Workhouse timeline

1250

William de Stuteville, Lord of the Manor of Gressenhale, constructs the Chapel of St Nicholas in the area known as Rougham in the parish

1550

The Chapel of St Nicholas is dissolved, the building becoming Chapel Farm

1774

A petition for an Act of Parliament to build a House of Industry presented

1775

Act of Parliament 15 George III C59 'for the better relief and Employment of the Poor within the Hundreds of Mitford and Launditch in the County of Norfolk'

7 July 1777

Mitford and Launditch Corporation House of Industry opened

1781

Post windmill built

1785

Burial ground consecrated

1825

Stock and implements sold off the farm and it becomes tenanted

1834

A sixth of the inmates die of cholera and scarlet fever

1834

Poor Law Amendment Act 4 William IV c76 'An Act for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the poor in England and Wales'

May 1836

Mitford and Launditch Poor Law Union formed

1836

Conversion of House of Industry to Union Workhouse begins

September 1836

Windmill and stock sold

1837

William Rush, age 13, takes charge of school during schoolmaster's illness and later becomes the first Pupil Teacher

1846

Old brew house demolished and new wash room and laundry built in able bodied women's yard

1847

Poor Law Commission replaced by Poor Law Board

1851

Mill Piece (now Centenary Wood) becomes the industrial farm for training the boys and girls in farming

1853

Accommodation for 'respectable elderly married couple' built, becomes Cherry Tree Cottage

1854

Practice of oakum picking for able bodied introduced

1866

Practice of making unmarried mothers wears a 'distinctive dress', 'Jacket Women', ceases

1868

Chapel built (designed by R M Pinson and opened by the Bishop of Norwich)

1871

East wing converted into the infirmary and the fever and isolation ward is built

1884

Children sent to Gressenhall Parish School

1887

Workhouse school reopened and children return from the parish school

1899

Workhouse school finally closed - boys are sent to Gressenhall School and the girls to Beetley School

1901

Installation of boilers for heating and steam powered laundry

1913

Telephone installed at workhouse

1914

Hollies, Theatre Street, Dereham becomes the Children's Home

1917

50 German prisoners of war are accommodated in the east wing

1919

German POWs repatriated to Germany

1919

Register General refuses to write workhouse on birth or death certificate and Gressenhall becomes 'Beech House' or 'Beech Hill'

1925

Oakum picking ceases as a task for able bodied inmates

1928

15 Norwich Road becomes Children's Home, later called Garfield House

1930

Taken over by County Council, becoming Gressenhall Poor Assistance Institution

1932

Electricity supplied to workhouse

October 1946

Gressenhall Poor Assistance Institution becomes Beech House, Gressenhall

1948

National Assistance Act finally closes workhouses and Gressenhall becomes Beech House, a county home for the elderly

June 1974

Half the residents move to Glaven Hale, Holt

January 1975

Remaining residents move to Huntingfields, Costessey

February 1975

Beech House closes and the building is taken over by Norfolk Museums Service, becoming the Norfolk Rural life Museum

1975

Friends of Gressenhall formed