Bawnboy Union Workhouse

The saved account records: Detached multiple-storey single- and two-storey workhouse complex, built 1852, now disused.

The saved account records: Symmetrical layout having male accommodation on east and female on west side.

The saved account records: Two-storey childrens’ buildings with breakfront to inner bays flanking a gated entrance to south, girls’ and boys’ yards behind separated by a central two-storey gabled building facing the entrance containing dining hall, later the Roman Catholic chapel, and forming a T-shaped block with two-storey adult wings to north end.

The saved account records: Entrance gate and wall currently being reconstructed using historic materials, consisting of segmental arch with recessed ashlar surround and large decorative paired timber brackets to support hipped slate roof.

Bawnboy Union Workhouse matters for the exact reasons given in its official assessment, rather than merely because it is an old structure. The source records: Bawnboy Workhouse was built in 1852 to a pattern design by George Wilkinson (1814-90), architect to the Poor Law Commissioners. The design developed as a revision to his earlier workhouse type built throughout Ireland between 1839 and 1850. The workhouse was designed to accommodate 600 people, but never reached full working capacity. As an ‘1850’ type workhouse it was amongst the latest in Ireland and is the only example of this type in Ulster. It served the newly created ‘Bawnboy Union’ following a decision by a commission established in 1848/9 to provide more workhouses in response to the Great Famine. The new… This explains what the place adds to local life, the street or the surviving built history.