Nottinghamshire 8 - Southall , a workhouse and if you want to get out of the heat come here

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We arrived back home from Yorkshire and County Durham. Suzy possibly now could get off the drive . The concrete arrived to complete the drive . It was a hot and muggy day. Not the sort where you want to or need to concrete a drive. It arrived too dry and in the wind and the sun it went off . It does not look pretty but at least all we need now is for it to dry and we should be able to move Suzy. She needs to move . Just like us she feels dejected. Just like us she wants the wind in her sails. Just like us she wants to wake to a new view every day. Only 53 days and we will be truly on the road again and in search of some Autumn sun in Spain. She is though being treated in a few weeks to an all over wash, polish and clean up courtesy of a firm who specialise in cleaning motorhomes.

So what did we think of Yorkshire and County Durham then? You know what it is like when you go somewhere different. Sometimes you expect much and it fails to deliver . Othertimes you expect little and get a big surprise . Well this trip was like the former rather than the latter. The weather was poor but then June has been awful. July has not started much better with early morning fogs reminiscent of an Autumn day, heavy quick downpours more likely to be seen in April than in July and dull days . A poem comes to mind when I talk about places to visit . It' s a pretty little thing and you can imagine all sorts of things when you read it . No idea who wrote it - the name of the bottom says Ryokan but they are hotels in Japan so I am open to suggestions. I thought that Yorkshire was a bit like this poem. "The flower invites the butterfly with no mind" Yorkshire invites you with its hills and dales, its dry stone walls , its pretty villages and picture perfect villages. We were the butterflies arriving with open minds. "the butterfly visits the flower with no mind". Well we did visit and went with truly open minds. If it was good we could go back. After all it is only two hours away and we are getting to the end of things within an hours travelling distance to visit .I still have a couple of heritage railways on the radar and a return to Haddon Hall but beyond that I am starting to quite literally scrape the barrel. "the flower opens , the butterfly comes". Well Yorkshire and County Durham opened their welcoming arms to us . "the butterfly comes the flower opens". A bit vague but we went, we saw, we enjoyed what we saw and we will go again. That is the beauty of going with an open mind . Either it works or it doesn't and this time it did work for us .

So what of today. We are about 46 days from Europe, Suzy still needs sorting out inside but summer has arrived bringing with it temperatures of 32 degrees. That sweltering muggy heat that makes our ankles swell, that makes us want to find a dark cave to retreat to in order to get out of the sun that burns down on us. The car is boiling like an oven. The steering wheel too hot to handle . We are struggling to sleep. It's work tomorrow and I feel shattered and drained . Still not shattered enough to turn down a trip out into our pretty local countryside . To Southall - pronounced quickly as Suthall. The south part of the name lost in pronounciation . To the workhouse and apparently a rather cool underground cellar.

Our first stop on the way was Hotel Van Dyk for some dinner. We don't like guided tours so avoided visiting before 12 as this was guided tour time. You meet outside and are taken round and the history of the workhouse and some of the rooms is relayed to you before you visit the rest of the house. We decided dinner first and workhouse later when it was free visiting and you are able to walk around on your own using either an audio tour guide or you can go old fashioned and read a guide . We had been before but that was many years ago . We visited the place when it first opened and there was nothing . I mean nothing inside. Just a bare shell which you could visit. We had a particular interest in the workhouse for two reasons. The first reason was because our great great great grandmother died in Wellington Shropshire workhouse in 1879. Her family had died , she was left alone and the workhouse was the only place she could go to. The second reason was more recent . Memories of my grandmother talking about the shame of going into the workhouse. She spoke sadly of the destition people felt where there was only one thing left to them but to go into the workhouse and finally she feared the place. It was the worse thing you could ever do to find yourself in the workhouse . You were workshy. You were poor. YOu were at the bottom of society. Pondering over the past we ate our lunch which consisted of chicken escalopes with potatoes and vegetables and I ate boeuf cooked in a french style with creamy mashed potatoes and oven cooked vegetables.

