The cottage is part of Brackenber Lodge which was originally a Victorian workhouse and was converted into private houses in the 1950's. We believe that the cottage is the only place in Britain that you can stay in an original Victorian workhouse.

Most people have heard of the boy who asked for more in CHARLES DICKENS' novel OLIVER TWIST. Oliver was a poor & miserable child who lived in a workhouse similar to Brackenber, and like all workhouse children, Oliver was permanently hungry owing to the totally inadequate meals. 

Oliver Twist is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who escapes from a workhouse and travels to London - at that time Shap had 5 trains a day leaving for London - where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities.

WHAT WAS A WORKHOUSE?

If you were poverty-stricken, or an unwanted orphan, or an impoverished widow, if you were too old to work, or if you were on the tramp, or you were sick or deranged, you could end up in the dreaded union workhouse. The workhouse, sometimes referred to as the Bastille, was a ruthless attempt in 19th century England to solve the problem of poverty.

A drawing of a typical workhouse for 200 inmates which is very similar to Brackenber Lodge.

This type of workhouse was mainly seen in rural areas, these were totally self contained with cookhouse, sleeping quaters, hospital and work areas.
Note the separate yards for men, women & children

A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORKHOUSE

• The first legislation for providing relief to the poor were the Acts of 1572, 1597 & 1601.

• The 1601 POOR LAW ACT gave responsibility to local parishes for looking after very poor people, who were able to claim assistance from the parish's householders. Poor people were able to live at home when they were getting parish relief.

• With the 1834 POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT people receiving help from the parish had to live in a workhouse & could no longer live at home. In return for parish relief, they would be made to work hard in the workhouse; which is how the term originated. The Act also allowed parishes to club together into unions responsible for building workhouses & for running them. In the next few years hundreds of workhouses were built at a typical cost to the union of £5,000.

• By 1926 there were 226,000 inmates & around 600 workhouses with an average population of about 400 inmates each.

• The 1929 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT abolished workhouses & their responsibilites were given to county borough & county councils.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE WORKHOUSE?

Life was meant to be much tougher inside the workhouse than outside, and the buildings themselves were deliberately grim & intimidating - they were designed to look like prisons. They were full of illness & disease brought about by over-crowding & the starvation diet. When you were admitted to the workhouse, you were stripped, searched, washed & had your hair cropped. You were made to wear a prison-style uniform. Women were at all times kept separate from the men, including their husbands. Children were kept separately from adults - even from their own parents.

A well known story tells how a labourer gave notice to leave the workhouse with his wife & children - only to be told: "You cannot take your wife out. We buried her three weeks ago". In one instance, a girl aged 15 years died in the workhouse. Her records showed that she was born in the workhouse & had never been outside the place. Aversion to the "house" was extremely strong. At Cuckfield in Sussex they had deep snow December 1836 & all outdoor work ceased. 149 desperate men applied for parish relief. 118 of them were offered the workhouse and 112 refused. Later another 60 men applied & 55 of them refused the "house". Of the 5 who were admitted, 3 left within hours of discovering what life in the workhouse was like.

WORK IN THE WORKHOUSE

The work inmates were made to do was deliberately tedious. Householders objected to supporting idlers, so work was meant to keep people busy & to subsidise the cost of relief provided by the parish. Work was not always available & there was sometimes local hostility to the workhouse's cheap labour.

After rising at 5am (in summer), an inmate worked 7-12am and 1-6pm; which is a 10 hour working day. Bed was 8pm. As well as gardening - the 1 acre field in front of Brackenber was the vegetable garden for the workhouse, cooking & sewing, there was corn milling, sack making, oakum picking (unravelling short lengths of rope) & crushing stone for road repairs. Bones were crushed by hand to make fertiliser. Sometimes the inmates were so hungry that they would pick scraps of flesh off the bones and eat it. The bones were not all animal bones either! Bone crushing was banned after 1845.

FOOD IN THE WORKHOUSE

"And Workhouse bread ne'er cross'd my teeth -
I trust it never will" . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ebenezer Elliott, Corn Law Rhymes 1831*

Until 1842 all meals were taken in silence, and no cutlery was provided - inmates had to use their fingers. And the meals were kept dull, predictable & tasteless. There were 6 official diets which were so meagre that they were described as "a slow process of starvation".

