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Over the course of the nineteenth century there were many who were sent back to Magherafelt workhouse having arrived in Britain. Clamping down on the arrival of Irish emigrants, Scottish authorities in particular were quick to send people back to the nearest workhouse from which they had left.  Indeed, ‘sent from Scotland’ was a frequent […]

The workhouse also appears to have functioned as a place of refuge for those travelling across the country either with trades or looking for work. The location of Magherafelt workhouse to the port of Derry and the city of Belfast would have been another factor for attracting visitors and ‘journeymen’ – trade and craftsmen who […]

The Magherafelt Indoor Registers are interesting too from the point of view of professions and information they contain on the background of those who used the workhouse. Perusing the ‘Indoor Register’ reveals a host of occupations who for one reason or another sought shelter in the workhouse from time to time. They included: Book binder; […]

The physical makeup of the ‘inmates’ is also captured in the indoor registers. In the first instance the clerk recorded whether the person was sick when entering the workhouse. A glance through the registers reveals a host of common illnesses including: Consumption, pleurisy, general debility, rheumatic fever; ‘sore leg’; aged; infirm and a host of […]

With the workhouse acting as place for medicine and medical procedures take place, the rooms often included those who had sought assistance. After a period in the infirmary or the hospital ward, people went to the workhouse wards. Those like Bernard Hughes of the Loop certainly needed the workhouse when he was admitted with a […]

While the numbers of people entering the workhouse during the Famine remained high, there were other peaks for admittance. For example, the records of the early 1860s show an increase in people entering and for many their circumstances mirrored those of two decades previous.  The length of stay is of particular importance when analysing names […]

Among the surviving documents relating to the history of Magherafelt Workhouse include the ‘Indoor Registers for the years 1842- 18??.  The year 1847 of the Indoor Registers has been transcribed and published by Al Bodkin and the Ballinascreen Historical Society and have proved to be a hugely important guide for local people trying to assess […]

By the mid-1860s with the workhouse numbers decreasing from Famine era levels, the workhouse functioned as what we would consider a modern-day hospital or health facility. People entered the workhouse for medical treatment, staying for short periods depending on their condition. Often these people would have been advised to do so following advice from a […]

 In 1852 advertisements for a schoolteacher specified that the candidate should have a working knowledge of agriculture in order to instruct the boys about the farm, an integral part of the workhouse. It was perhaps one of the most important parts of the workhouse complex building in that it provided work for men and boys, […]

The management of the Magherafelt Workhouse was meticulous and much credit due to John Steele, who was clerk much of the first forty years of its history. Every penny was accounted for and carefully reported to the Poor Law Commissioners. This information was in turn sent to the government and published in a raft of […]