The recent discovery that as a young man Charles Dickens lived only a few doors from a major London workhouse made headlines worldwide, and the campaign to save the workhouse from demolition caught the public imagination. Internationally, the media immediately grasped the idea that Oliver Twist's workhouse had been found, and made public the news that both the workhouse and Dickens's old home were still standing, near London's Telecom Tower. This book, by the historian who did the sleuthing behind these exciting new findings, presents the story for the first time, and shows that the two periods Dickens lived in that part of London - before and after his father's imprisonment in a debtors' prison - were profoundly important to his subsequent writing career.

This fascinating, fully illustrated volume is the definitive guide to every aspect of workhouse life. Compiled by Peter Higginbotham, one of Britain's foremost experts on the subject, it covers everything from the 1725 publication An Account of Several Workhouses to the South African Zulu admitted to Fulham Road Workhouse in 1880. With hundreds of fascinating anecdotes, plus priceless information for researchers including workhouse addresses, useful websites and archive repository details, maps, plans, original workhouse publications and an extensive bibliography, it will delight family historians and general readers alike.

Life in a workhouse during the Victorian and Edwardian eras has been popularly characterised as a brutal existence. Charles Dickens famously portrayed workhouse inmates as being dirty, neglected, overworked adn at the mercy of exploitative masters. While there were undoubtedly establishments that conformed to this stereotype, there is also evidence of a more enlightened approach that has not yet come to public attention. This book establishes a true picture of what life was like in a workhouse, of why inmates entered them and of what they had to endure in their day-to-day routine. A comprehensive overview of the workshouse system gives a real and compelling insight into social and moral reasons behind their growth in the Victorian era, while the kind of distinctions that were drawn between inmates are looked into, which, along with the social stigma of having been a workhouse inmate, tell us much about class attitudes of the time. The book also looks at living conditions and duties of the staff who, in many ways, were prisoners of the workhouse. Michelle Higgs combines thorough research with a fresh outlook on a crucial period in British history, and in doing so paints a vivid portrait of an era and its social standards that continues to fascinate, and tells us much about the society we live in today.

100 Years on since the demolition of the grand Victorian mansion that was the Mildenhall Union Workhouse, this book tells the story of the "Paupers" unfortunate enough to have found themselves confined within it's walls. The book takes you on a time travelling experience to meet former residents of this market town in rural Suffolk. Discovering grave robbery, disease, suicide, violence and misunderstood mental illness along the way. Discover their story. Many individuals heartbreakingly fell into the poverty trap, created by the new poor law of 1834, desperate individuals who would never live outside the workhouse again. Any "Paupers" unfortunate enough to die within the workhouse, could find themselves sold to Cambridge University, their bodies used to train Medical students. Even in death the Paupers were owned by the workhouse. Read their story. However there were inmates who walked proudly away from the institution and these stories can also be found in this book too. Such as the young Mildenhall lad, who had just a few years earlier walked the streets with his mum and sisters, dressed in rags without any food, toes poking out of his worn down shoes. This family tramped the streets looking for shelter on a freezing cold November evening. The same young man a decade later created a new life for himself, literally chasing away the Workhouse shadows in Sunny California, a real life Suffolk cowboy! Read his story. Who ran the workhouse? Who were the Master and Matron of the Mildenhall Union? Who and what were the Board of Guardians? As well as the stories of the poor, this book reveals the lives of those tasked with caring for the poor. You will discover that the Master has some skeletons in his closet! Discover his story. If you were to take a short stroll through Mildenhall you would soon discover many of the street names and buildings named after former wealthy residents. Names such as Hanmer, Bunbury, North, Aldrich, famous names not just in Mildenhall but throughout Britain. The poor walked the very same streets as theses famous families, leaving behind little evidence that they were ever here. These lives now carefully pieced back together through years of research using historical records and newspaper archives. The poor were here too, read their story