The Crickhowell Union Workhouse

This book tells the story of the Union and its workhouse, set on the hillside of the Dardy, facing Crickhowell. Through original sources such as the Minutes of the Board of Guardians meetings, newspaper reports, and local school records, the development of the Union and its responsibilities is traced. Interspersed between the reports of the often lively and sometimes argumentative meetings of the Guardians are glimpses of the lives of the inmates and poor residents of the area. The Crickhowell Union Workhouse uses original sources to present an invaluable local study of Victorian poor relief, the social attitudes that guided it and the social conditions it attempted to remedy and address.