PENRITH HERALD, October 24, 1874 / ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE/ SHAP WORKHOUSE SITE.

[Barb Ontario Canada]

**This letter is a response to the matter of where to build a Workhouse for Shap.  The original article was published on the October 17, 1874 Penrith Herald.**

 

 

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

 

TO THE EDITOR OF THE “HERALD”.

 

SIR. – Really, what do some of the Guardians of the West Ward Union require in the shape of a site for a workhouse ?  These parties will not provide a suitable site themselves, or allow their brethren to do so if they can help it.  I see in your report of their last extraordinary proceedings, which appears in to-day’s ‘Herald’, that the Shap site is opposed upon the grounds that it is situated in a most exposed and bleak situation on the high side of Shap, at the mercy of the winds from every quarter, being on the top of a hill, and exposed to a sweep of several miles, without any shelter or protection whatever, and that an amalgamation with the East Ward would be far more preferable to retaining the affairs of the Union in their own hands.

 

I consider the remarks of the Chairman and the letter from MR. WESTON to be childish in extreme.  Have they never gone over public buildings situate upon an eminence, properly and substantially built, suitable furnished and arranged, both as regards the interior as also the exterior, and seen the comfort and healthiness of all (old, middle aged, and young of both sexes) the inmates ?  If not, let them immediately try the experiment, and follow it up by a similar one over an Institution in a low-lying district, and then inform the public what they have seen and the decision they have arrived at, giving their views honestly, fairly, and candidly pro or con in each case.

 

The remarks of the REV. RICE MARKHAM touching the site were very appropriate.  Shap is usually healthy, its soil being of a dry nature.  If the oppositionship would take the trouble to consider before opposing, they would very easily discover several rational and feasible plans of dispensing with their frivolous objections to present arrangements.

 

If this Board would only study the comforts of their paupers, the interests of the ratepayers generally (not class interest), and erect a proper building for regular and casual paupers under one substantial roof, they would then make some slight amends for thirty years crossfiring.

 

I consider myself, public or private buildings in a low-lying district, are, as a rule, prejudicial to health, and a nuisance to outsiders;  and amalgamations injurious to general good.

 

Trusting that you will kindly insert this letter in your next issue, I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

                                            RARA AVIS.

 

October 17, 1874.

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barb, ontario, canada.