RESEARCHERS often discover from documents such as census returns or death certificates that an ancestor spent time in a workhouse.
The minutes of the Boards of Guardians, who oversaw the running of Essex workhouses after 1834, have been deposited at ERO, and these can give an idea of what life was like for inmates.
However, a picture – or in this case an Ordnance Survey map – can sometimes be far more effective.
This extract is taken from the 120 inch: 1 mile map series and shows the ground floor of the newly built Maldon workhouse (now St. Peter's Hospital) with a typical layout of rooms.
On admission to the workhouse, males and females were separated and this plan shows further segregation: for example, aged females, bedridden females, able-bodied females and girls all had different day rooms.
When allowed outside for fresh air, they would all be in different airing yards or playgrounds.
Plans of the workhouse, also available here, show that this separation continues on other floors, with different dormitories and even different staircases.
If you would like to find out more about using workhouse records, call 01245 244644.
HISTORIC manorial documents – some more than 800 years old – are available to view at a special one-off event on July 12.
Essex Through the Ages: Tracing the Past Using Manorial Documents, from 10.30am until 3.30pm, will feature four renowned speakers, including a Washington-based expert in late-Medieval and early-modern English history.
The documents make it easier for the public to trace a relative pre-1538, when parish registers were first introduced.
Manors were the unit of land at the heart of the post-Norman Conquest feudal system, in which all land was owned by the king.
He rewarded his followers by giving them land. Manorial documents were the only records in which an ordinary Essex person was likely to appear and also included surveys and maps.
Tickets cost £15.
