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  1. #1
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    Red face Swaffield Road Workhouse

    Is anyone familiar with Swaffield Road Union Workhouse? (Also referred to as Garratt Lane Workhouse)

    Anyone familiar with my previous posts will know that I am trying to solve a bit of a family mystery. I was just searching the LMA under workhouses for a possible lead and I'm sure I have come across both the above streets in my research (I do need to go back and cross refer).
    It seems reasonable that a woman who obviously had an illegitimate child (I've established that much) would have to spend some of her time in a workhouse.

    My grandfather was born in 1921 and I have read that Swaffield Road workhouse was closed in 1930.
    Firstly, does anyone have any family connections there at that time?
    Secondly, does anyone know how I could obtain records without paying someone or taking a trip to Wandsworth? Or am I just being lazy!

  2. #2
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    Was it 1921? I seem to have got it into my head that it was 1931 in which case I may have misled you.

    It was the Boards of Guardians that were wound up in 1930 and responsibilities passed to the County Councils.

    According to my references, there are birth registers for Swaffield Road for 1886-1936 and admission/discharge registers 1919-1930. The workhouse website says that when the LCC took over it was renamed the Brocklebank Institution. I can't get into anything else at the moment to check what others say.

    Generally speaking (it doesn't seem to quite apply in this case), archives will have post-1930 records filed under the County Council and pre-1930 records under the Board of Guardians.

  3. #3
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    Red face

    Thanks Peter.

    For the record my grandfather was born in 1921, but the only birth certificate we found in his house after he died a couple of years ago was a copy obtained in 1932. I am assuming it may have been acquired when he did the '11plus', but I don't suppose that is relevant anyway!

    Are you saying that workhouses did continue in some capacity after the 1930's just under different 'management' as it were?

  4. #4
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    Essentially, the old poor laws carried on until after WW2 and the creation of the welfare state. The changes in 1930 didn't really amount to a root and branch reform. Names changed but not a lot else. It was a lot more enlightened than it was a century before, though! Earlier reforms had meant that the Guardians already reflected local politics so council control didn't lead to dramatic changes.

    I think the Southwell workhouse - now owned by the National Trust and well worth a visit - was still in use in the 1950s or 1960s and being used to house homeless families.

    Even after the NHS was formed, some people were still reluctant to use the hospitals which had once been workhouse infirmaries - the old stigmas died hard.

  5. #5
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    Red face

    Thanks Peter. I'm learning something!

  6. #6
    marymog
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    Quote Originally Posted by A Lee
    Is anyone familiar with Swaffield Road Union Workhouse? (Also referred to as Garratt Lane Workhouse)

    Anyone familiar with my previous posts will know that I am trying to solve a bit of a family mystery. I was just searching the LMA under workhouses for a possible lead and I'm sure I have come across both the above streets in my research (I do need to go back and cross refer).
    It seems reasonable that a woman who obviously had an illegitimate child (I've established that much) would have to spend some of her time in a workhouse.

    My grandfather was born in 1921 and I have read that Swaffield Road workhouse
    was closed in 1930.
    Firstly, does anyone have any family connections there at that time?

    Secondly, does anyone know how I could obtain records without paying someone or taking a trip to Wandsworth? Or am I just being lazy!
    I was born and bred in that area. The Swaffield Road Workhouse can only be one place. There was a Formidable Orphanage on the corner of Swaffield Road and Garrett Lane when I was a child (1950s to 60s).If I recall its been turned into flats now (can't swear to it though). My sister still lives there, I could always ask her whats happened to it, I know it is still standing.

    My grandfather was born illegitimately in the Camberwell Workhouse, so thats where they went to have em!!

    Brocklebank is also a road in the area.

    mm

  7. #7
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    Red face

    Thanks Marymog. I don't suppose you are aware if there were any other houses on Swaffield Road in the 1920's and 30's, apart from the workhouse, are you?

  8. #8
    marymog
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    Quote Originally Posted by A Lee
    Thanks Marymog. I don't suppose you are aware if there were any other houses on Swaffield Road in the 1920's and 30's, apart from the workhouse, are you?
    There was a whole road of them, Its quite a long road,which goes up a Hill, and on the corner at the end of the road is a big old school (used to be called Swaffield Rd School.) The Houses on Swaffield Road were old, not new. You know the types that had outside looo's. I would Imagine either Victorian or Edwardian. What is the address in Swaffield road that you are searching for? My sister lived there for years, and her Parents in Law before her.

    mm

  9. #9
    marymog
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    heres some info, I had the wrong building, this website says that the workhouse was destroyed in 1930. The building that was an orphanage was the previous "union office", there is a photo on the website

    you go workhouse locations, - london surrey -clapham & wandsworth.

    workhouses.org.uk

  10. #10
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    "this website says that the workhouse was destroyed in 1930"
    I don't think it does.

    "The 'new' workhouse in Swaffield Road was built in the mid 1880's and further buildings were erected on the site between 1904-1913. In the 1920s the workhouse became known as the Swaffield Road Institution and after transfer of authority from the Guardians to the LCC in 1930 it was renamed the Brocklebank Institution."

    source - LMA catalogue

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