The workhouse was built of brick in 1836-7 on the north side of Fleet Road, just east of Holbeach in Fleet parish. It was based on the Poor Law Commissioners’ standard Y-plan or hexagonal designs produced by Sampson Kempthorne. It comprised a three-storey entrance block facing onto the road, behind which three accommodation wings radiated from a central hub. It was designed to accommodate 386 people, and later alterations brought that number up to 419. In its early years it held only about half that number.
There were 179 inmates in 1871.A separate 36-bed infirmary was added in 1851 and extended in 1904.The workhouse later became the “Holbeach House” nursing home.
A story relating to the workhouse – In 1882, there was a horrible death here of an inmate – as reported in the Derby Mercury:
HORRIBLE DEATH IN A WORKHOUSE.
A coroner’s jury at Holbeach, on Friday, after an inquiry lasting twelve hours, returned a verdict of manslaughter against the master of the Holbeach Union, for causing the death of a pauper, a young man named Bingham. The man had been suffering from a skin disease, and was placed in a fumigating box used to disinfect persons suuffering from infectious disease, and was apparently forgotten. His cries at length attracted attention, and he was released, but not until he had been so terribly burned that skin and flesh fell from different parts of his body. He died a few hours afterwards.
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