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Title A caring county? : social welfare in Hertfordshire from 1600 / edited by Steve King and Gillian Gear
Published Hatfield, Hertfordshire : Hertfordshire Publications, an imprint of University of Hertfordshire Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 350 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Front Cover; Title Page; Half Title; Copyright; Acknowledgements; Contents; Figures; Tables; 1: Introduction: Hertfordshire in Context: Steven King; 2: The Old Poor Law and Medicine in and Around Hertford, 1700-1834: Robert Dimsdale; 3: Caring for the Sick and Poor in Eighteenth-Century Royston: Carla Herrmann; 4: Madhouses of Hertfordshire 1735-1903: Gary Moyle; 5: Caring for the Poor in East Hertfordshire C.1620-50: Alan Thomson; 6: Pensions and the Care of the Elderly in Ashwell, 1670-1770: David Short
7: Looking after the Poor: Cheshunt Parish Workhouse in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: Sheila White8: The Old Poor Law in a Rural North Hertfordshire Parish, 1731-1831: Helen Hofton; Introduction to Chapters 9-11: A Note on the History of the London Foundling Hospital: Jennifer Sherwood; 9: Foundling Hospital Children at Nurse in Hertfordshire in the Eighteenth Century: David Allin; 10: Prudence West and the Foundling Hospital in Barnet, 1757-71: Yvonne Tomlinson; 11: The Last Years of the Foundling Hospital -- Berkhamsted, 1935-55: Jennifer Sherwood
12: Hertfordshire's Relationship with Certified Industrial Schools, 1857-1933: Gillian GearBibliography; Index
Summary This comparative study gathers together new research by local historians into aspects of welfare in Hertfordshire spanning four centuries and focusing on towns and villages across the county, including Ashwell, Cheshunt, Hertford, Pirton, and Royston, amongst many others. In so doing it makes a valuable contribution to the current debate about the spatial and chronological variation in the character of welfare regimes within single counties, let alone more widely. As well as viewing poor relief geographically and chronologically, the book also considers the treatment of particular groups such as the aged, the mad, children, and the unemployed, and shows how, within the constraints of the relevant welfare laws, each group was dealt with differently, giving a more nuanced picture than has perhaps been the case before. The overarching question that the book attempts to answer is how effectively Hertfordshire cared for those in need. With chapters on madhouses, workhouses, certified industrial schools, the Foundling Hospital, pensions, and medical care, the book covers a very broad range of topics through which a complex picture emerges. While some officials seem to have been driven by a relatively narrow sense of their obligations to the poor and vulnerable, others appear to have tailored welfare packages to their precise needs. Naturally, self-interest played a part: if the weakest citizens were well managed, vagrancy might be lessened, the spread of disease contained, and control maintained over the cost of looking after the poor and sick. It seems that Hertfordshire was relatively nimble and sensitive in discovering and treating its people's needs. Evidence is beginning to emerge, in other words, that Hertfordshire was in essence a caring county
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-340) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Public welfare -- England -- Hertfordshire -- History
Poor -- Services for -- England -- Hertfordshire -- History
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Human Services.
Poor -- Services for
Public welfare
Society.
England -- Hertfordshire
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
Author King, Steven, 1966- editor
Gear, Gillian, editor, author
ISBN 9781909291140
1909291145
9781909291157
1909291153
Other Titles Social welfare in Hertfordshire from 1600