Chorlton Poor Law Union was founded in January 1837 in response to the

Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relief ...

, also known as the New Poor Law. It was overseen by an elected board of 19 guardians representing the 12 parishes in the area it served:

Ardwick Ardwick is a district of Manchester in North West England, one mile south east of the city centre. The population of the Ardwick Ward at the 2011 census was 19,250. Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from ...

Burnage Burnage is a suburb of the city of Manchester in North West England, about south of Manchester city centre and bisected by the dual carriageway of Kingsway. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the population of the Bur ...

Chorlton-upon-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south ...

, Chorlton with Hardy,

Didsbury Didsbury is a suburban area of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 26,788. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there are ...

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hi ...

Hulme Hulme () is an inner city area and Ward (politics), electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, the nam ...

Levenshulme Levenshulme () is an area of Manchester, England, bordering Fallowfield, Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish; it is approximately halfway between Stockport and Manchester city centre on the A6. Levenshulme is predominantly re ...

Moss Side Moss Side is an Inner city, inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the Manchester city centre, city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Cho ...

Rusholme Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, England, two miles south of the city centre. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorlton-on-Medlock to the north, Victoria Park and Longsight to the east, Fallo ...

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manchester city centre, south of Salford and north-east of Altrincham. Str ...

, and

Withington Withington is a suburb of Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it lies from Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Withington has a population of just ...

, all (apart from Stretford) in present day south

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

Background

The

placed a legal responsibility on parishes to take responsibility for the poor in their areas by organising into poor law unions, each of which was to have at least one

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

. The Act discouraged the provision of poor relief except through entry into workhouses, and signalled the construction of more than 500 across England and Wales during the next 50 years. The townships in the union, Ardwick, Burnage, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Chorlton with Hardy, Didsbury, Gorton, Hulme, Levenshulme, Mosside, Rusholme, Stretford, and Withington were in the ancient parish of Manchester; in 1838 Ardwick, Chorlton-upon-Medlock and Hulme were made part of the town of Manchester. The others, apart from Stretford, subsequently became part of the City of Manchester.

Early history

The union's first

, the Stretford Road Workhouse, offered accommodation for 300 inmates, with segregated living areas for various categories of paupers, such as children, lunatics, the elderly, and the sick; female inmates were housed in the west of the building and males in the east, separated by a central communal dining hall and chapel. The population of the area served by the Chorlton Poor Law Union had been 46,465 at the time of the 1831 census, but as it rapidly increased during Manchester's industrialisation it became clear that the capacity of the Stretford Road Workhouse was inadequate for the demands placed on it. As the Stretford Road site offered no scope for expansion the guardians decided to commission the construction of a second workhouse, the Withington Workhouse. Opened in 1855, and costing £53,000 to build, the new workhouse was able to accommodate up to 1500 inmates. The site also included a new cemetery to serve the union's area, the Chorlton Union Cemetery, which remained in use until 1920. The Offices of the Poor Law Guardians were built in 1881. The building was designed by Mangnall & Littlewood and also included a registry office. Since 1970 it has been used by the polytechnic.

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...

was a member of the

Board of Guardians Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...

Later developments

In 1910 the Chorlton Union was consolidated into the South Manchester Township, which in turn became part of a unified Manchester Union in 1915, and the workhouse was renamed

Withington Hospital Withington Community Hospital is a hospital in south Manchester, England, managed by the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. History Originally known as the Chorlton Barlow Moor Work House, the hospital was purpose-built in 1854–55 as ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

1880 – Chorlton Union Schools & Homes, Lancashire
{{coord, 53.44, N, 2.28, W, display=title History of Manchester Poor law unions in England