Chester Poor Law Union, Cheshire Genealogy

Poor Law Union
Chester was reconstituted as a Poor Law Union which formally came into being on 30th September, 1869. The previous Chester Incorporation had exempted the existing workhouse provision from the provisions of the Poor Law Reform Act.

In 1873, a new Chester Union workhouse was erected at Hoole at a cost of about £30,000. The design for the buildings was opened to competition and the winning plans were submitted by W Perkin and Sons.

After the opening of the new workhouse, the old Roodee workhouse site was used as a confectinary works by the Cheshire Preserving Company. That building was demolished in the early 1900s. After 1930, the workhouse became St James' Hospital. In 1948, following the inauguration of the National Health Service, it was renamed Chester City Hospital. The former workhouse buildings have now all been demolished. In the early 1900s, the union erected a central children's home on the Wrexham Road, as well as smaller children's homes in Dodleston, Saughall and Upton.

Constituent Parishes
Chester Cathedral Church Precinct, Cheshire, Chester Christ Church, Cheshire, Chester Holy Trinity, Cheshire, Chester Little St John, Cheshire, Chester St Bridget, Cheshire Chester St John the Baptist, Cheshire, Chester St Mary on-the-Hill, Cheshire, Chester St Olave, Cheshire, Chester St Oswald, Cheshire, Chester St Paul, Cheshire, Chester St Peter,Cheshire The parish of  Chester Castle, Cheshire joined the union shortly afterwards. Then, in 1871, Chester Union absorbed part of the Great Boughton Union, the remainder continuing under the name of the Tarvin Union. The following parishes were transferred from Great Boughton:

Backford, Cheshire

Christleton, Cheshire

Claverton, Cheshire

Dodleston, Cheshire

Eccleston, Cheshire

Ince, Cheshire

Pulford, Cheshire

Shotwick, Cheshire

Shotwick Park, Cheshire extra parochial

Stanlow, Cheshire

Great Stanney, Cheshire

Stoke, Cheshire

Thornton le Moors, Cheshire

These villages and hamlets are amongst the eccelsiatical parishes above which as civil parishes were in the union: Bache, Blacon cum Crabwall, Great Boughton, Capenhurst, Caughall, Chorlton by Backford, Croughton, Durham on the Hill, Elton, Hapsford, Hoole,  Lower Kinnerton, Lea by Backford, Littleton, Marston cum Lache, Mollington, Mollington Banastre, Mollington Tarrant, Moston, Newton by Chester, Picton, Poulton,  Great Saughall, Little Saughall, Bridge Trafford, Mickle Trafford, Wimbolds Trafford, Upton by Chester, Wervin, Woodbank.

Records
• Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies Service, Cheshire Record Office, Duke Street, Chester, Cheshire CH1 1RL. Holdings include: Inmates lists (1875-1954); Births (1914-43); Burials and graves in Union cemetery (1882-1900)

Bibliography • Burne, R.V.H. (1965) The Treatment of the Poor in the Eighteenth Century in Chester (Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural and Historic Society, lii, 44-48.) • Handley, M (2007) Poor Law Administration in the Chester Local Act Incorporation, 1834-71 (in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol.156). • Hemingway, J. (1831) History of the City of Chester • Lewis, C Building Cheshire's First Workhouse (in Chesire History, vol 38, 1998-9 • Utting, EJ (1969) The Working of the Poor Law in Chester in Tudor Times (A thesis for the degree of B. Phil. in Local History, presented to Liverpool University)

Websites
Peter Higginbothams website http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Chester/Chester.shtml has maps and images for the Union sites.