Topic description and stories

Workhouse Women in St. Giles's Church by Charles Holroyd (1880-84). ©Trustees of the British Museum

Historian uncovers new evidence of 18th century London's 'Child Support Agency'

26 Jul 2018

How 18th and 19th century London supported its unmarried mothers and illegitimate children – essentially establishing an earlier version of today’s...

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Dinner time in St Pancras Workhouse, London, 1911. Workhouses, established under the Poor Law Amendment Act, were part of a Victorian programme that cut universal welfare support and stigmatised many poor people as “unproductive”.

Cutting welfare to protect the economy ignores lessons of history, researchers claim

02 Dec 2016

Amid ongoing welfare cuts, researchers argue that investment in health and social care have been integral to British economic success since 1600.

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'Madness', James McArdell, after Robert Edge Pine 1760

Care in the community

02 Oct 2012

Historians have long recognised that the family were the chief carers of the mentally ill. A new study will investigate the emotional and economic...

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The Blind Beggar and his Grand-daughter

Benefiting from history

24 Feb 2012

A Cambridge academic’s research into the final days of the Old English Poor Law has thrown up some remarkable parallels to today’s welfare state –...

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