New research has lifted the lid on the fascinating and mixed experiences of people living in almshouses in Birmingham between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, examining how these ‘inmates’ helped to shape our modern understanding of social care and the welfare state.
Nicholas Crowson, Professor of Contemporary British History at the University of Birmingham, studied the historical archives of Bournville Almshouse Trust (BAT) and the Lench’s Trust – charities that have provided community and independent living-focused housing for older people on lower incomes in the city for centuries.
“By bringing together genealogical data with instructional archives and census data, we have been able to build a more detailed picture of the experiences of people who lived in these almshouses, seeing how they impacted the development of social care in Britain, as well as revealing hundreds of life-stories of happiness, kindness, cruelty, love, friendship, and feelings of independence,” says Professor Crowson, who worked with former University of Birmingham academic Dr Jacob Fredrickson on the paper.
From the rise of semi-independent living arrangements to the professionalisation of social care nursing, the research shows how the almshouse model had a significant impact on our modern-day social care system. With cuts to the welfare state and the cost of living crisis continuing, there has been a recent increase in support for almshouses and Professor Crowson suggests their independence enables them to innovate with models of social care despite national regulatory frameworks.
Mostly female and increasingly older residents
By 1900, there were 11 almshouses within the city limits of Birmingham. The study (which is free to read) outlines that it was mostly, though not exclusively, single or widowed women who lived in them – unlike in other areas of the country, where almshouses were more evenly gender split.
For poorer older women unable to support themselves or rely on family, almshouses were the best alternative to absolute poverty or the workhouse. “The last man to be admitted to Lench’s almshouses was in 1708, after which the rule of admitting ‘the deserving female poor’ was introduced,” explains Professor Crowson.
“Inmates at BAT were overwhelmingly women but Bournville was unusual amongst contemporary almshouses for also providing homes to many married couples, due to the express wish of Richard Cadbury for ‘man and wife to spend their last days together in one another’s company’.”
Birmingham’s almshouse residents – or ‘inmates’ as they were referred to back then – also had a markedly higher average age of 73.3 than those analysed in other studies. The change in age profiles reflects the national increase in life expectancy in the early 20th century, and records from the time show how almshouses adapted to cater for this older age demographic.
In the 1921 census, 78-year-old Ellen Shill, an inmate of BAT shared her cottage with Annie Carpenter, 64, described as a ‘sick-nurse’. Mary Nix, 87, lived with a ‘servant’, Eliza Taylor. The researchers argue that while a degree of inference must be applied to the relatively vague categories of ‘nurse’ and ‘servant’, it is likely that these living arrangements facilitated a degree of further care and support for ageing inmates who struggled to live independently.
At the turn of the twentieth century, both Lench’s and BAT increasingly sought staff with professional nursing qualifications, underscoring the growing sense that almshouses needed to adapt to the more complex care needs of older inmates. Maud Williams (1879–1959), the matron of the Lench’s Conybere almshouse in the 1921 census, described herself as a ‘trained nurse’. By 1951, an application for matron at BAT called for a state-registered nursing qualification and ‘considerable nursing experience’.
Stories of loving care and abuse
The study took a ‘life-history’ approach to inmates, reading out from the census data and using genealogical records, digitised newspapers and the institutional archives of the almshouse charities to track back through their life. This enabled a more rounded, nuanced understanding of the person, challenging pre-conceived notions of who almshouses were for and exploring the full range of their experiences.
For instance, Emma Tutin (1827–1920) died aged 93, after living at the Bournville Almshouse since its opening in 1899. Her friends wrote to the trustees following her death to express thanks for the ‘grand privilege’, particularly to the permanent member of staff at the almshouse, the ‘superintendent’ Emily Lees ‘who with her own hands ministered with loving care to our dear old friend. That the letter was sent from Emma Tutin’s friends from outside the almshouse highlights how even older residents were not isolated from broader friendship networks.
However, almshouses were not always spaces of love and kindness. In 1870 a bed-ridden Lench’s Hospital Street resident, Mary Morris (b. 1782), sustained significant pelvic and leg injuries, allegedly caused by her nurse who had been ‘very cross’, being woken at 5am, and ‘got into a passion’. Mary would later die from the injuries she had sustained. At the subsequent inquest, the Trustees of Lench’s emphasised that the nurse had no formal role with them, and she had been provided for by the family and friends of Mary.
Social care still a national problem
“Mary’s fatal experience of almshouse living is as revealing as it is upsetting,” says Professor Crowson. “It demonstrates the (often dangerous) fault-lines of a charitable and privatised network of social care yet to give way to the professionalised and regulated (and equally dangerous and violent) care regimes of the welfare state.”
Almshouses eventually fell out of favour as slum clearances broke down community relationships and the state increased its support for older people after 1948. Yet there’s been a recent increase in support for almshouses, with a demand for community-led, semi-independent living arrangements for older people, as cuts to the welfare state and the cost of living crisis continue.
“But it is wrong to depend on hyperlocal solutions to national problems,” cautions Professor Crowson. “As the University of Birmingham and the Bournville Village Trust both recently celebrated their 125th anniversaries and Lench’s Trust enjoys its 500th anniversary this year, it is worth remembering that we can learn from the past and how the independence of almshouses gives them an opportunity to develop more flexible and alternative models of social care.”
