Poor Relief - Law Commission

let out for employment as servants for one year or more; power to hire out
poor persons to do harvesting or hop-picking work (sections 10 to 13)
(d) repeal of the 1778 Act provisions concerning the assessment of rates to
raise money to service and repay debts; new substitute provisions
whereby the Guardians were authorised to make a fresh assessment to
cover the cost of providing poor relief in the hundred of Stow (including
running the workhouse) and of servicing and paying debts; assessment to
be calculated by reference to the average such costs incurred over the
previous seven years (sections 14 and 15)
(e) as from March 1824 the expenses of the Corporation to be divided into
two separate classes: First Class to cover the cost of maintaining the poor
(whether or not in the workhouse), Second Class to cover the cost of the
workhouse including salaries, repayment of debts and repairs; Guardians
to assess the parishes for their contributions in respect of both Classes;
Guardians required to re-assess every seven years (sections 16 to 21)
(f) assessments to be approved by justices of the peace; churchwardens and
overseers of the poor required to collect the rates from each inhabitant
and hand them to the treasurer; appeals against, and objections to, any
assessment (sections 22 to 28)
(g) provision of relief to the poor in cases where the poor persons are living in
their own homes; removal and remuneration of Corporation officers;
officers required to account for rate money received; penalties for failure
to account; clerk and treasurer to be separate persons; repeal of the 1778
Act provisions about the duties of churchwardens and overseers; new
substitute provisions concerning their duties, and new penalties for failure
to comply (sections 29 to 33)
(h) power for Guardians to acquire additional land to help maintain and
employ the poor; power to sell surplus land; this Act and the Acts of 1778
and 1780 to be construed together; expenses and status of this Act
(sections 34 to 38).
5. A workhouse was built in 1781 at Onehouse (near Stowmarket) under the
authority of the Act of 1778. Following the establishment of the Stow Poor Law
Union in 1835, the workhouse was taken over by that union. In later years the
workhouse closed and became used as the Stow Lodge Hospital which, in turn, shut
in 1991. The site has since been converted to residential use.
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