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Local History<br />
John Chenery Thorpe Abbotts.<br />
John also came out of the workhouse only after he had died, to be<br />
buried in Thorpe Abbotts churchyard alongside his wife Ann Finch<br />
who had died many years earlier in <strong>18</strong>65. They married in Thorpe<br />
Abbotts in <strong>18</strong>21. He was born 1796 in Thorpe Abbotts and although<br />
he is listed in the workhouse in <strong>18</strong>81 records as a labourer in fact he<br />
had been a skilled wheelwright, prosperous enough when working.<br />
John and Ann had several children, his sons all became<br />
wheelwrights or skilled carpenters but most died before their elderly<br />
father, leaving only two who could possibly have taken him in as he<br />
got frailer. But they had families of their own and it is likely John was<br />
developing dementia when he was admitted to the workhouse in old<br />
age. There were no residential care homes, no hospitals that would<br />
care for long-term patients, there was no help for families at home,<br />
the workhouse was the only place to go. John Chenery died when<br />
he was 86 in the workhouse, his last resort.<br />
The Poor Law Records for Brockdish and Thorpe Abbotts are in the<br />
Norfolk Record Office ref PD 477/43 and PD277/25. Depwade Poor<br />
Law Union Records are ref C/GP 3. Next time: The Union copes<br />
with feckless George Barkway.<br />
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