Opposition

• Rumour and Propaganda:

  • Union workhouses were built some distance from the homes of most seeking relief. This fueled a belief that they were actually extermination centers.
  • The Book of Murder, widely circulated, suggested that the commissioners were trying to gas pauper children.
  • In Devon, the poor believed the bread distributed as part of outdoor relief was poisoned.
• Rumour and Propaganda:

  • Rumours circulated that all children above the first 3 in a pauper's family were to be killed.
  • Many anti-Poor Law campaigners believed it would lower the national wage bill. Workhouses were supposed to force people onto the labour market, no matter how low the wages.
• Genuine Fears:

  People's fears were based on individual perceptions of the way in which society should be organised.

  • Many attacked the centralisation implicit in the new Poor Law. The commissioners were seen as being London-based so they wouldn't understand life outside the city.
  • Many feared it would break the traditional paternalistic bonds between the rich and poor.
• Genuine Fears:

  • Rural ratepayers realised that outdoor relief was cheaper and were worried a programme of workhouse building would lead to higher poor rates.
  • Ratepayers in northern industrial areas prone to cyclical unemployment realised to build a workhouse large enough would be a costly undertaking, if not impossible.
• In 1835, the commissioners began their work with the most heavily pauperised districts of southern England. Even though implementation began during a period of economic recovery, there were still sporadic outbursts of opposition. Local magistrates and clergy were angry at the unnecessary centralisation and the removal of traditional master-servant relationship, joined with the poor who were alarmed and fearful, to protest.
• In Buckinghamshire, people took to the streets when paupers from the old workhouse in Chalfont St Giles were being transported to the new union workhouse in Amersham. Only when the Riot Act was read, special constables sworn in and armed yeomanry put on the streets was it possible for the paupers to be transported 3 miles to Amersham.
• In East Anglia, newly built workhouses were attacked, such as the one at St Clements in Ipswich. While the poor took to the lanes and market squares of rural England, the more influential citizens used their positions to refuse to apply the less eligibility rule, continue to provide outdoor relief to able-bodied poor and find other ways to oppose what they saw as an inhumane and destructive law.
• However, the recent fate of the Dorset labourers (the Tolpuddle Martyrs), had tended to depress rural protests. By and large, most farmers and landowners enabled the Poor Law Amendment Act to be put into practice in the south of England.
• It was not until 1837, during the onset of a trade depression, that the commissioners turned their attention to the north of England. Many areas had already adapted their relief provision to meet cyclical depressions, meaning guardians, magistrates, mill and factory owners resented interference from Londoners with little knowledge of industrial conditions.
• Organised and fired up by the demands of the Ten Hours' Movement, the north turned to oppose what they saw as another assault on working people. Anti-Poor Law associations sprang up and huge protest meetings were held.
• Northern England examples:

  • Armed riots in Oldham, Rochdale and Bradford were put down by the local militia.
  • In Bradford in 1838, the assistant commissioner was threatened by the mob and pelted with stones. Troops from London were sent out to stop.
  • London troops were sent to stop 1838 riots in Dewsbury.
  • In Stockport in 1842, the workhouse was attacked and bread distributed to the poor outside.