Rochford Poor Law Union, Essex Genealogy

History
A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Rochford (for 24 ), Hockley (20), and Rayleigh (20). Rochford Poor Law Union formally came into being on 30th October 1835. Rochford Union workhouse was built in 1837 on a site at the north side of West Street in Rochford. The building cost in the region of £5,000 and accommodated 300 inmates. It was designed by William Thorold who was also the architect of the Norfolk workhouses at Depwade Poor Law Union, Guiltcross Poor Law Union,  Thetford Poor Law Union,  Walsingham Poor Law Union and  Wayland Poor Law Union. An infirmary was added at the north-west of the workhouse in 1858 and a chapel in around 1865. In May 1916, the aged and infirm block was taken over by the military authorities for housing German prisoners of war. In 1920, the workhouse infirmary became known as Rochford Hospital and expanded in the 1920s with a new board-room block at the south of the site, additions to the infirmary and nurses' home, and a new block for mental and feeble-minded patients. The board-room block was also subsequently used as a chapel. In 1930, the infirmary was handed over to the control of Southend-on-Sea's Public Health Committee. It underwent further expansion to the north-west and the hospital site was renamed Southend Municipal Hospital, later becoming Rochford General Hospital. In 1930, the workhouse part of the site was transferred to the Public Assistance Committee and was renamed Rochford House. The main building was rebuilt in stages during the 1930s. After 1948, the former workhouse became Connaught House old person's hostel, and was later known as the Roche Close home for the aged. Most of the former workhouse buildings were demolished in the late 1990s.

Acacia House Children's Home
In the early 1900s, the Rochford union operated a children's home in Acacia House at the junction of South Street and East Street in Rochford. The building is now used as council offices.

Constituent parishes
Ashingdon, Essex Barling Magna, Essex Canewdon, Essex Canvey Island, Essex Eastwood, Essex Foulness, Essex Great Stambridge, Essex Great Wakering, Essex Hadleigh, Essex Havengore, Essex Hawkwell, Essex Hockley, Essex Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Little Stambridge, Essex Little Wakering, Essex North Shoebury, Essex Paglesham, Essex Prittlewell, Essex Rawreth, Essex Rayleigh, Essex Rochford, Essex Shopland, Essex South Benfleet, Essex South Fambridge, Essex South Shoebury, Essex Southchurch, Essex Southend St John the Baptist, Essex Sutton, Essex Thundersley, Essex

Records
Essex Record Office, Wharf Road Chelmsford CM2 6YT. Holdings include: Guardians' minute books (1835-1930); Births (1837-1930); Deaths (1914-22); Lists of poor in workhouse (1774-1829); Newspaper cuttings (1894-1936)

The surviving records are held at the Essex record Office in the reference G/Ro Title [ROCHFORD UNION] series, along with other record series. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 removed responsibility for the poor from parishes (see D/P.../11-18) and transferred administration to Boards of Guardians of the Poor. The Guardians administered groups of parishes or Poor Law UNIONs. Each UNION 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 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/MP 1-22). Many of the workhouse infirmaries continued as hospitals after 1930, continuing after the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948. The records of the Connaught House Public Assistance Institution (D/BC 1/5-6), formerly the ROCHFORD UNION infirmary at the Southend Branch are also available. 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. For copy of calculation of Poor Law Board of average annual expense of each parish in the ROCHFORD UNION 1858, see T/P 83/3 pp. 13-15 and for balance sheet of ROCHFORD UNION, 1868, see T/P 83/3 pp. 92-96.

Websites
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Rochford/Rochford.shtml Workhouses website