Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/491

 folded their arms and waited till they got it; ignorant boys and girls married upon it; country justices lavished it for popularity, and guardians for convenience."

In 1832 a Royal Commission was appointed to visit the different parishes, and investigate the abuses which were being universally carried on; and in 1834 a bill was brought in to amend the laws relative to the Relief of the Poor in England and Wales, and passed that year, some of the main clauses being—an acknowledgment of the claims to the relief of the really necessitous, the abolition of settlement by hiring and service, and of all out-door relief to the able-bodied. The enactment provided for the union of small and neighbouring parishes, the rating and expenditure of the rates remaining a distinct and separate matter; each union was to have a common workhouse for all its parishes, in which the men, women, children, able-bodied, and infirm must be separated, and where the able-bodied inmates should do a certain amount of work for each meal. The distribution of relief was left to the guardians and select vestries, and to the overseers in their absence. The whole system of unions and parish relief was placed under the control of a Central Board, by whom everything was arranged and settled, and to whom any appeals were to be directed.

Shortly after the passing of this act, the following twenty-three townships of the Fylde were banded together for parochial purposes, and denominated the Fylde Union:—Bispham-with-Norbreck, Bryning-with-Kellamergh, Carleton, Clifton-with-Salwick, Little Eccleston-with-Larbrick, Elswick, Freckleton, Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton, Hardhorn-with-Newton, Kirkham, Layton-with-Warbreck, Lytham, Marton, Medlam-with-Wesham, Newton-with-Scales, Poulton, Ribby-with-Wrea, Singleton, Thornton, Treales, Roseacre, Wharles, Warton, Weeton-with-Preese, and Westby-with-Plumptons. In 1844 the guardians erected the Union Workhouse at Kirkham, at a cost of about £5,400, and in 1864 the building was enlarged so as to be able to accommodate 250 paupers. All small, local workhouses in the districts comprised in the union were of course closed on the opening of the central one. The guardians of the different townships constitute