ABSTRACT
Houses of Industry, usually founded by parochial guardians, were intended to remedy the problem of creating individuals’ dependency upon charity; material assistance was given to the poor in exchange for ‘industry’. The Shrewsbury House of Industry, founded by the Parish authorities in 1784 for the receipt of paupers, was considered by many contemporaries as a model institution for addressing the ‘evil’ of poverty. The purpose of the House was twofold: to provide respectable employment, food and assistance to older women who would otherwise have no means of support and to train young women to domestic service while providing them with a moral and religious education through the foundation of a ‘servants school’. The objective of the school was less about producing accomplished readers and needle workers than ‘to make active, diligent, and sober-minded servants’ who were trained in order, industry and decorum.
