Lexden and Winstree Poor Law Union, Essex Genealogy

History
For more information see The Workhouse, Lexden and Winstree, Essex

Constituent Parishes
Abberton, Essex Aldham, Essex All Saints in Stanway and Lexden, Essex Birch, Essex Boxted, Essex Brightlingsea, Essex Chappel, Essex Copford, Essex Dedham, Essex East Donyland, Essex East Mersea, Essex Easthorpe, Essex Fingringhoe, Essex Fordham, Essex Great Horkesley, Essex Great Tey, Essex Great Wigborough, Essex Inworth, Essex Langenhoe, Essex Langham, Essex Layer Breton, Essex Layer Marney, Essex Layer de la Haye, Essex Little Horkesley, Essex Little Tey, Essex Little Wigborough, Essex Marks Tey, Essex Mount Bures, Essex Peldon, Essex Salcott-cum- Virley, Essex Stanway, Essex Wakes Colne, Essex West Bergholt, Essex West Mersea, Essex Wivenhoe, Essex Wormingford, Essex

Records
Essex Record Office, Wharf Road Chelmsford CM2 6YT. Relatively few records survive. Holdings include: Guardians' minutes (1836-1930); Ledgers (1836-1930); Master's report book (1863-70) Essex Record Office reference G/Lw Title [LEXDEN AND WINSTREE UNION] The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 removed responsibility for the poor from parishes (see D/P.../11-18) and transferred administration to Board of Guardians of the Poor. The Guardians administered groups of parishes or Poor Law UNIONs. Each had its own workhouse. In 1872 the Public Health Act created urban and rural sanitary authorities, with the Guardians constituted as the rural sanitary authority for those parts of each UNION not in an urban sanitary authority. These records are catalogued here as G/...S. The Local Government Act of 1894 replaced rural sanitary authorities with rural district councils (see D/R). The Local Government Act of 1929 abolished the Boards of Guardians and transferred their powers to the Public Assistance Committees of County Councils (for minutes of Essex County Council Public Assistance Committee 1929-1948 see C/MPa 1-22). Many of the workhouse infirmaries continued as hospitals after 1930, continuing after the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948. For other records illustrating the work of the Guardians see D/P.../19. For orders, directions and declarations of Poor Law Commissioners responsible for grouping parishes into UNIONs, 1835-1837, see Q/RSw 2-5. For catalogue of correspondence between Poor Law UNIONs and Poor Law Commission (later Poor Law Board and Local Government Board) 1834-1900 see List and Index Society vol. 56. G. Cuttle The Legacy of the Rural Guardians (Heffer, 1934 E.R.O. Library 362.50942) provides a good account of the work of the Guardians in six mid-Essex UNIONs, together with the newscuttings he collected and used in writing the book (T/P 181). For analysis of ledgers see Journal of the Society of Archivists II, pp. 367-369. LEXDEN and WINSTREE UNION consisted of the parishes of Abberton, Aldham, West Bergholt, Birch, Boxted, Mount Bures, Chapel, Wakes Colne, Copford, Dedham, East Donyland, Easthorpe, Fingringhoe, Fordham, Great Horkesley, Little Horkesley, Langenhoe, Langham, Layer Breton, Layer-de-la-Haye, Layer Marney, East Mersea, West Mersea, Peldon, Salcott Virley, Stanway, Great Tey, Little Tey, Marks Tey, Great Wigborough, Little Wigborough, Wivenhoe, Wormingford. Following the abolition of the Witham UNION in 1883 the parishes of Inworth and Messing were added.

Websites
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lexden/