Agricultural History Review, Volume 66 Part 2 (2018), p. 290

This volume represents an immense collaborative effort. While the book has three editors, it contains twenty chapters covering over four hundred pages on a huge variety of topics about the history of almshouses. How is such a project is possible? The clues are in the front of the volume and the introduction, which details the research process. With one coordinator, Anne Langley, 54 researchers from the Family and Community Historical Research Society worked tirelessly in record offices across most counties in England and several London boroughs, with further exemplary material drawn from Scotland and Wales. The data collection took several years to complete, so that from its initial meeting the project was ten years in the making. The result is the most significant collection of essays about the history of almshouses in recent decades, one which historians of welfare, charities, institutions, housing, older people and societal relationships will find useful.

Three solid introductory chapters set the context of the book well. The first provides a chronology and geography of British almshouses and demonstrates the high numbers of individuals who received accommodation in these houses. The second outlines the massive variation in almshouse buildings, whilst the third demonstrates the variety of types of community. The book is then divided into two further parts. Part two consists of eight chapters centred around individual case studies from different counties. Covered here are case studies from across many counties and regions of England, namely Hampshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, plus the north east and London. There is also a chapter which explores provision in Anglesey and another in Tayside and Sterling. Some chapters provide micro-studies of almshouses in one place, such as a town, road, city, county or region. Other chapters focus on using a locality to explore a particular time period (anywhere from 1100 to the eve of the First World War) or a theme, such as almshouse founders or occupants. These themes are expanded in part three of the book, consisting of nine chapters on a range of topics: rules and regulations, the almshouse masters, the social status and lives of residents, clothing and conditions of residents, as well as almshouse gardens and a chapter on five Catholic almshouses in London.

A number of themes develop across the chapters. Over the last twenty years or more, welfare historians have been seeking to understand the place of statutory provision, charitable aid, as well as self-help and kinship help, within the mixed economy of welfare. This theme features throughout the volume, especially when authors discuss the motivations of residents for applying for entry into the almshouse. Evidence is drawn upon to suggest why this could be more appealing than the available alternatives, and also why residents left. This links to another theme: the rules and conditions within almshouses. Some comparisons are made between almshouse residents and those in workhouses and asylums. The inhabitants of almshouses were usually deemed respectable and ‘deserving’ of assistance, but the pressures upon residents to behave and appear in certain ways was significant. It clearly impacted on their practical and emotional lives in a multitude of ways. In part, these rules and expectations created some degree of structure and harmony within the house, but there was a heavy mix of deference and patronage towards the benefactor, externally performed by residents to the wider communities in which the accommodation was situated. To what extent almshouse residents wanted to, or had to (through necessity), perform their status is a subject of contention.

The volume would have benefited from a concluding chapter, or maybe several. These could have brought together more directly the themes I mention and many other themes could have been brought out from the detail, such as rural and urban comparisons and gender dynamics. The periodization within the book is only loosely followed, which is of great benefit as the origins of almshouses can be traced to 1100. There was no room in this volume to extend beyond 1914, but such a focus would make compelling research. In the context of a growing welfare state, how many almshouses were disbanded or established? The analysis of diaries, letters and oral history interviews from this period would also reveal more about people’s hopes for living in the almshouses, how they conformed to or subverted the rules of their accommodation, and how they believed they were perceived by the wider community.

This is a very informative volume for local and family historians as well as academics. It also demonstrates the value of large collaborations and edited collections. The wide variety of places and topics covered will help those wanting a solid introduction to almshouses, case studies of why and how almshouses were established and managed, or about the lives, living conditions and motivations of almshouse residents. The book has an admirable number of images (79), in addition to 14 colour plates, and a substantial index, which will undoubtedly prove a valuable aid to navigation.