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A new source for the historian of urbanpoverty: a note on the use of charity records inLeicester 1904–29
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2009
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This article reviews the potential use of charityrecords in reconstructing the lives of the poor inthe early twentieth-century city and suggests howcomputer-assisted modes of quantitative andqualitative techniques of analysis can expand theknown source base of research on poverty. Althoughthe poor have themselves left only a small directimprint on the historical record, the historian ofpoverty has managed to use the diverse andvoluminous Victorian records generated by officialsof the Poor Law which has resulted in a variety ofadministrative and institutional analyses ofpauperism within various urban and regionalsettings. These studies have attracted a certainamount of criticism because of their dependence upona narrow range of sources and orthodox historicalmethodology. It can be argued, however, that thefull potential of Poor Law records in terms of whatthey contribute as well as what can be done withthem has not yet been fully exploited. There isscope, for example, for the linkage of Poor Lawmaterial with demographic sources, such as thecensus enumerators' returns, to explore thegeography of urban poverty in the nineteenthcentury. The value of Poor Law records would beenhanced if research questions could be phrased inrelation to the socio-geographical context of thecity, taking into account the dynamics of urbanism.For example, in Victorian and Edwardian Leicester itis possible to consider the consequence ofsocio-economic changes in a move from a domestic toa predominantly factory-based mode of production inthe hosiery and footwear trades and the impact ofthe Poor Law during this transformation as patternsof discrimination characterized the provision ofrelief in certain districts of the town.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987
References
Notes
1 The revolution in the standards of public enquiry and record-keeping with reference to Poor Law records is discussed by: Thomson, D., ‘Workhouse to nursing home: residential care of the elderly people in England since 1840’, Ageing and Society, III (1983), 43–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a local listing, see Thomson, K. M., ‘Poor Law source materials in the East Midlands’, unpublished directory of record survival, Leicestershire County Record Office, November 1984.Google Scholar
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10 Statistical Packages for Social Scientists (SPSS), version X.
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12 These packages are currently available on Leicester University's mainframe computer network and may be used by other institutions using the JANET network available at most universities and polytechnics.
13 These results are derived from a 300-case sample of Charity Records for Edwardian Leicester and represent part of a wider research project currently in progress by the author.
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17 The Leicester Charity Organization Society placed restrictive clauses on the use of case histories which are held at the Leicestershire Records Office. The aim of the restricted use is to preserve the anonymity of the people who applied for relief and the confidence in which information was obtained.
18 Outdoor Recommendations were sought to provide free medical treatment for the people referred, as a large number could be obtained through the Society for the most deserving cases. The majority of cases were then referred to the out-patients department at the Leicester Infirmary.
19 In Leicester, sweated trades such as glove stitchers were a common occurrence in working-class households as out-workers supplemented meagre household budgets. On average this form of casual work rarely earned the workers more than 4 shillings a week, usually paid on a piece-rate basis. This rate was kept artificially low by the large supply of female labour willing to undertake this work.
20 The most notable example of the Edwardians' concern for the treatment of children and their condition in working-class households is seen in the 1907 Feeding of School Children Act (Provision of Meals). In Leicester, the Charity Organization Society extended their concern for children by referring cases of child neglect and cruelty to the NSPCC. A good description of this interest among the Edwardians is found in Roberts, R., The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the first quarter of the Century (1971), 45.Google Scholar
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