The era of Forden Workhouse – life and death in the House of Industry

Imposing and stark, the Forden Workhouse also became known as the House of Industry during its darkest days.

The workhouse was built in 1795 with the capacity for 1,000 inmates.

Political bills, including the deeply unpopular Poor Law Act of 1834, and ongoing war with France, ensured the building would become home to many unfortunate souls.

The House of Industry provided food and shelter and medical care of a very basic type, the regime being deliberately harsh to deter the local poor from seeking aid from the Montgomery and Pool Union.

Families were divided, the women and children in one section, and men in another, and all were put to work.

The regime at Forden appears to have been particularly severe, with whippings being common for inmates who had committed more serious infringements of the workhouse rules.

The whippings were carried out before the assembled inmates before food was served.

Women who protested or complained about their situation were made to wear a scold's bridle.

Some would spend their lives in its confines, including George Astley who spent more than half a century within its walls and its longest serving inhabitant.

War and low wages saw the population grow at the start of the 19th century.

Soldiers returning from war roamed the countryside in search of work as the country entered the Industrial Revolution leading to economic upheaval while towns became home to more and more vagrants.

In 1795 all vagrants of ‘Pool Town’ were apprehended and brought to the House of Industry.

In the same year the widowed Thomas Pugh of Castle Caereinion had left behind two daughters to the care of the Forden workhouse.

Records reveal the guardians had battled against smallpox outbreaks and clean water had been a priority with children not permitted to drink beer until they were 10 years old.

However punishments were harsh.

In 1797 alone Mary Preynald was whipped and Elizabeth Jones was flogged while a jail cell was made in time for the public whipping of Thomas Luke, Elizabeth Williams and Maria Clayton in 1801.

In 1802 Anne Davies and Mary Nicholas were placed in the stocks.

Harsh punishments continued into the 19th century with records of Joseph Heath, Joe Jones and William Howells being flogged.

A scolds bridle.

A scold's bridle.

During this period the workhouse became home to a staggering number of children with 194 admitted in 1801.

The children were apprenticed to work for local employers though endured a miserable existence as virtual slaves.

There are some tragic accounts, including the death of Elizabeth Evans in 1812, who left behind an infant daughter by a French prisoner of war held in Montgomery.

In 1815 the children of the workhouse aged 10 or older were employed in the plaiting of straw for hats and bonnets and worked from 6am to 6pm from March 12 to October 12.

Montgomeryshire remained poor and in 1817 the death rate at the Forden Workhouse led to the expansion of the village churchyard which today is the final resting place of 733 former workhouse residents.

Forden Workhouse in 1901. Powys Local History.

Forden Workhouse in 1901. Picture: Powys Local History.

Life in Montgomeryshire would improve though the House of Industry remained as a reminder to all of their likely fate should their fortune turn.

The Forden Union was established in 1870 to succeed the Montgomery and Pool Union and the Montgomeryshire Express reported a change in policy by reporting ‘ The Forden Board of Guardians - a body which does not as a rule act upon the side of generosity - has decided to purchase footballs, cricketing tack, skipping ropes, etc., for the use of the children in the workhouse.

‘This is a step in the right direction, and one which will be warmly commended by all who are human beings first and ratepayers afterwards.’

Workhouses across Britain were finally closed in 1929.