The new poor law and county Durham

Abstract

The thesis traces, in a general sense, the developments that directly led to the legislative reform of a poor relief system that had remained essentially unaltered since its inception too hundred years earlier. The impetus for the dismantling of the Old Poor Law is seen in largely economic terms - the breakdown of a traditional administrative scheme under the pressure of the dramatic fluctuations of an embryonic industrial society. After an extensive review of the provisions of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the paper turns to a close examination of its implementation in County Durham. The administrative framework erected in the latter 1830’s receives careful attention. An attempt is made to ascertain Poor Law Commission policy and its actual application by local organs. It is found that although the form of poor relief administration was substantially altered by the new measure, in a substantive sense, the economic considerations that animated relief management in previous years continued to dictate, to a large extent, regional administrative practices after the introduction of the Act, despite increasing interference by the Commission.