A typical diet was:-
BREAKFAST 6 oz bread;
DINNER 4 oz bacon and 3 oz bread or potatoes;
SUPPER 6 oz bread & 2 oz cheese. [Note, oz is short for ounce, 1 ounce = 25 grams].
The official ration in HM Prisons was 292 ounces of food a week. The workhouse diet was between 137 and 182 ounces a week only.

BEHAVIOUR IN THE WORKHOUSE

Inmates faced an oppressive regime & there was inevitably trouble, with riots at Chesham (Bucks), Huddersfield, Bradford, Todmorden (near Manchester) and elsewhere. The larger workhouses were often out of control, & we hear an interesting report from the COSFORD HOUSE OF INDUSTRY in Suffolk: "... the windows of the dining hall were much broken by the practice of throwing stone at the governor as he was pressing through the hall ...The insubordination of the inmates was so extreme, that if the governor attempted to correct any disorder, the whole of the paupers rose in a body to resist his authority, and more than once violently assaulted him, tearing his clothes & subjecting him to gross personal indignities".

BRACKENBER WORKHOUSE

Subsequent to the dissolution of Shap Abbey, to which itinerants (An itinerant is a person who travels from place to place with no fixed home. The term comes from late 16th century: from late Latin itinerant (travelling), from the verb itinerari, from Latin iter, itiner (journey, road) had reglarly migrated causing a diversion from the recognised north-south route there would no doubt be a problem with penniless travelers arriving in Shap.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions, each Union being administered by a local Board of Guardians according to the directions issued by the Commission. According to the Act, relief was only to be given to able-bodied paupers through the workhouse and central to the formation of a Union was the provision of a workhouse building which is now known as Brackenber Lodge.

View of the front of current day Brackenber Lodge

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Google Street View of Brackenber - use your mouse to move the image

Brackenber in the news:

July 1909 - Dr. Nicholson, Shap Workhouse’s doctor miffed by the guardians’ action on dentistry (they said he’d do it), wrote to them, reopening the matter. They now opt for the usual - dentistry for children only – even though some inmates have pulled out their own teeth. Inmates 30, 17 fewer tramps, total 157 this fortnight.   

November 1909 - November Fine, frosty. The Workhouse Guardians examined the Masters accounts and found it gets 5 eggs a week for 5 inmates, on doctor’s orders, and others for the Master (Mr. Glessall) and Matron. Eggs now cost 2d each (in 2009 = 40p). Eggs are too dear for us at present, said the Guardians (=Workhouse Committee), let alone for you, and cancelled the order forthwith. Mr. Isaac Robinson, sen., Shap, ’s son Thomas is Acting-Sgt in Manchester City Coroners Court; has worked there 4 years now; before that, was an active bobby, catching several burglars. He is now promoted to full sergeant’s rank in that Court. Further from the Workhouse Committee – No eggs to be bought for it or its staff till 1st January 1910 at earliest. Its inmates number 27; tramps through this 2nd half of Nov, 153; same totals as last years. London agrees to putting central heating in; Messrs. J. and W. Scott, of Penrith are doing so. London says that the Committee’s gift to the Shap Parish Hearse Fund is illegal. As W. Wand RDC, noted that all but two houses in Hardendale are now on the RDC’s water supply; one of the two, Mr. Turner, has a good spring in a field there.

December 1909 - Cold, dull, snowy. Vast blizzards, 2 and 3 week. On 22 , trains snowbound at Tebay. Shap Workhouse Guardians opted for the status quo as to the Vicar’s proposed new Parish Hearse (this letter read out). At present the undertakers keep a hearse and hire it out (with its horse) for 2/6 a time. Vote was 6-4. In Christmas week our relief to be 1/- extra for adults, 6d extra per child, for Christmas shopping. In the House, the usual Christmas dinner, but no beer this time. – Mr. Cockburn: “Will you give them any eggs? (Laughter).

27 March 1910 - A workhouse child is still absent from Shap School. Why? - The Workhouse Master; I do not know what you resolved on, and the child is still under the doctor - send the School the doctor's certificate.

