A mariner's widow: almshouses 2

From at least 1871, Ann Caithness was residing in an almshouse at Totton. There were four of these dwellings, each inhabited by a respectable elderly person, living alone. Ann’s neighbours in 1881 were two seamstresses and a nurse; Ann, at 85, was the oldest.

The almshouses were in Commercial Road, Totton, as seen in the map below:

Almshouses in Commercial Road, Totton 

As the almshouses haven’t survived and so far no pictures of them have been found we have to rely on descriptions, drawings and photographs of other similar structures. Almshouses were usually built in a row or a traditional three sided square, with a central courtyard. This gave a sense of safety and security without isolating the residents from the outside world; as pensioners they remained part of the community they had lived among for many years.

The term ‘almshouse’ is not synonymous with ‘workhouse’. It’s apparent from online offerings that considerable confusion exists on this matter. The basic distinction between the two is that an almshouse was privately funded as a charitable bequest whereas a workhouse was financed by public taxation.

Almshouse, Winchester

An almshouse was a lovely place to live, a workhouse was not. An almshouse was provided as sheltered housing for deserving aged individuals specifically designated by the benefactor and administered by a trust. A workhouse was set up by the Parish or, prior to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment in 1834, by the Union, and was the last refuge of the desperate.

Almshouses –  one of various terms including bedehouse, maison dieu, hospital - have an ancient history going back to monastic times in the 10^th century. After the dissolution of the monasteries many of the medieval hospitals disappeared but others were rebuilt and run as secular accommodation for those in need.

Perhaps the best example in literature is Hiram’s Hospital as described in Anthony Trollope’s novel, The Warden:

In the year 1434 there died at Barchester one John Hiram, who had made money in the town as a wool-stapler, and in his will he left the house in which he died and certain meadows and closes near the town …for the support of twelve superannuated wool-carders, all of whom should have been born and bred and spent their days in Barchester; he also appointed that an alms-house should be built for their abode … the twelve old men received a comfortable lodging and a small stipend under the will of John Hiram.….

There has been some debate as to whether Trollope based Hiram’s Hospital on St Nicholas’s, Salisbury, or on St Cross in Winchester.

St Nicholas's, Salisbury

Pawnbrokers' Almshouses
Forest Gate

Sometimes almshouses would be provided for people of a particular occupation. Examples: the Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses in Penge, Kent, built in 1840-1841 for retired company freemen and their widows; the Pawnbrokers’ Almshouses, Forest Gate, built in 1850.

The Free Watermen and Lightermen's Almshouses, Penge

In the volume of the Victoria County History pertaining to Eling and Totton it’s mentioned that in 1786 parliamentary returns refer to ‘a house, then vested in the churchwardens, given to the poor by a Mrs Moody. It was used as almshouses for four widows until 1860, when the houses were burnt down.’ Interestingly, the first reference to the almshouses at Totton is dated 1861 and is about fire insurance, a concern perhaps prompted by the disaster which overtook Mrs Moody’s almshouses.

A typical row of 19th c almshouses

  

Almshouses at Chipping Norton

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Souvenir Saturday: St Mary's Churchyard, Totton, Hampshire

St Mary’s, Totton: note the stones facing the same way, towards the east. Somewhere in front of them would be the headstone of the incumbent facing his flock, just as he would have stood before the congregation during church services; he is ready to lead them at the sound of the Last Trump. 

This ties in with Christian belief: Then the man brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east and I saw the Glory of God  [Ezek 43:1]

However, the symbolism could be traced much further back than Christianity.

More on the origins of grave orientation at

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_graves_always_facing_east_in_cemeteries

Photograph by Peter Hay

Caithness at Eling, Marchwood and Totton

Caithness family history is closely associated with the environs of Eling, including Marchwood and Totton, in Hampshire.

James Caithness (ca 1786-1826) lived at Marchwood with his wife Ann b Scorey; their five children were baptized at St Mary’s Church, Eling, between 1815 and 1826. During some of those years, James snr was waterman and ferryman at Cracknore Hard. His widow Ann Caithness lived at Totton until her death in 1889.

Ordnance Survey Map 1851 showing Cracknore Hard

Eling (the parish is recorded in the Domesday survey) has a long tradition of shipbuilding and seafaring. New Forest timber – oak and beech in vast quantities – supplied local shipbuilders from the Middle Ages onwards. Oak was used for hulls of ships, beech for masts. During James Cathness’s time, the era of the Napoleonic Wars, ships were being built here for the Royal Navy.

Action at Sea between HMS Hydra and the Furet 27 Feb 1806 

                                   Views of Magazine Lane and Marchwood village

Cracknore Hard Lane today

But there was more to Marchwood than quiet, narrow country lanes. The area was a vital strategic site: in 1812 a depot was constructed for 20,000 barrels of gunpowder. One wonders how the residents of Marchwood felt about living in close proximity to a powder keg; later generations certainly complained.

The threat of French invasion in 1779 and the advent of Napoleon on the European stage brought about reform in the way gunpowder was stored and issued in Britain. Up to that time, powder was kept in old fortifications or more recently constructed vaults in various parts of the country. In 1811 the decision was taken to increase the number of depots and to build more permanent storage. Marchwood was the largest of four new magazines.

Gunpowder at that period was stored in barrels each containing 90 lbs of powder. It was originally intended to store 20, 000 barrels at Marchwood all in one large magazine. Later, three separate magazines were constructed as far apart as possible to minimize the danger of explosion. Each held 6, 800 barrels. A canal was used to move the barrels by barge from magazine to magazine. There were also other buildings which served as receiving and examining rooms, all within a perimeter wall, and put up between 1814 and 1816.

Earth banked blast walls and high walled enclosures protected each building. An office and guard house and a barrack block were built on Magazine Lane, Marchwood. There was a rolling stage, a raised planked barrow way, built out to a landing stage in deep water. A sea wall was added fronting Southampton Water and returning along the Creek.

Old Main Gate: Marchwood Magazine

                                                         

                         

Remains of Marchwood Magazine: part of the vaulted
floor. Water flowed underneath to keep the atmosphere damp *

The depot closed briefly in 1850 but was reopened during the outbreak of the Crimean war and in 1856-57 four new and larger magazines were added. The Royal Naval Armaments Depot, Marchwood, continued in use for the storage of munitions into the 20th century. Stocks of munitions were reduced after World War II and the site was finally decommissioned and closed in 1961.**

Magazine A is the only one of the original magazines at Marchwood to survive; the others were destroyed in 1940. Today the buildings and walls are rare survivals of Georgian military works; though some require restoration they are of historic importance, a tangible reminder of the era when Britain ruled the waves.

  

It’s not impossible that among the tasks James Caithness might have undertaken when he was a waterman at Marchwood was transporting gunpowder. Whether he was involved in such risky business or kept to ferrying passengers, by the look of the contemporary advertisement below, at least he could have popped in to the Ship Inn for a ‘heavy wet’ at the end of a busy day.

*  browse the series of photos at 
   www.flickr.com/photos/r36ariadne/4197741140/in/photostream/

** www.nfdc.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2178

Google Map 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3Xo6QO-1_DUfCmkrelLZEtwVwitzlYW5-VBtrsFmMmWxlpM4ntwi1wj57_XYVpy5bdshMvHn1eADhz7SRgMwdocZ0Yj3DBEeJ8HW0ASIVSFxoLQRqLn-RvC91UXlsrS0NnhzsZWab92W/s1600/cracknore-hard.jpg

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon