Workhouse Lives VI: All Events

In the sixth online series of workhouse lives seminars we focus on the operation and experience of workhouses under both the Old and New Poor Laws, and in England, Wales, and Ireland. Our speakers range across themes including pauper burial sites, the emigration of pauper children, workhouse poetry, pauper bodies, female poor law guardians in Wales, disabled inmates, and the poor law inspectorate. The series also hosts two papers outlining book length projects on the nature of workhouse life under the Old and New Poor Laws respectively. Seminars take place via Teams at 1700 on the dates indicated. Papers generally last 45 minutes with time for questions thereafter. Please do sign up for some or all of the seminars, and a Teams link will be sent to you on the day before the paper is due to take place.

Registration

Here you can register for all Workhouse Lives VI sessions. The link to join each event will be sent to your email the day before the event. If you have any problems with the link please contact steven.king@ntu.ac.uk

List of events

4 November 2025: ‘The poetry of the workhouse poor: An exercise in recording and creative writing’, Peter Jones and Steven King (Nottingham Trent University)

2 December 2025, ‘'Runaways and Tearaways? Weathering the Scared and Scarred Pauper Body’, Elizabeth Hurren (University of Leicester)

6 January 2026: ‘Tyranny observed: Lives under the 19th century poor laws’, Paul Carter (The National Archives) and Steven King (Nottingham Trent University)

3 February: ‘To the ends of empire: the migration of Belfast's workhouse children to Canada 1900-1914’, Olwen Purdue (Queens University Belfast)

3 March: ‘"He's just a pauper whom nobody owns": pauper burials and the public history of the workhouse in Ulster’, Robyn Atcheson (Independent Scholar)

7 April: ‘“Weak Minded and a Cripple": Disability and Persistence in Manchester's Workhouses’, Annette Wright (Nottingham Trent University)

5 May: ‘Welsh Women Poor Law Guardians and the Workhouse, 1869–1928’, Joelle Gorno (The Sorbonne, Paris)

2 June: ‘Monitoring the localities: the Poor Law Inspectorate and barriers to control’, Natalie Carter (Surrey Library Service)

7 July: ‘The pre-1834 workhouse revisited’, Susannah Ottaway (Carleton University, USA), Alannah Tomkins (Keele University), and Samantha Williams (University of Cambridge)

All events start at 5 pm and are expected to be around 40 - 45 minute, followed by questions.