Our three talks are:

Helen Palmer- Investigating the Workhouse

The Workhouse was one of the most feared of 19th and 20th century institutions. As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, Union Workhouses were built all over England and Wales to deal with the poorest in society in a new way. What seemed like a great idea on paper became a nightmare for some of the inmates, with issues including separation, starvation and the loss of identity and self-respect. Was there anything good about the Workhouse? Read Oliver Twist – or just pop along to this talk!

Susan Moore- Investigating Chancery

Susan Moore is an expert on the Chancery court and will be speaking about the wealth of information that can be found in Chancery records relating to institutions ranging from libraries to schools, charities to chapels, and from workhouses to lunatic asylums, all of which can be relevant for a One-Place Study.

Liz Craig- Investigating the Lodge for Inebriate Women

Liz Craig started researching the Temple Lodge Home for Inebriate Women in Torquay, Devon, when she found one of her ancestors was a patient there in the 1901 census. She was intrigued… What was this institution like? What treatments did they use? Unable to find much information, and with the only surviving records being two minute books covering part of the time that Temple Lodge operated, she decided to research Temple Lodge and its patients herself.

This exciting event is run by BALH in partnership with the Society for One-Place Studies in what we hope will be the first of many collaborative events. You can read more about the Society for One-Place Studies here: https://www.one-place-studies.org/