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Text File  |  1992-09-02  |  592b  |  15 lines
  1. In the UK a former institution to house and
  2. maintain people unable to earn their own
  3. living. Groups of parishes in England
  4. combined to build workhouses for the poor,
  5. the aged, the disabled and orphaned children
  6. from about 1815 until about 1930.
  7. Sixteenth-century poor laws made parishes
  8. responsible for helping the poor within their
  9. boundaries. The 19th-century parish unions
  10. found workhouses more cost-effective. An act
  11. of Parliament 1834 improved supervision of
  12. workhouses, where conditions were sometimes
  13. harsh, and a new welfare legislation in the
  14. early 20th century made them redundant.
  15.