Sunderland's First Workhouse Built in 1740 and stood in Church Walk next to Holy Trinity church. The Elizabethan poor law had made it the duty of every parish to maintain it's poor. In 1797, 176 people were in the Sunderland workhouse, of those, 36 were children. A workhouse was built in Bishopwearmouth in 1827, at the west end of High Street. It was found to be damp, crowded, ill-furnished and lacking in adequate provision. With the town's rapidly increasing population a larger workhouse was built in Hylton Road (now part of the General Hospital) in 1855, designed by J. E. Oates of York at a cost of £16,415. By 1857 there was already a scandal over dirty and verminous conditions in this newest workhouse
The census of 1871 shows that this workhouse contained 325 males and 342 females. In a less sensitive age some of these were recorded as being imbeciles, idiot from birth, deaf and dumb, blind or insane. The number of officers at the workhouse was given as 6 males and 19 females.
Sunderland Workhouse Diet 1796
Hasty Pudding a kind of porridge made by stirring flour or oatmeal into boiling water or milk. Gruel a thin liquid soup. Pease Soup a thick yellow soup made from peas. Bread was the staple workhouse food and this was made from wheat and rye.
Each person was allowed 6oz. of bread at dinner and supper on meat days Sunday and Thursday 1/2lb of beef was served to each person.
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