Workhouses and orphanages

• Workhouses had been set up earlier in the 19th century and were run by Poor Law administrators.
• They offered food and shelter to those too poor to survive independently. Inmates would often be old, sick, disabled, orphaned, or unmarried mothers.
• Conditions were deliberately made worse to put people off from entering. Inmates were expected to do tough manual labour and wear uniforms. Families were split up.
• The campaigner and philanthropist Dr Thomas Barnardo set up an orphanage for boys in 1870 to try to improve conditions for orphaned children. He later opened up a girls’ home. By the time he died in 1905 there were nearly 100 Barnado’s homes nationally.