Social welfare in Calderdale
There was a problem with poor people in Calderdale
from early times and provision was made for them even as early
as the Tudor period by the establishment of Workhouses where
the homeless wayfarer could spend a night under cover and have
a meal, working for several hours to cover the cost. Nathaniel
Waterhouse (1586-1645) built such an institution with a charter
from Charles I in 1635. This was situated near the Parish Church,
at the centre of the community, and to ensure that mercy was
tempered with some discipline a whipping-stock was erected there,
for it was also a house of correction.
Later, in 1834, the Poor Law Union was instituted
in Halifax and a new Workhouse was built in Gibbet Street in
1841. This was a large institution which replaced several district
Workhouses and cared for both male and female destitutes, but
husband and wife were separated while staying there. This system
carried on for many years until the old Workhouse became St John's
Hospital, but this was a hospital intended only for the elderly
and for many the stigma of the Workhouse still pervaded it.
Halifax General Hospital, formerly St Luke's
Hospital (1901), was also originally a Poor Law Hospital but
soon came into general use as one of Halifax's two main hospitals.
The other was the Royal Halifax Infirmary which was opened in
1898 by the Duke and Duchess of York, later to become King George
V and Queen Mary. In 2001 the Royal Infirmary was closed and
the General Hospital extended to take patients from all over
Calderdale. Before the Royal Halifax Infirmary was built a dispensary
was in use near the Parish Church and later an infirmary was
opened on Harrison Road, a building which was to be replaced
by the Magistrates Court and Police Headquarters (1900).
The Victorian period was a time of marked
philanthropy and paternalism in the attitude of many millowners
and employers who took it upon themselves to assist their own
workpeople with their needs, sometimes providing housing, education
and social institutes. It was not uncommon for an employer to
take some responsibility for sick employees, sending them food
and keeping a job available.
This Christian caring, however, did not extend
to all employers by any means. Some remained hard businessmen
who would only pay for work done well and had no interest in
the well-being of their workers. The employers who cared for
their workpeople were usually those who were known to be involved
in the church and who often played a leading part in the religious
life of the community, but Benjamin Wilson tells in his book
'The Struggles of an Old Chartist' (1887) of a man who was ill
and was refused a gift of wine on the grounds that he was a Chartist.
He also recounts how people banded together to set up small co-operatives
which sold first flour and then other commodities to their members
at the lowest possible price.
With the coming of Trade Unions the workers
became a force to be reckoned with and used their own powers
to improve their working conditions in many ways, not just increased
pay, but shorter hours, and a greater degree of safety at work.
It became harder for a worker to be sacked without good reason,
and holidays were allowed with full pay.
Throughout the years of workers' struggles
numerous charities had assisted in easing their lot and the work
of these charities carried on in many cases long after their
original function was no longer required. Sometimes they adapted
to the changes and took on a new role, many of them still working
hard today.
As time passed and the townships of Calderdale
were improved with new drainage, water-supply and housing, and
gas lighting came into general use, followed by electricity,
the living conditions as well as the working conditions improved
immeasurably for the working man. The period before World War
2 and the succeeding years were a time when large new housing
estates were built and thousands of people who had only known
life in a small, back-to-back house now became residents in a
modern house with plenty of space, a bathroom and a garden.
Equally important were the advantages which
came with the Welfare State immediately following the war. Free
medical and hospital treatment, free dental treatment and spectacles
and the provision of homes for the elderly transformed life for
thousands of people in Calderdale alone. The dread of being out-of-work,
homeless, hungry or sick was banished and people began to believe
that they had 'never had it so good.
|