29 April 1910 - In Shap Workhouse 237 tramps late March, down 47 on the same time last year.

14 February 1911 - In Shap Workhouse, mid February, 13; Tramps that fortnight, 112 (11 fewer than Feb 1910). There's to be a new cistern. The blue rock brocken by the tramps is to be sold to the highway authorities. Trains from Shap are 5 daily each way to and from London.

1939 - The troubles of wartime forced Worsley Home For Boys nr Manchester to close and the boys were evacuated to Shap (on the edge of the Lake District)

With improvements in welfare, charitable trusts and local authority housing, the need for the institution de-creased by 1924, the workhouse had closed and its inmates transferred to the East Ward union workhouse at Kirkby Stephen. It was then re-deployed as the Carlisle Childrens Home - we have had several visits over the years by people who were housed as children in the cottage. One visitor even pointed out his name he had scratched in one of the cottage windows.On the outbreak of war in 1939 evecuee children were drafted in for the duration.

Later, Italian POW's and displaced persons were housed there and eventually, no longer needed, it was put up for sale.  The Shap Granite Company bought it in 1954 and converted it into 11 domestic units for employees. Malcolm was born in No6 in 1960 and later moved to No5 which is now the holiday cottage in 1975.

RELATED INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKHOUSE

"I liked being at the Children's home in Shap, Cumberland living with children my own age. One day Miss Graves - I remember her well - dressed me in my sailor suit of white and blue & little straw hat. We boarded the train bound for Preston. I was 6 years of age".

WILLIAM JAMES HARDING

c1926

1881 Census: Residents of West Ward Workhouse, Shap, Westmorland

Total residents: 80

PENRITH HERALD and East Cumberland andWestmorland News, Saturday, January 10,1874 / WEST WARD UNION MEETING 

No. 434. Second Week in Quarter. Registered for Transmission Abroad. Price One Penny
______________________________________________________

WEST WARD UNION.

The Guardians of the West Ward Union held their fortnightly meeting at Eamont Bridge Workhouse on Wednesday afternoon. In the absence of MR. JAMES ATKINSON (the chairman), MR. JAMESON was called upon to preside. The ex officio members present were REV. W. R. MARKHAM, REV. G. F. WESTON, and REV. S. WHITESIDE. There was a fair attendance of elected Guardians.
_____________________________________________________

ANOTHER TURN IN THE WORKHOUSE TROUBLE.

The CLERK said MESSRS. CORY and FERGUSON, architects of Carlisle, had, as requested, furnished a plan of the alterations in and additions to the old workhouse, together with all necessary information. The CHAIRMAN said having now before them the site for the workhouse in a clear and intelligible form, the next thing was to consider how much was to be paid for it. The land required was computed to be 1 acre and 1,420 square yards, and for this £150 an acre would have to be paid, and for the present building would cost £779. The original agreement was that the Board was to take the farm buildings behind the old house, and for these MR. COWPER was to be allowed £577. This arrangement was made about two years ago; but since that time MR. COWPER had become rather infirm, and instead of erecting the farm buildings himself, he would rather that the Board found the materials and put up the buildings for him.
MR. JOHN LONGRIGG thought it was time to give up altogether if they could not get a site without going to work to erect an expensive block of buildings for another person.
MR. IRVING objected to expending the ratepayer's money in such a manner.
A general feeling was expressed against entertaining MR. COWPER's request, and a deputation, consisting of MR. JAMESON, REV. G. F. WESTON, and CAPTAIN MARKHAM, were appointed to wait upon MR. COWPER in reference to the subject.

ANOTHER DIFFICULTY.

A communication was read from the Local Government Board concerning the plans of the new Vagrant Wards at Shap. They were desirous of ascertaining whether the premises which were formerly occupied by the Guardians of the West Ward Union for that purpose could not again be used in the same way.
In reply to a question, the CHAIRMAN said that LORD LONSDALE had not withdrawn his offer of a site for a Vagrant Ward at Shap.
After a long and somewhat animated discussion, it was decided to obtain the information required by the Local Government Board and trasmit to London, the question as to the desirability of the building for a Vagrant Ward being left over for further consideration.

