From Workhouse to World Class Research Institute :
History of the Newcastle
General Hospital site
Further Reading
- The History of Newcastle General Hospital by George Hurrell, published by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital Management Committee, 1967 (source of much of the information on this page and the site plans and aerial photograph above)
- Do the patients know they are in the workhouse, Margaret Young, North Magazine, February 1973 pp 26-27
- (both available in Newcastle Central Library local studies collection)
- Much has been written generally about life in the workhouse and contemporary writers frequently included references in their work. Charles Dickens placed Oliver Twist in a workhouse orphanage. George Orwell spent some time as a vagrant when researching what was to become Down and Out in Paris and London and wrote about conditions in the "spike", a slang term for workhouse. The most famous (if melodramatic) poem about workhouse life is probably "It was Christmas Day in the Workhouse"
External Web Pages
- www.workhouses.org.uk - a very comprehensive site covering the history of workhouses, with detailed listings, sorted by county, and much useful information on workhouse life.
- Newcastle upon Tyne Workhouse and Poor Law Union - page about Newcastle Workhouse from the above site, including photographs
- - the following link (from the above page) shows a full list of all 792 staff and inmates with their age, occupation and place of birth as recorded in the Census of 3rd April, 1881.
- Newcastle Union Workhouse - one of a series of comprehensive pages on old UK institutions; the main site also includes a section on the Poor Law
- The Victorian Poor Law: an overview - pages from a site dedicated to the study of Victorian life.
- The Workhouse, Southwell, Nottinghamshire - built in 1824, it is a very early example and is said to be the least altered workhouse structure in existence. It is now owned by the National Trust and is open to visitors.
- The National Archives - Living in the shadow of the workhouse - projects to make old workhouse records more widely available. The Southwell Workhouse papers are now available.
Tyneside Life and Times Project (online photographic archive)
- Newcastle Union Workhouse, possibly late 19th century
- Newcastle Union Workhouse, 1890s
- NGH Nurses Home, 1930 - Built on the opposite side of Westgate Road to the hospital, a subway ran from the basement, under the road, emerging in the 1870 building complex. It is no longer a nurses' home and is now used as a private hostel.
- Newcastle General Hospital, 1997 - photograph taken shortly after demolition of 1870 ward blocks, before landscaping of the site.
Workhouse and Wingrove Hospital Records
Records held by Tyne and Wear Archive Service
From User Guide - sources relating to the poor (PDF: 74 KB)
Newcastle Union
- Apprenticeship / children's records 1808-1930
- Bastardy registers and orders 1844-1931
- Birth registers 1840-1923
- Chaplain's hospital reports 1921-1931
- Committee (various) minutes (including some admissions/discharges/deaths) 1905-1930
- Correspondence 1895-1923
- Emigrants records 1922-1930
- Financial and rating records 1838-1930
- Guardians minutes 1836-1930 (sometimes include information concerning admissions/discharges/deaths)
- Lunacy records 1848-1928
- Medical / vaccination records 1907-1930
- Miscellaneous printed material 19th-20th centuries
- Old people's records 1895-1931
- Property and institutions' records (incl. workhouse) 1752-1930
- Records of the unemployed 1888-1928
- Relief and resettlement records 1848-1930
- Staff duties 1880-1896
- Staff records 1873-1929
- Vagrancy records 1864-1921
- Workhouse inventory 1930
- Workhouse punishment books 1893-1913, 1923-1936
Newcastle Union Workhouse (later Newcastle Wingrove Hospital and Newcastle General Hospital)
- Administrative / property records 1868-1948
- Deeds 1835-1901
- Patient records 1889-1948
From User Guide 9 -Medicine (Section 4, Personal Papers etc.)
Papers of George Hurrell MD
- Consultant Chest Physician at Newcastle General Hospital 1945-1964. Records relate to the history of Newcastle General Hospital 1901-1970
