In 1837 they built a Victorian Workhouse on Bridgwater’s Northgate. In 2016 it was finally demolished to build a new and much needed primary school. Today all that stands to remind us of the dreadful conditions of an atrocious system designed by a government to persecute its own people is a small monument at the school gate.
On 29th July 2017, as part of the Quayside Festival celebrations, three real chained-up dignitaries -not actors prancing round the town dressed as seagulls, giant bees or faux opera singers, gathered on the site of the workhouse to unveil three plaques that told the story of the workhouse system and the Y-shaped prison-like structure that dominated the Northgate skyline for more than a hundred years and commonly known as ‘the Big House’ where you would be threatened with being sent if life got too hard, money got too scarce or your fortunes took a nose dive. A place where you’d be forced into uniform, dominated by strict martinets, faced beatings, hard labour and in some cases even the final indignity of forced dissection for medical experiment. Continue reading “Bridgwater Workhouse Memorial Unveiled”
