Theses stories relate to people who lived in the Wallingford Workhouse and can be accessed via a QR code from the 2026 exhibition, on Wallingford's workhouse:  Explore, Experience and Endure. 

MEN’S WING 
Thomas Alder, 47, Agricultural Labourer
Thomas entered the Wallingford Workhouse in January 1862 after winter floods destroyed
the fields where he worked near Brightwell. Seasonal employment had always been
precarious, but that year he was unable to earn enough to feed himself. Records show that
he had chronic rheumatism, common among men performing outdoor labour. Inside the
Workhouse, Thomas was assigned to stone-breaking, a physically demanding task that
aggravated his condition. Despite this, contemporaries noted that he was “steady and
willing,” and he remained in the Workhouse intermittently for several years.
 

WOMEN’S WING 
Mary Ann Hedges, 32, Laundry Worker
Mary Ann came to the Workhouse in 1874 with her youngest child after being widowed. Her
husband, a bargeman on the Thames, drowned during a night crossing between Wallingford
and Mongewell. Without an income and with no family able to support her, Mary Ann entered
the Workhouse reluctantly. She was soon assigned to laundry and mending duties,
working long hours washing institutional linen. Visitors often remarked that the laundry was
the hottest and loudest room in the building. Mary Ann stayed until she secured employment
in domestic service, leaving her child behind temporarily until she could afford private
lodgings.
 

BOYS’ SECTION 
Edward “Eddie” Prior, 11, Orphan
Eddie was admitted in 1888 after both his parents died of influenza during the winter
outbreak that swept through Wallingford. The Guardians’ minutes for that year describe him
as “slight in build but quick of mind.” He attended the Workhouse schoolroom, where he
excelled in reading and carpentry. Boys in the Workhouse were often trained for
apprenticeships, and Eddie was later placed with a local wheelwright. Visitors to the
exhibition can imagine Eddie playing football in the yard or learning practical skills in the
boys’ industrial room.

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GIRLS’ SECTION – Eliza Carter, 9, Child of a Pauper Seamstress
Eliza entered the Workhouse in 1856 with her mother, who struggled to earn a living as a
seamstress after her eyesight began to fail. Girls in the Workhouse were trained primarily in
domestic skills, and Eliza’s days were filled with sewing, cleaning tasks, and basic
lessons in reading and scripture. One surviving inspector’s report mentions that the girls
“sat in neat rows, each with her sampler,” a detail well suited to your display of samplers and

sewing tools. Eliza later went into service at a house on St Martin’s Street, a typical route for
Workhouse girls.