I	Dr Christine Jackson (Oxford): ‘Accommodating Philanthropy: the Kendrick Workhouses in Reading and Newbury’
II	OnSite: Long Alley Almshouses, Abingdon & Kendrick Workhouse, Newbury
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I: Dr Christine Jackson (Oxford): ‘Accommodating Philanthropy: the Kendrick Workhouses in Reading and Newbury’

This paper explores the building and running of two early workhouses founded in Reading and Newbury in Berkshire in the 1620s with bequests left by the London draper and merchant adventurer, John Kendrick. It focuses upon the motivation of the benefactor, the objectives and competence of the burgesses who built and ran the workhouses, the design, decoration and use of the workhouse buildings, the provision of employment to cloth workers and the relatively rapid failure of the projects. The workhouse foundations demonstrate the application of humanist ideals in the urban elite’s support of the poor and the growing penetration of classical design in municipal architecture. The foundations are unique for the period due to the scale of Kendrick’s testamentary ambitions and generosity and his commitment to providing opportunities for the labouring poor to support themselves and their families in times of hardship.

Some Suggested Reading

Beier, A, The problem of the Poor in Tudor and Stuart England (Methuen, 1983)
Jackson, Christine, The Newbury Workhouse Records 1627-1641 (Berkshire Records Society, volume 8, 2004)
Jackson, Christine, ‘Functionality, Commemoration and Civic Competition: A Study of Early Seventeenth-Century Workhouse Design and Building in Reading and Newbury’, Architectural History, 47 (2004)
Cavallo, Sandra, ‘The motivations of benefactors: An overview of approaches to the study of charity’ in Barry, Jonathan and Jones,Colin (eds.) Medicine and Charity before the Welfare State (London 1991)
Slack, Paul, Poverty and Policy in Tudor and Stuart England (Harlow, 1988)
Slack, Paul, Poverty and Politics in Salisbury, 1597-1666’ in Clark, Peter and Slack, Paul (eds.) Crisis and Order in English Towns (1972)
Hindle, S. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550-1640 (Palgrave, 2000)
Tittler, Robert, Political culture and the built environment of the English country town, c.1540-1620 in Hoak, Dale, (ed.) Tudor Political Culture (Cambridge, 1995)

II: OnSite: Long Alley Almshouses, Abingdon & Kendrick Workhouse, Newbury

 

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