Genealogy Forum UK

Were workhouses used as some form of hospital?
My g.grandad died at the above workhouse in 1894 (buried St James Eve Hill Dudley) had wife + son at the time(married 1893)

Jac.

ps.Occupation tailor (family legend has it that he suffered a heart attack while working at sewing machine)

Dudley Union Workhouse became Burton Road Hospital. Dudley Archives hold records on the workhouse here:-

http://blackcountryhistory.org/collecti ... GB145_GDU/

They hold the Admission & Discharge records, but there are some years missing, so you will need to contact the archives to find out if they include 1894.

Peter Higginbotham has a really good web site on Workhouses here:-

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

Workhouses were residential and elderly people without means frequently found themselves there so it's not surprising they died there. Also the cramped conditions and communal living (although the sexes & children were usually separated) meant that diseases flourished amongst the poorly nourished inmates. There are some truly terrible statistics about life expectancy in the Workhouses.

moving to misc.