Front of the old Firbeck building in the early 20th century
The workhouse building on acquisition by the National Trust in 1997
Ahistoric workhouse infirmary has opened to visitors for the first time, along with a new research library, following a major five-year restoration project by the National Trust.
The formerly derelict Firbeck infirmary at The Workhouse in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, has been restored by the conservation charity, with the help of funding from the Wellcome Trust, and opened on 5 July. The workhouse was built in 1824 as a place of last resort for the poorest who couldn’t work and for those people suffering from unemployment. It is now the most complete workhouse in existence.
Firbeck infirmary, built nearly 50 years later in 1871, provided medical care for the workhouse. Later it became a care ward in the 1970s but had been untouched for decades after closing its doors in the 1980s.