IN the latest of her occasional history features for Nub News, Susan Yates – the chair of Thurrock Local History Society – has been looking back at how the poor were helped across the borough over recent centuries and how and where workhouses were established.

She also gives some insight into the history of the site that currently houses Orsett Hospital, which is set for closure and demolition.

THE origins of parish workhouse in Thurrock go back to the last days of the 17th century when, in 1699 Henry Holstock, gave 8.5 acres and five cottages for use as a parish workhouse in Orsett. It was land currently occupied by Orsett Hospital.

The donation of land and the cottages provided help for the area's poor but it was some years before purpose-built workhouses were created.

Two were established by 1725 at Fobbing and in Grays. By 1777 there were also workhouses at Aveley, Corringham and Stanford-le-Hope and another in Grays.

On 10 October 1835 the Orsett Poor Law Union was formed with 18 parishes and a population of 8,609. It encompassed the communities of Aveley, Bulphan, Chadwell St Mary, Corringham Fobbing. Horndon on the Hill, Langdon Hills, Mucking, North Ockendon, South Ockendon, Orsett, Stanford-le-Hope, Stifford, Grays, Little Thurrock, West Thurrock, East Tilbury and West Tilbury.

The first parish workhouse in Orsett was built in 1799 but was superseded by a new Orsett workhouse, built in 1837 at a cost of £3,115. It was designed by Sampson Kempthorne for 200 paupers. The administration block was at the front and it had a cruciform rear.

Today Orsett Hospital stands on the site. The workhouse cost £5,897 a year to run. A local rate was levied based on ability to pay to cover running costs. The workhouse cared for the destitute not the poverty-stricken.

In 1807 John Parson agreed to maintain the workhouse which would take all the casual poor that fell on hard times in the parish. It would provide these paupers with three hot meals a week and cloth them in decent clothing. The men would be kept separate from the women.

These were not inviting places nor were they meant to be. They were a last resort before destitution and starvation. People would go to any lengths to avoid going in to the workhouse as the chances of getting out again were very slim. When an inmate died their body was returned to their parish for burial at the local parish's expense.

By 1848 fever wards and vagrant wards were added to the Orsett site and a women's infirmary included in 1911.

In July 1884 small-pox victims were taken in to the Infectious wards. The disease spread to Union Lane Cottages, the Police Station and throughout Orsett.

In 1920 it was known as the Orsett Poor Law Institution. In 1924 the institution had a home in Whitehall Road, Little Thurrock, housing 10 children.

The workhouse later became Orsett Hospital and in 1890 it was extended by four wards and a further building was added in 1900. The Red Cross utilised the hospital in the First World War and it was used by the Emergency Medical Services during the Second World War.

The hospital became known as the Orsett Lodge Hospital and then Tilbury and Riverside Hospital -Orsett Branch in 1950. With the baby boom era of the 1960s a maternity ward was added.

In the 21st century the unemployed go to the Job Centre in Grays and the sick go to Basildon Hospital.