‘This Man is Really an Intolerable Pest’: Perceptions and Treatment of the Disabled in the Workhouse, 1834–1900

Abstract

Peter Higginbottom has argued that historians have failed to hear, find and listen to the voices of workhouse inmates. Using the recent research undertaken by the AHRC project ‘In Their Own Write’ the focus of this article will be on the letters and statements made by disabled and infirm inmates. By using a range of the correspondence, it will explore the voice of the disabled in the workhouse and consider how those with impairments exhibited agency and fought for their perceived rights and correct treatment and will explore negotiations around poor nursing care, the removal of personal liberties, invasion of privacy surrounding issues with the mail, poor food and expectations of the type of work they should be given. At the centre of the argument and particularly for those with sensory problems it will argue that poverty was the main problem rather than individual impairments. Finally, it will examine how individuals took a bullish approach to challenging those in authority at the local and central level to ensure that obligations of aid and relief were met, albeit often unsuccessfully.