Workhouses research guide

Sheffield’s first ‘workhouse’ was financed in 1628 at a cost of approximately £200. It was located at Workhouse Croft (now called Paradise Street), West Bar. Thereafter a number of workhouses sprung up in and around Sheffield.

Our guide looks at documents relating to these early workhouses, later focusing on the centralisation of the workhouse system in Sheffield over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by concentrating on the development of the Sheffield (Fir Vale) Institution - now occupied by Northern General Hospital, and the Ecclesall Bierlow Institution - situated on the site of Nether Edge Hospital.

Contact us on archives@sheffield.gov.uk to find out more, book in advance or order archival materials.