Leigh Union workhouse

Leigh Union workhouse, also known as the Leigh workhouse and after 1930, Atherleigh Hospital, was a workhouse built in 1850 by the Leigh Poor Law Union on Leigh Road, Atherton in the historic county of Lancashire.

The Elizabethan Poor Law made the townships the unit of administration of the poor laws, and each appointed unpaid Overseers of the Poor to collect poor rates. Paupers were given cash or kind as outdoor relief. Workhouses were more common from the end of the 17th century and provided indoor relief. Pauper children, especially orphans, were often apprenticed to local craftsmen to learn a trade and ease the burden on the poor rates.

There were several small workhouses in the area of the Poor Law Union dating from the 18th century. The Pennington township had a workhouse in King Street, now Leigh town centre, from about 1739. It had and a whipping post and served “as a prison for evildoers and a place for the unhappy poor”. Rules were strictly enforced and churchgoing was compulsory. In 1777 the churchwardens leased the workhouse to two "speculators", who ran it for a salary of £9 per annum, "five quarters of coal" from each township, 15d (6p) a week for each inmate and the profits from the labours of the poor. The speculators were to find food, drink, washing and accommodation, which encouraged exploitation and harsh conditions. Usually the workhouse had few inmates; there were five in 1792, but numbers increased from the time of the Napoleonic wars. It was sold in 1822.

Atherton's workhouse was in Hag Fold and lasted until the Leigh Union was created.

Tyldesley had a workhouse after 1798 when the town started to grow rapidly. The governor's salary was £1 per month in 1798 and rose to £1 18s (£1.90) in 1808, the matron's wage was 8s (40p) a month in 1800. Inmates, unless incapacitated, had to work both outside and inside and the profit from their labour offset maintenance costs. The house had hand looms for weaving and some inmates were sent to work in the new cotton factories.

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