Until
1842 all meals were conducted in silence
without cutlery. All meals were basic and
tasteless, following the same mundane weekly
menu. These menus had been established in the 1834
Poor Law Amendment Act to
ensure that the very basic levels of nutrition
were met.
H.M. Prisons
official ration was 292oz of food per prisoner
per week.
In the
Workhouse this ration was only 137oz (approx.)
of food per inmate per week.
The staples
were bread, cheese, gruel (thin oatmeal),
soup, potatoes, and very rarely meat and
bacon. Food was also stripped of everything
that might have been attractive to inmates.
Especially salt. And in the early workhouses
of the 1830s inmates had not even been allowed
cutlery.
Extracts
from the rules of Trentham Workhouse
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