Remembering Eastville Workhouse Public Meeting Report

The public meeting on Eastville Workhouse and the Rosemary Green burial ground on Thursday 28th August was very successful.

A lively crowd of 35 residents turned up to St Annes’ Church Hall in Greenbank. BRHG laid out maps and other historical sources around the room. Steve and Roger gave a presentation (attached) on the Poor laws and the Eastville Workhouse, Rosemary Green burial ground and other similar projects, which stimulated lots of discussion.

See the slides from the presentation.

A number of ideas were suggested for commemorating the 3,500+ paupers buried under Rosemary Green, including:

• Geo-physics exploration of the site
• Book of remembrance
• Website
• Statue or monument
• Playground (Hazel)
• A plaque (BRHG & Mike Baker)
• Pamphlet and data (BRHG, in progress)
• Event on the Green (BRHG)
• Involvement of local schools, May Park (BRHG)
• Sculpted wooden bench with Workhouse outline (Angela)
• Large scale workhouse photo/poster to match skyline (Alan)

Several collaborations were suggested:

1. A similar project in Arnos Vale cemetery to remember unchristened infants who were buried outside the consecrated ground on the site (Angela)
2. A ‘community space’ project in Greenbank Cemetery, there is an event on 13th September (Yaz)
3. A project for a playground on the site organised by a local resident (Hazel)

The audience was very interested, supportive and up for doing something. One resident turned up to see if her great grandad who had been in the workhouse was buried in Rosemary Green, we checked the data on the spot and were able to let her know that he probably had been ‘taken away by friends’ and buried somewhere else. The meeting became very interactive at the end, with people checking the maps, the statistics and other sources we had on the screen.

BRHG collected a list of contacts and will be following up with a planning meeting in about a month.

If you would like to join the ‘Remembering Eastville Workhouse’ mailing list and receive regular updates and information, then let us know at brh@brh.org.uk.