What does it mean to live in a workhouse? Read on.

Charles Dickens "A Walk in a Workhouse" http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/poorlaw.html What is a workhouse?  Read this from Wisegeek. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-workhouse.htm Excerpt from following link about Newton Abbot: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Newton_Abbot   The Workhouse The original Newton Abbot poorhouse was based in East Street, and the cellar of the Devon Arms was used as the oakum. Oakum Oakum is a preparation of tarred fibre used in shipbuilding, for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships, as well as cast iron plumbing applications...  picking room—where paupers were assigned the unpleasant job of untwisting old rope to provide oakum, used to seal the seams of wooden boats. Newton Bushel had its own poorhouse, not far from present day Dyrons. The 1834 Poor Law Act Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 sometimes abbreviated to PLAA was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system. It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor... required changes and incorporation, so in 1839, a new workhouse was built in East Street and was used to house paupers from the surrounding areas. Over time, the workhouse became more of a hospital for the sick, infirm, and aged poor. By 1890 there were nearly 400 inmates, and reports of cruel treatment. A new infirmary was built, and during the wars some of the buildings were used as a military hospital. By 1950, the workhouse buildings were incorporated into the present-day hospital.