The workhouse & Charles Dickens

The Workhouses

The workhouses are a phenomenon typically English, rose in the 18th Century with the diffusion of Industrial revolution and a new conception of working in the Country.
At the expense of the primary sector in campaigns, the people moved in cities, where they can find work and accommodation.
However overcrowding and poverty forced workers to choose the Workhouses for their support. 

Men did heavy works. On the contrary the women, who are separated from male, undertook in housework, like sewing, cleaning and cooking. In exchange of their fatigue, they received food.
The workhouses, lasted about 300 years until 1930, were made famous by Charles Dickens' novels. The most known are Hard Times, Martin Chuzzlewit and obviously Oliver Twist.
In fact Dickens, oppressed by his family poverty, when he was twelve was forced to go to work, in poor conditions, in a factory.