IN the year 1601, an act of parliament was passed to give relief to paupers.

A levy was raised in each parish to collect enough money to provide work for able paupers and for poorhouses to be built for those unable to work or hit by sickness.

This worked well for a time until poorly paid labourers were admitted. This allowed able-bodied paupers to enter voluntarily into the poorhouse where they would be well fed while paying for their lodgings. In 1880 five able-bodied paupers were excluded from the poorhouses.

However, poorhouses were not meant to be unpleasant. Although they catered mainly for able-bodied adults, they evolved to look after young children, orphans, the sick and the elderly.

Poorhouses varied in size from ones with only 20 paupers to those containing up to several hundred paupers in the cities. But things were about to change.

In 1887, Queen Victoria acceded to the throne and the hard regime of the Victorian workhouse was born which was to be run by elected guardians.

If a male pauper was to be admitted all his family were required to also live in the workhouse with him. The family would be segregated, women living in one wing, while the men were kept well away in another. The children were taken away and only aloud brief visits from the parents, usually on a Sunday.

Abuse and mistreatment was rife in the workhouse with tales of drowning, murder, misery and hard work. Food was basic and only allowed the paupers to manage a very basic existence, being often no better than watered down porridge or at best, bread and cheese.

The paupers were given rough clothes to wear, which was a standard workhouse uniform. The paupers of the able-bodied were given jobs, often working 12 hours a day, their pay for a weeks’ work of oakum picking or crushing stone leaving only a penny or so for themselves. Times were hard in the workhouse and living there was designed to be uncomfortable and as degrading as possible.

The workhouse was strictly managed. Every morning the paupers were assembled for prayers, signalled by the ringing of a bell. The paupers had to be dressed and washed and in the main hall within three quarters of an hour.

The master would read the prayers and allocate paupers to their task master or mistress before having a little breakfast and given their backbreaking jobs for the day – life in a Victorian workhouse was not easy.

There were poorhouses in most towns and many villages in our area. One existed in Pickering in the late 18th century with another in Thornton-le-Dale even earlier.

With the introduction of workhouses, a new building was erected in Pickering in the 19th century on the Whitby road where the retirement home now stands.

There were workhouses in both Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside, which were said to be unruly establishments. A new workhouse was built in Helmsley, but it was not a good idea having to accommodate young boys and insane people in the same building.

Eventually another workhouse was built in Helmsley in the 19th century which still exists today, although it is now used for private housing.

Your route

Leave the car park by the Whitby Road, exit turning right, then right again along Ruffa Lane. Keep straight ahead past the houses, then continue along onto a less well-surfaced road which soon becomes a wide farm road.

Eventually you reach the end of the road at a farm yard. Aim for the right hand corner of the yard to exit through a small gate onto a fenced footpath.

At the bottom of the hill follow the path around to the left into a wood, then soon right and left onto a forest track. It is quite a wide, firm forest path but could be muddy if wet.

Climbing slowly for about one mile now, keep straight ahead at all times to eventually see a waymark post on the left. Turn left here to climb up to a stile. Cross the stile into a field and continue climbing keeping close to the fence on your left to another stile at the top of the hill. Cross the stile keeping straight ahead, still climbing across the field to reach a wood. Cross the stile here into the wood and follow the woodland path all the way to the road.

Cross the busy road with care onto a field path opposite, then continue across the field into another wood. Soon you arrive at a meeting of paths, go left here following the yellow waymark onto a twisty narrow path through an old wood with a stone wall on your right soon to exit through a gate into a field.

Keep straight ahead for about a mile, following the path without deviation and keeping close to the fence on the right passing through several gates until you reach a junction of tracks.

Take the wide track bearing left across the middle of the field to a small gate; continue straight ahead across the middle of the next field to another gate into an old tree lined lane known as Love Lane.

Not far and you will probably have to take a diversion as signed because of construction work. The diversion should take you around the site to the opposite side where you should then turn right into the housing estate.

Cross the road onto a path through the houses to reach the A169 Whitby-Pickering road. Go right here to walk back to your car park near the roundabout passing the site on the way where the workhouse would have been.

The facts

Distance – 5½ miles (9km)

Time – Two hours

Grading – Easy

Start/grid ref - Pickering, grid ref: 800839

Best map – OS Landranger 100

Parking – Car park at the roundabout junction of the A169 and the A170

Refreshments – Pickering

Stiles – Five, all good but the second one will test your leg strength

Public toilets – Pickering