At the end of the More than Oliver Twist project we are no longer uploading blogs to our site.

However we have created a Facebook page, supported by our Steering Committee, Regional Mentors and our Research Volunteers.

Please come and join us: https://www.facebook.com/groups/workhousenetwork

Discover how the Network is moving forward and what projects are coming up next.

We launched our media release for More Than Oliver Twist, created by The Workhouse Network and funded by Arts Council England last week! Please share widely amongst your networks - we are keen for the exhibition to reach as many people as possible.
 
The More Than Oliver Twist project set out to discover the real stories of people in the workhouse system through the 1881 census returns. Researched and interpreted by volunteer researchers, at six workhouse sites across The Workhouse Network, the stories have been used to create an on-line exhibition which explores six of these lives and the contemporary echoes of these historic experiences. Using recordings with researchers and people experiencing similar issues today, created during the first pandemic lockdown, the exhibition encourages reflection on these universal issues and on how we support those in need today.
 
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-workhouse-network
 
The six sites involved are Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Norfolk Museums Service; The Workhouse Southwell, National Trust; Llanfyllin Workhouse;  Ripon Workhouse Museum and Garden, Ripon Museums; Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds and The Spike Heritage Centre, Guildford. The project has been supported by Nottingham Trent University and The National Archive.

Please could you hold the following date in your diary:
 
Thursday November 12th, 10-12
Celebrating More Than Oliver Twist
 
Final details for this online celebration are still to be confirmed but we would love to offer our wonderful volunteers the chance to share some of their favourite stories and experiences of research.
 
We would like to feature up to 3 volunteers from each regional group to speak for 5 minutes each as part of the celebration. Did you find an amazing story? Were you blown away by an unexpected life? Did you find a personal link to your research? If you would like to share your experiences as part of the party do us know. 
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We are also looking at ways you can share your research in a longer time slot and in more detail in the future - do let us know if you have any ideas about how we can do this despite the on-going uncertainty of the ongoing pandemic.
 
We’ll be back in touch with further details about the celebration closer to the time. In the meantime if you have any questions do let me know.
 
With thanks
 
Megan

I have just submitted the final report for Arts Council England for our pilot project More Than Oliver Twist and it feels like the end of an era. Thank you to all of you for your help and support during what has been a very strange time. Without your involvement and contribution we would not have been able to meet and exceed all our original objectives and outcomes:
 
• training at a national conference for a diverse workforce to engage with welfare collections and pauper histories
- Mentor Training Day, July 2019
- Networking Event, September 2019
- Skills Sessions, July 2019 onwards
 
• new leadership for the network through the creation of 6 Regional Mentors to lead local skills sessions and oversee the development of a temporary pauper histories exhibition:
- Mentor Training Day, July 2019
- Skills Sessions, July 2019 onwards
- Exhibition Planning Event, October 2019
- Exhibition Consultation Day, January 2020
 
• a physical and online pauper histories exhibition linking historical and contemporary welfare stories:
- approved change to digital only following the coronavirus pandemic
- exhibits live on Google Arts and Culture from 20th October 2020
 
• a Workhouse Network website – hosting welfare resource toolkits, best practice case studies and the digital pauper histories exhibition:
- The Workhouse Network (hosting welfare resource toolkits, best practice case studies)
https://www.workhousenetwork.org/
- The Workhouse Network eHive database (free publication of 277 fully referenced academic pauper inmate biographies from 6 workhouse sites)
https://ehive.com/communities/1167/more-than-oliver-twist
- The Workhouse Network Google Arts and Culture site (7 exhibits introducing the network and providing six digital exhibits created by artists Mel Rye and Morgan Tipping in collaboration with volunteers and staff at 6 workhouse sites)
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/the-workhouse-network
 
• full evaluation including the development of a 5 year forward plan to create a sustainable, diverse organisation bringing together museum professionals, academics, historians, archivists and librarians
- Interim Evaluation Report completed, February 2020
- Final Evaluation Report completed, September 2020
- Forward Plan compiled, September 2020
 
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic resulted in 3 Workhouse Network Steering Committee members being sick and/or furloughed. This, combined with the national lockdown, led to Arts Council England approval for an extension of the project to October 2020 and slight changes to timetable, deliverables and budget.
 
We are waiting for funders approval for us to re-profile a slight underspend to enable us to:
 
More Than Oliver Twist Celebration for all volunteers and staff, November 2020 (online event).
Evaluation and report on completed More Than Oliver Twist digital exhibits, December 2020.
 
More details on these, and other plans, in the next few days when I will be emailing to provide you with an outline of what happens next and how we are hoping to develop the Network. I’ll send separate emails about the new Steering Committee, learning opportunities, what to do with the digital exhibits once we have them published, the future of our websites and what you want to do in the future and how we can continue to work and grow together.
 
More Than Oliver Twist has seen us do so much in such a short time. It hasn’t always been easy, and it hasn’t always gone as smoothly as it could have done - but this has resulted in an enormous amount of learning and I am confident that we will go on to do bigger and better things. Thank you once again to all of you for your time, commitment, patience and enthusiasm - we simply couldn’t have done it without you!
 
Megan, Chair of the Steering Group

We were really excited today to receive our FINAL evaluation report from consultant Harriet Foster. This summarises all the learning and achievements of the last year and a half. As you might imagine it is a pretty big document! We are so proud and excited to be able to demonstrate how we have hit our objectives and how we have a made a difference to museum working with workhouse collections and archives.

There is a long gap (20 years) in Sarah’s life. In 1851 aged 21 Sarah was working as a servant in Marylebone London and in 1881 she was at Gressenhall, where she was listed with a specified health condition ‘imbecile’ and where she lived until her death in 1905. I often wonder what might have happened to her in the ‘lost’ years between those two censuses. I suppose no individual’s story is every truly closed. She was the first person I researched so I learnt to keep better records as I go along and discover information. I often had to look for things that I had previously seen and had not annotated the source properly. I try to be more methodical now and have developed my own system.  
(Research Volunteer working on the project talking about one of the pauper biographies)

Most of the evaluation has been qualitative but we have been able to capture some numerical data too:

• 128 volunteers working on pauper research, plus 9 Regional Mentors who gave in excess of 2,048 hours (estimated) on research; Regional Mentors gave 1,860 hours (estimated) to support volunteers and deliver associated tasks
• 3 national training events recording 70 attendances overall
• Skills Sessions in regional groups amounted to 16 group sessions and 22 one-to-one sessions
• At least 203 pauper biographies have been researched so far

• The Workhouse Network website received 2,758 unique visits and recorded 6,177 page views between June 2019 and August 2020. It had 30 enquiries, including 8 that were requests to volunteer for the project.

We are really excited to build on this workforce development and have already started talking about what comes next for the network!

Megan Dennis
Curator, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse
Chair, Workhouse Network

Things are in full swing here as the exhibition gets closer, so I thought I would share an update on what we are up to!

As things come close to completion we are busier than ever...

Thanks to feedback from our wonderful volunteers, we have decided to make sure that the terminology in the More Than Oliver Twist Exhibition is explained, with a page dedicated to clarifying the words we see in this research and how they are used in society, both historically and today. 

​The following is an extract from the information on the terminology page of the exhibition, and I would be really grateful to hear your feedback on what else can be included, if this is phrased appropriately and if there is anything you would change or add. Please do get in touch with your thoughts and ideas!

This week we are pleased to share an update on the More Than Oliver Twist exhibition from our fantastic artists, Mel Rye and Morgan Tipping..

VISUAL
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Mel is currently finalizing the 6 large biographical illustrations...