What was a workhouse? The word alone was calculated to send a shiver down the spine of any honest 19th century working man. It meant the end of the line, the final humiliation. He said: Abandon hope, all you who enter here. If you were poverty stricken, an unwanted orphan or an impoverished widow, if you were too old to work, or were ill or deranged, you could end up in the dreaded union. work house. The Poor Law of 1601 placed the welfare of the poor under the responsibility of parish councils. The council would house the poor in a cottage or house built for the purpose. Some poor people were provided with money, food and clothing while continuing to live in their homes. After the civil wars of the mid-17th century, job shortages led to increasing numbers of people moving in search of work. This has put pressure on the parishes, which are responsible for providing aid. The government passed the Act of Settlement of 1662 which stated that parishes could only give relief to long-term residents or people born within their boundaries, all others must return to their place of origin. The workhouse really came to prominence with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which required each of the new parish unions to provide a central workhouse which classified the poor by age, sex and circumstances and housed them in conditions which only the truly destitute would apply. Relief was only given to those poor people who agreed to accept the strict regime of the workhouse, where the conditions provided were financed at a level below that accessible to a working person.Sculcoates Workhouse1881How could it have been “Hello sir, my name is? " My name is Mary Jane and they say it's 3......halfway......oad and Fountain Road. School blocks and officers' quarters were added in 1883, however they were changed to infirmary blocks in 1896 and by 1900 the workhouse could accommodate 832 inmates. National Achieves records that it changed its name in 1929 to Beverley Road Institution and then in 1949 it became Kingston General Hospital. It closed in 2000, however the day hospital remained open until 2002, when the building was demolished and Endeavor High School was built and opened on the site. Works Cited Members of the Hull and District Local History Research Group. "A Breath of Sculcoates" Edward Gillett and Kenneth A Mahon. A History of Hull”Peter Higginbotham”www. Workhouses.org.uk” www. enciclopedia.comJOHN CANNON. "workhouses". The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Enciclopedia.com. March 19. 2012.