By Richard Bryant, Lindfield History Project Group

Country life in past centuries is often depicted as the idyll of ‘merry old England’. The reality was dramatically different, with rural parishes like Lindfield rife with poverty, hardship and pauperism.

To help the poor, between 1563 and 1601 the Government enacted legislation that provided a framework for the provision of poor relief by parishes. To pay for this relief, the parishes levied a poor rate according to needs. The Poor Law Act 1601 became the basis for administering relief for the next two centuries. Overseers of the Poor were elected by the Parish Vestry, an early forerunner of Parish Councils. The poor receiving relief were divided into three categories: the able-bodied (who were to be found work), those who were physically unable to work, and those unwilling to work. To keep the poor rate down to a minimum, the Overseers often made payments ‘in-kind’. Provision of a poor house for the destitute was permitted, although it is not thought Lindfield took such action at that time.

In 1723, parishes were empowered to establish workhouses in addition to the provision of poor relief. The first mention of a workhouse in Lindfield is around 1730 and the property was rented by the Parish Overseers, but so far the location has yet to be identified. The workhouse moved in 1740 to another rented property, today known as Firs Cottage, on the High Street near All Saints Church. The inmate numbers steadily increased from about ten in the beginning to approaching 30 by the late 1700s. To accommodate the increasing numbers, an ‘annexe’ was established in a neighbouring small cottage to the north, now long since demolished. Little is known about conditions in the workhouse, but it can be assumed they were not comfortable. The menu for inmates in autumn 1783 was:
Breakfast - Six days a week, pottage (a kind of thin stew) and on the seventh day (presumably Sunday) gruel (a thin porridge).
Lunch – beef or pork pudding and lard buttered pudding.
Supper – bread and cheese.
On Christmas Day 1782, it is recorded the inmates had plum pudding and perhaps this was a treat every Christmas.

In April 1788, trustees acting for Mrs Priscilla Merry purchased Firs Cottage from its then-owner Joseph Beard and the adjacent annexe. The new owner continued renting the property to the Parish Overseers. Around this time, Mr and Mrs Merry also purchased Old Place, today West Wing in Francis Road. Shortly after her husband’s death in 1793, Mrs Merry offered to sell Old Place and its acre of land to the parish, to replace the over-crowded Firs Cottage. This fine Elizabethan house, built by the Chaloner family in 1584 when they were Lords of the Manor of South Malling Lindfield, had subsequently passed through various owners.

The Overseers, on behalf of the parish, secured a large loan to purchase Old Place and the workhouse moved to its new location in 1794. The workhouse accommodated the elderly, disabled, able-bodied paupers and orphans. Expectant mothers were taken care of and their illegitimate children delivered at the workhouse. In exchange for their keep and accommodation, the able-bodied were expected to work and were usually hired out to farms and local businesses. Where possible, pauper children aged over seven were apprenticed in an effort to provide them with a skill and thus break the cycle of poverty.

Nationally, the early decades of the 1800s were the time when poor relief was at its height and the poor rate was creating an unacceptable burden on those required to pay. Poor harvests, the Napoleonic War and its aftermath, and an increasing population resulted in a dramatic rise in corn prices and, in turn, flour and bread, a staple of the diet. Farmers depressed labourers’ wages in the knowledge that the parish would address the resultant poverty from the poor relief, also most agricultural labourers were employed by the day so if no work meant no pay. This was a particular problem during winter. Being a rural parish, Lindfield was badly affected in this way.

The demand in Lindfield for relief in 1831, resulted in a poor rate of 2s 6d in the pound for the summer quarters and 5s in the pound (25%) for the winter quarters, charged on the value of property. In the year ending 25th March 1831, Lindfield parish provided assistance to 196 individuals, of which some 37 resided in the workhouse. Most of those receiving assistance and living outside the workhouse were able-bodied men, reflecting the reality of being an agricultural labourer.

The outside relief was the biggest burden. In addition to weekly fixed allowances paid to the aged, widows and orphans, relief was also given ‘in kind’, such as flour, clothes and shoes, wood for fuel, cottage repairs, coffins, medical treatments and bedding. Doctor Richard Tuppen, who lived at Froyls, was the medical officer for the workhouse and parish poor, for which he was paid £25 per year. The total cost of relief and the workhouse amounted to around £1,500 per year, with the cost during the winter being almost double that of the summer quarters.

The Government had to respond to this situation and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was passed. It minimised the amount of outdoor relief and made confinement in the workhouse the central element of poor relief for both the able-bodied and the helpless poor as their last resort. To minimise the number of people seeking accommodation, workhouses were encouraged to be as unpleasant as possible. Married couples were separated and children taken from their parents. Outworking was generally not permitted and workhouses required the able-bodied to undertake basic labour on the premises.

The 1834 Act required parishes to combine together to form a Union to build workhouses and administer the poor relief. This resulted in the Cuckfield Union being established on 26th March 1835 and taking responsibility for the destitute of Lindfield parish and 14 other parishes in the area, from Ardingly to Albourne and Cowfold to Horsted Keynes. For the first ten years, existing parish workhouses were utilised. In 1845, a new workhouse, designed to accommodate 450 inmates, was built in Ardingly Lane, Cuckfield – it later became Cuckfield Hospital and is now apartments. The Lindfield inmates were duly transferred to Cuckfield, with the Cuckfield Union not only taking the inmates from Lindfield’s workhouse, but taking ownership of the Old Place property, in effect stealing it from the parish without giving any compensation and leaving Lindfield to repay the outstanding purchase loan debt. The Cuckfield Union subsequently sold Old Place to Mr Noyes of East Mascalls. In 1875, he sold it to Charles Eamer Kempe, the renowned Victorian stained glass artist. Thus the property that had been the workhouse became the start point for Kempe’s grand country house, Old Place as we see today.

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