The Newbury Poor Law Union, with its Workhouse
in the parish of Newbury St John (as far as I can
determine from the "An Historic Atlas of
Berkshire" published 1998 - found in the
BerksFHS Reference Library in the Research Centre
and the BRO, and available through the local
library loan service, but no longer available in
print from the publishers - the Berkshire Record
Society) covered the following parishes:
Boxford, Brimpton, Chieveley, Enborne,
Greenham, Hampstead Marshall, Leckhampstead,
Midgham, Newbury, Sandleford, Shaw- cum-Donnington,
Speen, Thatcham, Wasing, Welford,
Winterbourne and Woolhampton + Newtown (Hants)
until 1895.
The BRO holds many records of the Board of
Guardians of the Newbury Union but they will need
to be approached to determine exactly what will
be relevant to specific research, ie. list of
admissions and discharges for the Workhouse,
deaths, etc.
The BRO produces a 52 page booklet titled
"Guide to the records of the New Poor Law
& its Successors in Berkshire, 1835 - 1948",
dated 1979, from which the list of parishes in
the Union was drawn (also in the BerksFHS
Research Centre). It is probably out of
date due to receipt of further holding since 1979
but it was still on sale recently and we may have
a copy for sale in our Bookshop.
The BRO have a 75 year restriction rule for
the records of personal details in the PLU
records.
