The day’s programme

9.45-11.00 Session 1: Dynamics of the Old and New poor Laws

Chair/Discussant: Dr Kim Price (University of Leicester)

Joseph Harley (University of Leicester) ‘Pauper inventories and the nature of poor relief during the final 100 years of the English old poor law’

Lewis Darwen (University of Central Lancashire) ‘Outdoor relief and pauper family structure in industrial Lancashire: analysing a mid-nineteenth century pauper ‘census’.’

Karen Rothery (University of Hertfordshire) ‘The good, the bad and the indifferent: a study of the Hertfordshire Poor Law Guardians’

Break – 11.00 to 11.15

11.15-12.30 Session 2: Pensions, allowances and benefits

Chair/Discussant: Professor Josephine Maltby (University of Sheffield)

Kathleen McIlvenna (IHR) ‘Pensions in the Post Office: the debates and constraints of the 19th century civil service pensions’.

Paul Huddie (University of West London) ‘The welfare of British military families, 1793-1919’

Matthew Cooper (University of Warwick) ‘Disciplinary welfare and moral orders: a study of benefits for unemployed youth in Birmingham in the 1930s’

Lunch – 12.30 to 1.15

1.15-2.30 Session 3: Beyond the state

Chair/Discussant: Dr Kate Bradley (University of Kent)

Susan Woodall (Royal Holloway) ‘‘Not free from disease and in a dreadful state of filth’: censure, welfare and expedient philanthropy in nineteenth-century reform institutions for ‘fallen’ women’

Ruth Davidson (King’s College London) ‘Social citizenship and social action, women’s activism in Croydon, 1900-39’

Charlie Chih-Hao Lee (University of Cambridge) ‘A ‘Workers’ University’? The Achievement and Limitations of Workers’ Educational Association Tutorial Classes, 1909-39’

2.30-3.30 Session 4: Agency in the Victorian welfare system

Chair/Discussant: Dr Elizabeth Hurren (University of Leicester)

Kathryn Fox (The National Archives) ‘Gentleman you have no idea how the poor is treated by those scoundrels’; pauper letters from the Basford Poor Law Union 1836-1871

Claudia Soares (Independent Scholar) ‘Agency, resistance and co-operation: welfare dependants’ attitudes towards and experiences of care in the Victorian children’s institution’

Break – 3.30 to 3.45

3.45-5.00 Session 5: Communities and health in the twentieth century

Chair/Discussant: Dr Jameel Hampton (Liverpool Hope University)

Nicola Blacklaws (University of Leicester) ‘‘Old’ and ‘new’ welfare: The Poor Law and Saffron Lane Estate 1925-1929’

George Fleming (University of Worcester) ‘The other side of the cure: Birmingham’s foray into inter war health propaganda films’

Edward Cheetham (Nottingham Trent University) ‘Healthcare Communities without the State: Examples from Derbyshire, 1900-1939’

Roundtable discussion, 5.00-6.00

Started and chaired by Professor Steven King (University of Leicester)