Ancestry UK

North Witchford, Cambridgeshire

[Up to 1834] [After 1834] [Staff] [Inmates] [Records] [Bibliography] [Links]

Up to 1834

In 1725, the early workhouse directory, An Account of Several Workhouses..., noted the existence of a workhouse at "Chateris" and "Mershe" [March] .

A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation in Chatteris (for up to 35 inmates) and March Hamlet (100 inmates).

In 1789, Chatteris erected a parish workhouse on Black Horse Lane. The building used bricks made of clay from the Slade and fired locally.

Chatteris parish workhouse, 2003.
© Peter Higginbotham.

After 1834

North Witchford Poor Law Union was formed on 9th December, 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 25 in number, representing its 7 constituent parishes as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

Cambridgeshire: Benwick (2), Chatteris (7), Doddington (3), Manea (2), March (7), Welches Dam, Wimblington (3).

The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 12,663 — ranging from Welches Dam (population 137) to March (5,117). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1834-36 had been £6,854 or 10s.10d. per head.

North Witchford Union workhouse was built in 1838 at the north side of Benwick Road to west of Doddington. Its location and layout are shown on the 1901 map below.

North Witchford workhouse site, 1901.

The workhouse design was based on the popular cruciform or "square" plan. A two-storey entrance block at the south contained a porter's room on the ground floor with the Guardian's board-room above.

North Witchford from the south, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

North Witchford from the south-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

To the rear, accommodation wings radiated from a central supervisory hub with males placed at one side and females at the other. A long block at the north may have been the original workhouse infirmary.

North Witchford from the east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

North Witchford gate-lodge from the south-east, 2001.
© Peter Higginbotham.

In 1905-6, North Witchford appears to have housed paupers sent from the St John's Road workhouse in Islington. This may have been due to a shortage of space at the Islington establishment and spare capacity at North Witchford for which a suitable charge could be made to the Islington guardians.

After 1930 the workhouse became Doddington Infirmary, then from 1948 Doddington County Hospital. The buildings were demolished in June-July 2003.

Staff

Inmates

Records

Bibliography

  • Bevis, Trevor From Workhouse to Hospital: Illustrated Reminiscences of Doddingtom Hospital
  • Hampson, E.M. (1934) The Treatment of Poverty in Cambridgeshire, 1597-1834 (Cambridge Studies in Economic History; CUP).
  • Murphy, M.J. (1978) Poverty in Cambridgeshire (Cambridge Town, Gown, and County; Oleander Press).
  • None.

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