Sorry for coming late to the workhouse thread, but I have been in
hospital.
The original query from the Anhony Chadwick at Ripon is a little
ambiguous. He first refers to “workhouse records” and then to outdoor
relief. While the outdoor relief records are guardians records they are
not, strictly speaking, “workhouse records” – they were created and
maintained by the relieving officers.
Notes such as this are fairly common in both workhouse records, such as
admission and discharge registers, and in outdoor relief registers.
Often they are annotations in the margins, sometimes disappearing when
the clerk's handwriting changes.
Assuming it is the outdoor relief registers, it would be useful to know
where the O.W. appears on the page. Is it in the columns for payments,
if so, is it when payment has ceased or altered? I suspect that the
only way to get to the bottom of this is to analyse who was involved.
Is there a pattern for the people – single women, women with children,
men with families, etc?
Peter Park,
Fulwood, Lancashire
>----Original Message----
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Date: 27/03/2011 22:08
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subj: [LOCAL-HISTORY] O.W.s?
>
>A query passed on from Anthony Chadwick at Ripon Workhouse Museum.
>Suggestions welcome!
>Thanks
>Peter Higginbotham
>
>----------------
> > A local lady has done some sterling work on the Ripon workhouse
records.
> > She cannot find out what the Letters O.W. stand for in columns of
items of
>outdoor relief. She also finds O.W. Cab but is not happy to guess that
this
>might be payment for a taxi.
> > The dates are first decades of the last century.
> >
> > Have you encountered O.Ws ?
>
|