Castletown workhouse Board of Guardians (BG59)

Castletown Board of Guardians

IE CCCA/BG/59

Kilcatherine dispensary district be increased from £90 to £100, and that the officer be allowed reside in Castletown , it being ‘most convenient’ and as ‘the district itself is divided into two parts by a high mountain without any road and nearly impassable even to pedestrians in the day tim e’. [A recurring item. See also 22 Jun, when meeting to elect the medical officer, Dr Harrison, was disrupted, and 21 Sep. Harrison is medical officer at the Berehaven mines.] 22 Jun 1876 LGB letter regarding the proposal to allow the hospital nurse’s thr ee year old child to live with her. They express the view ‘that the care of so young a child would be likely to interfere with the mother’s attention to her duties as nurse’. 24 Aug 1876 LGB circular letter read referring to the act extending the limits of age up to which orphans and deserted children may be supported out of the workhouse, which received royal assent on 11 August. 2 Nov 1876 Sanitary officer’s report regarding ‘the disgracefully dirty state o f the premises of Mr John Merwick butcher situated near the police barrack Castletown’. [On 9 Nov the same officer reports ‘the dirty state of the street of Castletown’] 28 Dec 1876 Ordered, that the clerk inform the insurers, in reply to their query, that ‘there are no manufactures of any description carried on in the house at present’. 11 Jan 1877 LGB letter regarding the house’s use of tea and butter as a substitute for milk. They urge obtaining a satisfactory supply of milk, but in the meantime suggest one gallon of tea and eight ounces of butter in lieu of one gallon of milk. Other dietary suggestions are also made. 1 Feb 1877 Resolved, at a special meeting, ‘the guardians of this union decline to make this union contributory for the purpose of increasing the remuneration to the teachers of national schools for the reasons stated in the resolution of the 3 rd day of February 1876’. 8 Feb 1877 Observations in the chaplain’s book recorded, calling the board’s attention to the ‘slight and thin’ material from which the clothing of inmates is made, causing the old and infirm to be ‘cheerless and chilly’, and exposing even ‘robust constitutions’ to alterations in th e weather. 22 Feb 1877 LGB letter referring to the necessity of taking proceedings against 43 vaccination defaulters in the Kilcatherine Dispensary District, and noting that ‘smallpox may probably spread by sea to the port of Castletown or some of the harbours near that place and the guardians will incur serious responsibility if they do not take the necessary proceedings with a view to protect the people from this malady’.

33. 34.

29 Mar 1877 – 21 Mar 1878 28 Mar 1878 – 20 Mar 1879

© Cork City and County Archives 2011

Page 13 of 22

Powered by