Poor Relief - Law Commission

(r) no-one eligible to be a Guardian without being a ratepayer or benefactor
to the town.
4. The workhouse at Colchester was duly constructed pursuant to the 1697 Act in
or around 1700 in the old Crutched Friars building in Crouch Street. By 1711,
however, the workhouse moved away to East Street. A report by the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1725 confirmed that the workhouse inmates
included 40-50 children at work carding and spinning wool. By 1745, however, it
seems that the workhouse had ceased to operate because of the collapse of the
Corporation in that year. This failure obliged adjacent parishes to provide their own
workhouses. Shortly after the Colchester Poor Law Union formally came into being
on 19 October 1836, a new Colchester Union workhouse was opened. The site of
this new workhouse was redeveloped for residential use in the 1990s.
5. The 1697 Act has long been obsolete. It dates back to an age when relief for
the poor, and the money to pay for this, was organised on a parish basis. As
indicated in the accompanying background note, the system of parish-run poor relief
was abolished by the Local Government Act 1929. The poor law system was itself
finally abolished by the National Assistance Act 1948. The finance for providing the
income and other support previously provided by the parish is today drawn either
from funds provided by central government or raised by local government from local
taxation.
6. Accordingly the 1697 Act is obsolete and may now be repealed on that basis. 35
Extent
7. The provisions proposed for repeal had no effect outside the area of
Colchester, Essex.
Consultation
8. HM Treasury, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the
Department for Work and Pensions, Essex County Council and the Local
Government Association have been consulted about these repeal proposals.
(32-195-455) LAW/005/018/06
July 2009
35
An Act of 1741 (15 Geo.2 c.18) amending the 1697 Act was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act
1950, s 1, Sch 1.
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