Secrets from the Workhouse

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1 General Information
2 Cover
3 Information
- 3.1 The Last Resort
- 3.2 A New Beginning
4 Screenshots
5 Technical Specs
6 Links

[edit] General Information

Sociopolitical Documentary hosted by Jim Carter, published by ITV in 2013 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

In Victorian society the workhouse represented the underbelly of society, where anyone who was poor, homeless, unemployed or ill was sent to live. With no benefits system in place, destitute people were either left to starve on the streets or forced to submit themselves to the harsh conditions of the workhouse where they worked ten hours a day doing menial tasks such as breaking rocks up or picking apart ropes.

[edit] The Last Resort

Fern Britton, actor Brian Cox, author Barbara Taylor Bradford and model Kiera Chaplin - granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin - uncover the facts about how their families went from a life of poverty to end up in the workhouse. Fern is upset to find that her pauper ancestors would have had their bodies dissected for medical science as part of their welfare debt to society when they died in the workhouse. Brian's great grandfather was a low paid Irish immigrant who moved to Glasgow in search of work but ended up in Barnhill poorhouse. Barbara is shocked to discover her mother's secret workhouse past - she went into Ripon workhouse as a child when her own mother became pregnant. Kiera is horrified by the reign of terror endured by her family in the Lambeth workhouse.

[edit] A New Beginning

Brian Cox, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Felicity Kendal discover more about how their relatives eventually escaped the workhouse system. Brian's great uncle was separated from his father, taken out of the poorhouse and sent to a foster family a hundred miles away in Ayrshire. Although Barbara's grandmother did get married, her aunts and uncles found themselves destitute once more and they were taken into the custody of Dr Barnardo's and sent to Australia under a government backed scheme. Felicity Kendal learns that her great grandmother's illegitimate child was forcibly taken into the care of the workhouse, but years later became a decorated war hero and successful farmer in Australia.