| The Workhouse - Before the Act of 1834 did away with the small village workhouses and created the Unions, the row of houses between the entrance to Court Meadow and the DIY shop, with other buildings since pulled down where the blacksmith's yard is, was the old workhouse. An outer door high up in the side of the end house abutting on the yard, which was reached by an outside stair only removed within the last half century or so, was that of the Relieving Room, where, as well as the ordinary parochial relief, the Fermor Dole was in the past distributed, which was mainly corn.
The dress of the old men inmates was a smock frock and straw hat and there was a special pew in St. Denys, since taken away, where the pauper men and women sat.
from Our Village, written and published by The Rotherfield History Research Group in 1979 |
