potato and they were soon flooding to the workhouse, by November 1846 numbers in the workhouse had passed 500 . Fortunately the wealth of the area was such that the guardians had normally a balance of £1,000 in hand in the bank. Prominent among the guardians were landlords Whyte and Reilly and linen merchants Lindsay, Crawford and Law. The winter of 1846-7 was particulary harsh and by January 1847 further admissions to the workhouse were halted on the advice of the medical officer, "Whooping cough, influenza and dysentary are prevalent - and on this account he thinks more than 800, nor even that number could not be attended without the greatest exertions of the officers," ( 2nd January ) however 4 were taken in "who cannot be rejected without safety" and the guardians did provide dinner and a half pound of bread for each of the 54 paupers turned away. The board of guardians now faced with a crisis immediately set up a committee to investigate the possibility of renting the brewery as additional temporary accommodation. At the same time two storey sheds were erected in both the men and woman's wards, and galleries in all those parts of the workhouse suitable (Jan 1847), a temporary fever hospital which had been erected at the back of the workhouse was also overcrowded, Smallpox was spreading in Banbridge, there were cases of Cholera in Dromore and for three successive weeks the master, Mr Sheridon was forced to turn away more than 300 applicants. Food continued to be given to those who were rejected, despite advice from the Poor Law Commissions in Dublin, against the continuation of this practice. On the 13th March 1847 the board of guardians advised the master to call in the aid of the constabulary to disperse paupers from the gates and further admissions were stopped for the present, unless in cases of fever, 170 were rejected ,some of whom had come a distance of 9 miles and all in a state of extreme destitution, once again the Guardians agreed to give a portion of food to help the unfortunates return to their hovels. Again on the 10th April 1847, 62 paupers were refused, although all the applicants exhibited symptoms of starvation and some even of death. Numbers had reached 898 of whom 183 were in the workhouse hospital and 23 in the fever hospital. Deaths were averaging 14 a week, the increasing cost of extensions and providing for the large number of inmates now forced the Guardians to borrow £2,000 from the Poor Law Commissions. However there was a lighter side to life as on the 15th May 1847 ,the master reports that singing and dancing is carried on in the fever hospital and so great a noise made that the patients cannot get their rest, particulary on saturday nights, complaints were also made concerning the sale of clothes to local pawnbrokers, and the presence of a man in the female ward. However the major scandal was the dismissal of the clerk of the union, Robert McClelland for embezzlement, the Clerk was in fact the highest paid official , with a salary of £60 per annum ( other salaries included - Master £40, Matron £25, all Chaplins £25, Surgeon £50, Schoolmaster £20, Schoolmistress £15, Nurse £10 and Porter £10 per annum ). Problems continued to multiply and in September 1847 the Guardians were advised to discontinue the practice of burying paupers in the workhouse ground, there was also continuing difficulties with the water supply, sanitation and overcrowding. At last on 27th November an agreement was completed for the use of the brewery. Three hundred boys were immediately moved from the workhouse to the brewery, meanwhile conditions in the countryside had deteriorated further and on 1st January 1848 a letter from the Poor Law Commissioners stated that, "from the prevalence of distress in the Union they consider they would not be justified in permitting any further delay to take place in commencing outdoor relief," soup kitchens were set up in each electoral district and as many as 11,000 received food in the rural area in one day. Admissions continued apace and reached their peak on the 8th February 1848, when the workhouse contained 1,464 inmates, thereafter a slow but significant decline in numbers began and in August 1848 the Guardians ceased to use the brewery, however throughout 1848 and until summer 1849, numbers in the workhouse never fell below 1,000. In the summer of 1848 a scheme for sending female pauper orphans from Ireland to Australia was put into effect and among those unfortunate girls were 36 from Banbridge workhouse, of these 17 travelled on the first sailing, aboard the Earl Grey arriving in Sydney on the 6th October 1848 some of the girls were the subjects of unfavourable comment and the Belfast girls were described as notoriously bad in every sense of the word, However, in evidence before a committee of inquiry, the matron Mrs. Maria Cooper praised the Banbridge girls for their exemplary behaviour, free passage was also provided for numbers of children whose parents had been transported. Conditions inside the Workhouse in those years were harsh. Work was provided in various forms knitting, spinning and weaving (both linen and wool), milling corn, picking oakum, and breaking stones (even for woman). Those who failed to work satisfactorily were discharged, punishments for indiscipline included breaking 5cwts of stones a day, however, Workhouse production and sale of goods were discouraged as they were not permitted to compete with independent producers. The Schoolmaster and School mistress taught the children from 9am to 1pm each day but illiteracy was common among the inmates. During 1849 and 1850, as conditions in the countryside improved, numbers continued to fall and the lofts and galleries which had been erected in 1847 were taken down, in March 1851 numbers had fallen to 426, during the years 1846-1850 there were over 5000 admissions to the Workhouse. As the register is missing we cannot tell from which part of the Poor Law Union the unfortunates came or whether the same persons were admitted more than once. Some 1000 inmates died during the famine years. There are only 13 names on the surviving page of the Banbridge Workhouse admission register.
Elizabeth McGlogan age 63 Roman Catholic widow admitted by the board Jan 15th, almost starved and infested with vermin present condition in fever hospital.
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