Tudor

Timeline

Health

Tudor

Plague

Doctors and Hospitals

Greyfriars

Almshouses

Workhouses

Greyfriars and the poor

After the Council moved from GreyFriars in 1560, the the former church was then converted to other uses. First, in 1578, it became a hospital for poor people, who still had to work whilst they were staying there. Later, in 1590 it became a house of correction where those who would not work or who wandered from town to town were imprisoned.

The Franciscan monks who founded Greyfriars worked hard with the poor in the town and also helped those who were sick. With the monks gone due to the dissolution of the monasteries, there was no one to look after the poor or the sick. Acts of Parliament between 1597 and 1601 gave this job to the local council, who had to appoint overseers to look after the poor and sick. The money for this was raised from the local people by taxes. This Poor Law lasted for over 200 years.

The Workhouse, as it was known, held people that were not only poor or sick, but also those who had been convicted of a criminal offence, having done something wrong. In the House of Correction those who had done wrong could be whipped as well as imprisoned.