Ballinrobe Workhouse
Ballinrobe workhouse opened in 1843. Information on the workhouse can be found on the Historical Ballinrobe website here and here, as well as on Peter Higginbotham's website www.workhouses.org.uk/Ballinrobe. The entrance block and the dispensary of the workhouse still stand today and are used by Mayo County Council.
Entrance block of the Ballinrobe workhouse (Image: Author)
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Ballinrobe workhouse dispensary to left, with entrance block visible to rear (Image: Author)
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Ballinrobe Workhouse Records
The archives of the Ballinrobe Poor Law Union are held in digital format in the Local Studies Collection in Mayo County Library; they are the only poor law union records held in Mayo.
The collection covers the period 1844-1926 and includes minute books, financial records, and outdoor relief registers. Unfortunately there are significant gaps in the records, including the period covering the Orphan Emigration Scheme. However, it is recorded in official records that 25 girls were sent from the Ballinrobe workhouse as part of the Scheme; they departed on the Panama, which departed from Plymouth on 6 October 1849 and arrived in Sydney on 12 January 1850.
The Scheme must have been considered a success by the Board of Guardians, as the minutes of 26 April 1850 record “that we apply to the Poor Law Commissioners to send 50 Orphan Girls to Australia in the same manner that the past Emigrants were sent from this Union”. However, at this stage the Orphan Emigration Scheme had already been discontinued by the Australian colonial authorities.
The archives of the Ballinrobe Poor Law Union are held in digital format in the Local Studies Collection in Mayo County Library; they are the only poor law union records held in Mayo.
The collection covers the period 1844-1926 and includes minute books, financial records, and outdoor relief registers. Unfortunately there are significant gaps in the records, including the period covering the Orphan Emigration Scheme. However, it is recorded in official records that 25 girls were sent from the Ballinrobe workhouse as part of the Scheme; they departed on the Panama, which departed from Plymouth on 6 October 1849 and arrived in Sydney on 12 January 1850.
The Scheme must have been considered a success by the Board of Guardians, as the minutes of 26 April 1850 record “that we apply to the Poor Law Commissioners to send 50 Orphan Girls to Australia in the same manner that the past Emigrants were sent from this Union”. However, at this stage the Orphan Emigration Scheme had already been discontinued by the Australian colonial authorities.
© Barbara Barclay (2015)
