Examining the Resilience and Life Chances of Workhouse Children 1850-1914

This project will be the first to examine and compare the inter-institutional encounters and life chances of workhouse children in nineteenth-century England. Yorkshire has been chosen as a case study as it allows me to measure responses to workhouse children in its industrial, urban districts as well as its smaller, agricultural, rural areas. Moreover, the survival of a unique range of institutional sources make the study possible. A rich lode of records from the Northallerton and Bradford Union Workhouses survive from 1837. For these reasons, research in this area will considerably advance our understanding of the long-term effects of institutional intervention in children's lives and reveal previously unknown aspects of the workhouse child's post-institutional experience.