Description

This paper takes a look at the first 15 years or so of Faversham Union Workhouse, which opened in 1836. It was among the first of hundreds built across the country, all of which closed as workhouses in 1929.  During those first years in Faversham there were several scandals; embezzlement by officials; the death of a pauper poisoned in the hospital ward; an unseemly row among doctors over fees; a pauper boy made dear by the schoolmaster; and a pauper child left unburied while a partish clerk haggled over the bill for digging the grave.