When support for the old, lame and sick was swept away by the dissolution of the monasteries, English and Welsh communities found new secular ways of caring for their poor. We explore the evolution of charity and poor relief through the voluntary local schemes of the sixteenth century, the introduction of rates in the late Elizabethan poor acts, and the increasing legislation governing poor relief that collectively formed the Old Poor Laws until major reform in 1834. What were the causes of increasing poverty, who were the poor, and how were they affected by life-cycle crises such as being orphaned, over-burdened with children, widowed, or old? What was the impact of economic change, under- or unemployment and periods of rapid price inflation? What was it like to live in poverty, and how did the poor themselves experience and negotiate the ways of piecing together an economy of makeshifts?
We use a range of readings, class presentations and discussions to investigate changing attitudes towards the poor, periodic attempts to cut growing welfare costs such as the use of workhouses, and how these varied in different regions or over time. There will be an optional opportunity to undertake your own research into poverty in a local area.