Workhouse Poem.

My family tree is going very well. The one thing I noticed, is that most of my family ended up or began life in a Workhouse House !

So to keep it in the family, here is a verse about this type of establishment.



Workhouse Poem


"By day I must dwell where there's many a wheel,
And female employed to sit down and reel,
A post with two ringles is fixed in the wall,
Where orphans, when lasted, loud for mercy do call,
Deprived of fresh air, I must there commence spinner,
If I fail of my task I lose a hot dinner;
Perhaps at the whipping post then shall I be flogged,
And lest I escape my leg must be clogged.
While tyrants oppress I must still be their slave,
And cruelly used, tho' well I behave:
Midst Swearing and brawling my days I must spend,
In sorrow and anguish my days I must end."

James Chambers, workhouse inmate.