Very little is known of the first workhouse in Birmingham. Even the
assumed date of its building, given as 1733 by William Hutton, is wrong.
This book is the first attempt to write a history of the workhouse and
the ancillary welfare provision for Birmingham, frequently referred to
as the 'Old Poor Law.' This study of welfare in Birmingham in the
century before the Poor Law Amendment Act reveals some surprising facts
which fly in the face of the scholarly consensus that the old system was
incompetently administered and inadequately organized. The records of
the Overseers and the Poor Law Guardians reveal a complex balancing act
between maintaining standards of care and controlling spending. Although
there was mismanagement, the picture which emerges will be familiar to
our age when welfare services struggle to meet public needs with limited
budgets.