ABSTRACT
In 1847-8 a Poor Law Commission inspector, W. G. Boase, was assigned to a field survey of vagrants travelling the main route between south Wales and London, via Bristol. His report in 1848, together with those of other regional inspectors, forms the earliest depiction of tramp ward life; one has to wait until 1866 for another set of inspectors' reports, most notably that of Andrew Doyle, for comparable colour. Eighty per cent of all tramps, he found, were male: ninety per cent of casual ward patrons he classed as 'undeserving'. The casual wards were used as venues for plotting crimes, and as hideouts for criminal fugitives. The DPA Societies, it seems, found the real criminals more worthwhile to help as they had more enterprise than shiftless vagrants who just drifted back from the prisons to the casual wards. Casual wards were also populated by 'local' non-migratory tramps.
