NHER 51822 (Monument record) - Site of Thetford Union Workhouse and St Barnabas' Hospital, Bury Road

THESE BUILDINGS WERE PREVIOUSLY RECORDED UNHER NHER 1092

Site of Thetford Union Workhouse and St Barnabus' Hospital.
The Thetford Union Workhouse was constructed in 1836 in response to the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the subsequent amalgamation of parishes into Poor Law Unions run by a Board of Guardians. In 1836 Thetford was designated the centre of a union which included 34 parishes in Norfolk and Suffolk, extending southeast to Market Weston and northwest to Northwold (S1). In 1837 the old town workhouse located in Magdalen Street was closed and the remaining inmates were transferred to the Union Workhouse.
The Union workhouse was constructed on the southern edge of Thetford between Bury Road and the Little Ouse and accommodated 300 paupers and a hospital (S1). The red brick building had a three storey centre block with a long three storey range on each side (S2). The centre block had a slate roof and pediment, and a hood and bracket over the door (S2). A chapel dedicated to St Barnabas was added in 1863. The elected Boards of Guardians which administerd the workhouses were officially abolished in 1929, but the Thetford workhouse may have continued to operate as late as 1953 (S3). However the hospital, by this time known as St Barnabas Hospital, continued to be used until 1970 (S3). During this time the hospital accommodated about 60 patients and the majority of the former workhouse wards were either left empty or used as storerooms (S3). The listed building was demolished in 1973 and residential dwellings now occupy the land within the workhouse walls.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 26 August 2008.

July to August 1977. Excavation.
Four trenches were excavated between the site of St Barnabas’ hospital and the isolation hospital in order to determine whether the Saxon town defences passed through this area. The Late Saxon defensive ditch and other Late Saxon settlement was recorded (see NHER 1092).
In addition, two sets of post medieval features observed in Trench 1 were interpreted as likely garden features associated with the Thetford Union Workhouse. These consist of parallel north-south flat-based trenches designed to be freely draining and north-south rows of rectangular pits which appear to have contained organic material. These features contained 19th century pottery and brick as well as a late 14th century Walsingham lead pilgrim badge and a Late Saxon bone comb tooth fragment. The garden features were cut by a post medieval pit and a brick sump associated with St. Barnabas’ Chapel.
Information from (S4). See NHER 1092 for further details of the Late Saxon features.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 7 October 2008.