The Guardians then resolved themselves into a sanitary authority, the places reported upon being Great Strickland and Shap, and the alterations suggested were ordered to be carried.
______________________________________________________

Events of 1877 when the cottage was built

January–March

• January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .
• January 8 – Indian Wars – Battle of Wolf Mountain: Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry in Montana.
• January 20 – The Conference of Constantinople ends with Ottoman Turkey rejecting proposals of internal reform and Balkan provisions.
• March 1 - William James gave a public lecture at Sanders Theatre, Harvard entitled Recent Investigations on the Brain.
• March 2 – In the Compromise of 1877, the U.S. presidential election, 1876 is resolved with the selection of Rutherford B. Hayes as the winner, even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
• March 4
  • Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.
  • Rutherford B. Hayes becomes President of the United States, succeeding Ulysses S. Grant.
• March 15 – 1877 Australia v. England series: The first Test cricket match is held between England and Australia.
• March 24 – For the only time in history, the Boat Race between the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford is declared a "dead heat" (i.e. a draw).

April–June

• April 24 – Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
• May 5 – Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.
• May 6 – Realizing that his people are weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
• May 8 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens (ends May 11).
• May 16 – The May 16, 1877 political crisis occurs in France.
• May 21 – (May 9 O.S.) – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire (recognized in 1878 after the end of the Romanian independence war).
• May 31 – Brantford, Ontario, Canada is officially incorporated as a city.
• June 15 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
• June 17 – Indian Wars – Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
• June 21 – The Molly Maguires are hanged at Carbon County Prison in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
• June 26 – The eruption of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador causes severe mudflows that wipe out surrounding cities and valleys, killing 1,000.
• June 30 – The British Mediterranean fleet is sent to Besika Bay.

July–September

• July 9 – The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon.
• July 10 – The then villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
• July 16 – Great railroad strike of 1877: Riots by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad railroad workers in Baltimore, Maryland lead to a sympathy strike and rioting in Pittsburgh, and a full-scale worker's rebellion in St. Louis, briefly establishing a Communist government before U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in the armed forces.
• July 19 – Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: The first battle in the Siege of Pleven is fought.
• July 30 – The second battle in the Siege of Pleven is fought.
• August 9 – Indian Wars – Battle of Big Hole: Near Big Hole River in Montana, a small band of Nez Percé Indians who refused government orders to move to a reservation, clash with the United States Army. The army loses 29 soldiers and Indians lose 89 warriors in a U.S. Army victory.
• August 11 – Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the outer moon of Mars.
• August 17 – Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill is fatally wounded by Billy the Kid. Cahill dies the next day, becoming the first person killed by the Kid.
• August 18 – Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, the inner moon of Mars.

• September 1 – The Battle of Lovcha, third battle in the Siege of Pleven, is fought.
• September 5 – Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier, after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.

October–December

• October 10 – Following the recovery of Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer's body from where he fell during the Battle of Little Big Horn the previous year, Custer is given a funeral with full military honors and is laid to rest at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
• October 22 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.
• November 21 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound, considered Edison's first great invention. Edison demonstrates the device for the first time on November 29.
• November 22 – The first college lacrosse game is played between New York University and Manhattan College.
• December 9 – The fourth battle of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 is fought, concluding the Siege of Pleven.
• December 14 – Serbia restates its previous declaration of war against Turkey.

]Undated

• Nineteenth Century magazine is founded.
• September 1877: The first meeting of the Knights of Reliance in Lampasas County, Texas, which morphed into the Farmer's Alliance and eventually became the Populist Party.^[1]
• Winter 1877/1878: after the defeat of the Dungan revolt in China, several thousands refugees cross the Tian Shan to settle in the Russian Empire, thus starting the future "Soviet Dungan" ethnic group.
• A professionally led army of draftees crushes a major rebellion by feudal elements protesting the loss of their previleges in Japan.

Ongoing events

• Aceh War, Netherlands colonial war in Aceh (aka Thirty Years War) (1873–1904)
• War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878), leading to the formation of Bulgaria in 1878.

The area around Shap was extensively settled in Neolithic times, and there are several stone circles, and other standing stones nearby. Shap itself was built on the site of a 2 mile long Neolithic stone avenue which had at its mid point a 400m diameter stone circle which is very close to the holiday cottage. You can read more about the standing stones and stone circles of Shap here