Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

An early union workhouse erected in 1835, and comprising four two-storey ranges of yellow stock brick around a central quadrangle. In 1930 it became a home for mentally ill women until 1948 when under the National Health Service it became a hospital for the chronically ill until it closed in 1986. Since then it has been developed as housing.

Monument Types

• WORKHOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1835 AD to 1930 AD (between))
• PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL (Modern - 1930 AD to 1948 AD? (between))
• HOSPITAL (Modern - 1948 AD to 1986 AD (between))
• HOUSE (Modern - 1986 AD? to 1986 AD (post))

Full description

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In 1835 a new workhouse was built to house 500 people. It's design was influenced by Sir Francis Bond Head, Assistant Poor Law Commissioner for Kent, and built by Sherwood of Lambeth.

The main block comprises four tow-storey workhouse ranges grouped in a square around a quadrangle. All these buildings are of yellow stock brick with slate roofs. The northern wing contains a central entrance block, with a hipped roof and windows set within giant segmental-headed arches. This was flanked by attached wings. That on the western side contained the board-room and has a later bay-window extension. A central spine link was later added, directly connecting the north and south ranges, and contained dining-hall and chapel. This room has three wall paintings of c.1900 depicting scenes of local life (do they still exist?)

Architecturally, the most impressive feature of the original workhouse complex was the free-standing water tower, with narrow metal-framed windows in semi-circular, gauged brick arches, and a machicolated parapet at tank level. (demolished).

The new Blean workhouse was completed in 1836. Economies of the construction meant that it was built without outside drains and without any windows in the external walls as a security feature. In 1843 a concession was made when a single window was inserted in the outside wall of the dining hall.

Various improvements were made gradually over the years, including the conversion of the stable block into additional wards, the erection of fresh stables and a carriage house, and the addition, in 1845, of a fever ward. With improving attitudes towards the treatment of the poor and sick, two new isolation wards were added in 1874-5. The general ward block is a two-storey brick building with exterior staircases at either end. The detached single-storey isolation ward, had a smaller unidentified building nearby. All have steeply pitched hipped roofs in slate and prominent chimney stacks.

With the abolition of the workhouse system in 1930 the site was taken over by Kent County Council as a home for epileptic and mentally-retarded women, with a hand full of old men to look after the gardens. When the National Health Service was established in 1948, the building became a hospital for the chronically sick, Known as Herne Hospital. All the buildings were modernised and additional facilities for staff and patients constructed. The hospital closed in 1986 and has now been converted into housing.(1)

Prior to the formation of Blean Union in 1834, Poorhouses in the parishes of the Arcbishop's Palace Canterbury, Chislet, Christchurch, Hackington, Herne, Herne Bay, Hoath, Reculver, St Dunstan, St Gregory, Seasalter, Staplegate, Sturry, Swalecliff, Westbere and Whitstable catered for the needs of the poor. It is difficult to locate these Poorhouses as they were often set up in large houses in each village. By 1913 there were also two 'scattered homes' for children : Glenholm in Mill Lane Herne for girls and nearby Lyndhurst in Kingsfield Road Herne for boys.

Kent Workhouses
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© 2017 Kent Workhouses, 2018, Kent Workhouses & Poorhouses (Website). SKE51755.

<1> RCHME, 1993, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: Compilation of Kent Hospitals Record Sheets (Unpublished document). SKE6841.

Sources and further reading