LIMAVADY WORKHOUSE

A project by the pupils of Dungiven High School

The Newton Limavady Poor Law Union was declared on 30th September 1839 and land purchased on which to build a workhouse. It was designed to be cheap, durable, harmonious and simple with all decorations studiously excluded. It was built in a style adapted throughout Ireland and in common with other workhouses elsewhere was meant to be out of sight.

Most workhouses were built out of town and surrounded by high walls although nowadays with the expansion of Limavady the workhouse, later to become a hospital, is in a more central location.

Poverty was rife in the 1830's with most people living in very small holdings, living on a diet of potatoes supplemented by buttermilk. The domestic linen industry was being eliminated by the steam powered mills of Belfast.

Limavady Workhouse was declared ready to receive 'destitute poor persons' on 15th March 1842. Before long it had 500 inmates. Failure of the potato crop two years in a row meant that people could not pay rent. The result was eviction by the landlords with two choices for survival - emigration (which cost money) or the workouse.

In 1723 the Workhouse Test Act had been passed whereby able bodied poor would be made to work in the workhouse. Refusal meant that you were not entitled to any relief. In the 1830's a new commission recommended that all parishes should have a big enough workhouse to cope with the poor and destitute. It was decided to make workhouses as unattractive as possible and so encourage the 'able-bodied' poor to use them only as a last resort.

A Board of Guardians was elected to organise and build the workhouse and this board was responsible for administering the workhouse. All paupers who went into the workhouse were classed as follows:
Class 1 - Men infirm through age or any cause.
Class 2 - Able-bodied men and youths above the age of 15.
Class 3 - Boys above the age of 7 years and under the age of 15.
Class 4 - Women infirm through any age or cause.
Class 5 - Able-bodied women and girls above the age of 15.
Class 6 - Girls abve the age of 7 years and under that of 15.

Limavady Workhouse

It was hoped that conditions in the workhouse would encourage the poor to look for employment and support themselves. Every aspect of a paupers life in the workhouse was regulated and organised by the Board of Governors. Families were separated as were males and females.

The regulations stated:

To each class shall be assigned that ward or separate building and yard which may best fitted for the reception of such a class, and each class of pauper shall remain therein, without communication with those of any other class.

All the paupers in the workhouse, except the sick and insane, and the paupers of the first, fourth and seventh class, shall rise, be set to work, leave of work and go to bed at the times mentioned in the form marked A.

Men Women
Time of rising Half past six to seven Half past seven to eight	Time for work From seven to twelve From eight to twelve	Interval for dinner From twelve to one From twelve to one	Time for work From one to six From one to six	Interval for supper From six to seven From six to seven	Time for bed Eight o'clock Eight o'clock

Work was compulsory and there were no wages. Detailed and strict rules for general and good behaviour and conduct were laid down. Workhouses became hated and dreaded places and were known as "bastilles" after a famous Paris prison.

People avoided the workhouse as much as they could until the famine left them no choice. The workhouses became overcrowded and this overcrowding just added to the problems of disease spreading and 'famine fever' became widespread. More people died of disease than of hunger.

Rules for the Workhouse

Any pauper who shall neglect to observe such of the regulations herein contained as are applicable to and binding on him,
- Or who shall make any noise when silence is ordered to be kept
- Or shall use obscene or profane language
- Or shall refuse or neglect to work, after having been required to do so
- Or shall play at cards or any other game of chance
Shall be deemed DISORDERLY.

Any pauper who shall within seven days repeat any one or commit more than one of these offences specified...
- Or shall by word or deed insult or revile the Master or Matron or any other Officer of the workhouse or any of the Guardians
- Or shall be drunk
- Or shall wilfully disturb the other inmates during prayers or divine worship
Shall be deemed REFRACTORY

It shall be lawful for the masters of the workhouse to punish any disorderly pauper by substituting, during a time not greater than forty eight hours, for his / her dinner, as prescribed by the dietry, a meal consisting of eight ounces of bread, or one pound of cooked potatoes and also by witholding from him during some period , all butter, cheese, tea, sugar, or both. And it shall be lawful for the Board of Guardians to order any refractory pauper to be punished by confinement to a separate room, with or without an alternation of the diet (no longer than) twenty four hours.

(Rules drawn up by the Commissioners in their Seventh Annual Report, 1841.)

"My life in the workhouse" by Mary Ann Smith, age 13 years.

The day I was admitted - The fifteenth day of March 1846

As soon as I was admitted I was placed in the paupers reception room and waited for the medical officer to examine me. I then had to be washed and scrubbed before I received my workhouse clothes. These clothes had to be worn, you were not allowed o wear your own clothes. My own clothes were taken away and I should get them when I leave the workhouse.
I was then taken to a ward with twenty to thirty beds in it. There were many girls the age of ten years to seventeen years all with a hungry look. We were not allowed in any other ward or yard. We were not allowed to the other class or even to our relatives. The married couples were not allowed to sleep in the same ward. If they wished to sleep in the same ward they would have to ask the Board of Guardians who would think if it was necessary for them to be together. My parents asked the Board of Guardians if they could have a separate sleeping apartment. they said no, because they didn't have enough room for everyone to have a separate sleeping apartment.

My brothers and sisters are all in different wards. My family have not seen one another for three to four months. I have not seem my brothers and my father since I was admitted six months ago.
I hate this place. I have to get up at 6 a.m. every morning after listening to girls crying for their mothers and families. I then have to work until 7 p.m. in the wash-house. When I am finished am too tired. I can't do anything else but go to bed.
O God! deliver me from Limavady Workhouse.

Mary-Ann Smyth was the perfect example of a 13 year old girl who lived during the famine. She would have been a member of a large family existing on a rented farm of maybe 2 - 3 acres. Failure of the potato crop 2 harvests in a row meant that Mary-Ann's father couldn't pay the rent or feed his family. Failure to pay meant eviction.

SKIPPING SONG OF THE 1840's

Limavady has a workhouse, a workhouse, a workhouse
Limavady has a workhouse
Nobody wants to go in

Don't go into the workhouse, the workhouse, the workhouse
Don't go into the workhouse
You'll never get out again

Life is hard in the workhouse, the workhouse, the workhouse
Life is hard in the workhouse
You work from dawn to ten

Nothing to eat but Peel's Brinstone, Brinstone, Brinstone
Nothing to eat but Peel's Brinstone
For breakfast, dinner and tea

Limavady has a workhouse, a workhouse, a workhouse
Limavady has a workhouse
Nobody wants to go in

Limavady workhouse was in existence from 1842 to 1932. In April 1930 the twenty remaining healthy inmates were transferred to Coleraine Workhouse and work was undertaken to convert the premises to the new Roe Valley (District) Hospital. In May 1932 the last infirm patients of the workhouse were moved across to the main building to become the first patients in the new hospital. The Roe Valley Hospital closed in 1997.