General Chat

Thanks Teresa, sounds like mum is right, a lot of questions been answered

Brian Cox was showing anger at the treatment of his ancestor but I wanted to smack Barbara Taylor-B. I though that was attention seeking ham acting if ever I saw it.

When you think of the elderly dying in the workhouse you must always bear in mind the state of their own homes. Often their employers or landlords were not as affluent as you might think and were not able, or didn't feel inclined. to keep their properties in good repair.

Often, of a pair of cottages, only one was habitable and that only barely so.

Mrs Gaskell gives some excellent descriptions of the lamentable living conditions of the poor, one good one being in the novel "North and South". Even to the mid twentieth century, as described by George Orwell in "The Road to Wigan Pier", the poor were still routinely living in unfit properties.

The workhouse infirmary was at least wind and watertight.

HI Linda

I think the NHS in England, Wales and NI came in to being in 1948 but a lot of workhouses had hospitals which provided care for those who could not afford to pay. They were the forerunners for medical care and a lot of Workhouses were converted to NHS Hospitals.

Teresa

Loved it but agree with what everyone has said about celebrities, hope they do more. Talking to my mum about the programme and she told my granddad died in the workhouse hospital although he was not in the workhouse. He died in March 1947 in N Ireland and I'm wonderings if that was before the NH came into being.

As always like the cow's tail I'm all behind with my input.

I really enjoyed (if you can say that) last night's episode
and felt Felicity Kendall sincere in her feelings towards
her ancestors hard life and that she was not playing to the
camera.

Emma

OK found it....I was searching for....Shadows of the workhouse......Dur!

Why isn't it on catch-up? :-(

lol ...ah you would have been so disappointed then Rose...seeing Brian 'the craggy' Cox instead of the lovely calm Brian :-D

Mau

BTW just goes to show I should have read thread from beginning, I thought the Brian Cox referred to in later posts was the physicist...I was disappointed lol as I was intrigued by the idea of him shouting...he is always so calm :-)

Very interesting I thought, I haven't seen the first episode so will catch up with that next.

My gt grandmother's two sisters were sent to Canada via Barnardo's, so BTB's story was of particular interest. Good narrative by 'Mr Carson' lol'. ( or should that be 'narration'..yes it should I think lol)

Tonight we were reminded again of the poor children who Barnados' transported to Australia, must have been an ordeal for them all to leave families behind.
Barbara T. Bradford was very upset wasn't she? when she read her mother Freda's letter asking to have her sister back to live with her.
Sad when she didn't have the money at that time to pay her sister's fare back to England and so she never saw her again.

Mau

:-D :-D

You beat me to it Emma, I was gonna nudge this thread.

So, Felicity Kendall tonight amongst the celebs.

Cue. Shock

Cue. Outrage

Cue. Tears.













Oh dear.

:-) :-)

I already have it recorded from after last weeks episode and am looking forward to watching this interesting programme again tonight, but thank you for the reminder.

Your welcome Lolly.

Emma :-)

Thanks for the reminder Emma, I am hopeless at remembering when these programmes are due to be shown as have the tele on rarely (though did see The Stones at Glastonbury on Saturday) and did watch the first part of this one last wk.

Have to agree with all that others have said about it, the only revelation (to me) being the bodies used for autopsy if the families didn't claim the body :-(

Nudge

Emma :-)

I am already in that group Kitty. I am one of the lucky? ones who had the chance to pay into a pension fund. I am not a rich man but I have few money worries. I must admit a lot of this is due to the fact that my wife and I have simple tastes. We eat well and keep our home warm but we prefer a quiet caravan holiday to five star hotels and for a meal out, the local pub suits us much better than nouveau cuisine.

So today I have money to spare to spoil my grandkids; a generation before, my poor Mum cried over a Doctor's bill, and a generation before that, the last words of my poor Grandmother in 1972, as she was dying at the age of 84 were "Don't put me in the workhouse". Bless her, the workhouse was finished by the time she died but to her and her mother's generations it was the only thing if your family were out of work. Then there were three choices: work, starve or go to the workhouse.

Today we are all much better off and I have no doubt in 2 generations time things will be even better.

Good points Barney............when I was a child, caning was still used to punish sometimes trivial poor behaviour.

Today it is not allowed.

When we are old we will regret not fighting harder to get the aged a better deal, we will, with luck be one of that group.

The same people, just older.