Finding the workhouse was not easy. All roads lead to Southall but Sally Sat Nag had no idea where the workhouse was. Despite putting in the town and asking her to find it she decided to have a hissy fit and refuse to play ball. We drove in the general direction of the workhouse and must have missed the obvious . A lane called Workhouse Lane . We instead drove into town past the wonderful Norman Minster and rode round and round trying to find the building or some sign that directed us to it. We were almost on the point of giving up when hey presto a brown sign. Always a good sign of something interesting . A clue first the racecourse and underneath an acorn so we had found the clue we were looking for.



On site there is plenty of parking and because the kids still have not broken up from school for the summer holidays the place was relatively empty . The workhouse is surrounded by lovely grounds and feels very rural. A huge red brick building it is quite a lovely thing belying its past. This workhouse was known as the Greet House and is operated by the National Trust which meant for us free entry. It was built in 1824 and was the prototype of the 19th-century workhouse. It was cited by the Royal Commission on the poor law as the best example among the existing workhouses, before the resulting New Poor Law of 1834 led to the construction of workhouses across the country. It was designed by William Adams Nicholson together with the Revd. John Becher who was a pioneer of workhouse and prison reform. The building remained in use until the 1990's when it was used to provide temporary accommodation for mothers and children.It was intended to be turned into flats but luckily it was listed and came into the hands of the National Trust . Had it not come into the hands of the Trust its use would have been different today. Not a lovely house of a well heeled gentleman and not a Palladian pile . More social history and part of the fabric of the ordinary man. Restoration began in 2000 and it was probably at that point we first came upon this lovely building with a different past.

As we walked up the paupers path we passed through the well filled victorian vegetable plots full of rhubarb, potatoes , peas and beans . We paid a donation and brought home fresh blackcurrants just picked from the plants. Once through the gardens where there is not one single flower - flowers were frivolous and wasteful of time - they produced nothing so were not grown - we entered the workhouse itself. First room the wash room where the inmates were scrubbed with red carbolic soap to within an inch of their lives. They were deliced and reclothed in regulation white uniform which set them apart as paupers and families were split. The old and infirm who could not work were sent to the dormitaries on the top floor where they were cared for. The men were separated and moved to their quarters and the women and children sent to the other side of the workhouse . A high wall separated families They only saw each other on Sundays at the church services. After the cleaning process was completed the inmates were put to work. The men broke stones . The stones were piled up in the yard. It must have felt a pointless exercise. Some of the women would work in the wash room washing and ironing the clothing from initially the workhouse and later they took in washing from the town. The children were put to unpick rope. If they had any time to themselves it was spent outside in the vegetable gardens, in the kitchens or exercising in the separate exercise yards. Life was hard . Food was eaten communally and it was not very filling nor very appertising. They slept together in metal or wooden beds with straw palliases on top and thick itchy woollen blankets . Life was hard but I guess without any money it would be worse outside the workhouse . At least here in return for work you got a roof over your head and food to fill your belly.

We walked through room after room full of beds , a school room , the matrons room, the staff rooms overlooking the exercise yards. Life must have been strange knowing that at all times you were being watched and your lives controlled . We wandered through the cold cellars which were a blessing for us on such a hot day. For the inmates it must have been damp and arduous to work down there in the cold, in the dark and the draughts. Some inmates stayed there all their lives. The books filled with the names of the dead . Many died of senility according to the death certificates. Other inmates came in when times were rough and gave up their tools for bed and board returning to work when it was available .

What a thought provoking day and visit . It made us think just how much work had been done on the building and the interiors since we last called round. We thought of our relative who lived and died there . What must the last years of her life have been like ? We will never know.

One thought though did come to mind - a saying from the Book of Leih Tzu - "If you don't have enough to eat - work on getting enough to eat. If you can't keep warm in winter - work on getting sufficient clothing". I wonder if this is what the governors of the workhouse said to the inmates . I doubt they would have said the next bit to the inmates "If you don't have time to enjoy yourself work towards getting leisure time" "But when you have enough you should stop". The last stanza would never be said in a workhouse . I doubt the inmates had much leisure time. For us a delightful day spent at a place with a dark part of our social history.

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