Workhouse • Holt

 Often, when we say workhouse, we immediately think of those huge Victorian institutions housing hundreds of unfortunate souls at a time. In the years before they became the standard though, the local poorhouse could often just be any residential or community building donated for the purpose, or smaller purpose built structures to house those from the immediate area. To understand the history of the Poor Laws, I recommend taking a look at the workhouses.org website linked HERE. We are not affiliated, but its a useful site for anyone interested in the history of workhouses and where to find them.

Holt workhouse was built in 1779 and was in use until the Erpingham Poor Law Union was formed which led to a substantial workhouse being built at West Beckham in the latter 1840s. The old workhouse at Holt was converted to cottages and today are private homes and holiday cottages.

If you visit today you will notice that it is located on Pearson's Road. On older maps though, this was known as Workhouse Lane and historically continued until it met up with the road to Hempstead and Baconsthorpe. When the railway was built, it cut through the lane and one side was renamed Pearson's Road and the other Gravel Pit Lane. When the railway line was closed in 1964 it was replaced by the Holt bypass. 

Georeferenced Maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland