Brixworth: Britain's most feared workhouse is now a cafe

It's almost 14 years since I first came across Brixworth Workhouse. When I came back from that encounter, I wrote a blog post that quoted the website of the village's history society:

The first Master of the Brixworth Union Workhouse in 1837 was a Mr Baillie with his wife appointed as the Matron, and the first meeting of the Board of Guardians took place in the Workhouse on May 4th of the same year. Within five years of the Workhouse opening the cost of "out relief" in Brixworth had been reduced to £0-9s-0d a week for those entitled to it. By 1902 the figure had dropped to £0-5s-0d for a single person and £0-7s-0d for a couple, with cases of as little as £0-2s-5d not uncommon.

Soon after the Workhouse had opened the Secretary of State had to send a Bow Street Runner to Brixworth to investigate the strict policy being adopted by the Guardians regarding the payment of "out relief" to the poor and needy of the parish. Brixworth became known as the "dark portion of rural England" due to its almost complete withdrawal of "out relief".

Conditions inside the building were often criticised too as being prison like and spartan and Mrs Briddon, one of the cooks, described the food as meagre and tasteless. It was an institution feared by the old and needy, a place where families were split up and accommodated in single sex dormitories.

I went to have a look at it today, to find that it has become a cafe called The Workhouse - "a place to meet for brunch, lunch or sweet treats throughout the day."

This was too much irony for me to handle, but I will have a coffee next time I'm in Brixworth.

And the brand's doing well, because you can buy sandwiches from The Little Workhouse on the Northampton Road.

Reader's voice: You mean people asked for more?