Monument record 130/33 - Brackley Union Workhouse, Banbury Road

Brackley Union Workhouse was built between 1836 and 1837 to designs by George Gilbert Scott. It had a cruciform plan and was built of brick and stone. It provided four exercise yards for different categories of inmate (e.g. male/female, able-bodied/infirm). The buildings were demolished before 1992.

{1} The earlier C18th century workhouse, was established in 1721 and was located in High Street. The workhouse for Brackley Poor Law Union was established in 1835 and was capable of accommodating 200 people. A board of 32 guardians managed the affairs of the workhouse. The workhouse was shown on a map of 1922, but was subsequently demolished and the area built over by a housing estate.

Large garden shown around the area of workhouse. Now built over. The garden is shown on first edition OS mapping as laid out in a fairly regular grid, with paths, and with a line of trees down each side of the enclosure. There is also a further, shorter tree aligmment on the axis of the main entrance into the workhouse building. The main gateway entrance from the street into the garden is flanked by two conifers. The site is now destroyed, being built over as a housing estate some time since the 1930s, called Westhill Gardens.

Morrison K., 1999, The Workhouse: A Study Of Poor-Law Buildings In England, p. 32, 72, 208 (Book). SNN100282.

<1> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Brackley, (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100499.

<2> Higginbotham P., 2002, The Workhouse: Banbury & Northamptonshire Extract, (unchecked) (Extract). SNN102266.

<3> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Brackley, (unchecked) (Report). SNN106655.

Record last edited

Sep 2 2022 1:25PM