The Ghost of Hampshire’s Christmas Past, and the Charitable for the Poor
Each year, the adverts that appear on our televisions are filled with the requests of charities for support of those in need at Christmas. Many would be familiar with the media of Father Christmas standing on a street corner for the Salvation Army as he rings a bell to passers by requesting donations, as seen in many Christmas Hallmark movies each year. So, what was the Salvation Army of Hampshire’s past truly like? How did those who found themselves within the workhouses get to experience Christmas? What did the charitable population of Hampshire do to support these unfortunate people who found themselves in poverty at Christmas time? In the spirit of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, let’s meet the Ghost of Christmas Past and travel down memory lane to Hampshire’s festive seasons throughout the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Christmas Fare
It is no surprise that, for Hampshire residents, the significance of a hearty meal at Christmas time is just as important to celebrations today. The county itself became famous for its meat, especially its bacon as the Hampshire Advertiser noted in 1843 from an article titled Glories of Christmas where it goes on to describe how ‘Hampshire preserves its fame as the native place of the celebrated bacon’. Southampton was renowned for its pork and each year you would find a large fare for all locals to sell their products for the festive season. The annual fares were events that bought large numbers of people to purchase a variety of meats and cattle from across the country. The Christmas Market Show of 1842 in Romsey is noted by the Dorset County Chronicle to have been attended by a larger number of guests than previous years, and the quantity of pigs and sheep had not decreased either so there was plenty to go around. The Hampshire Independent noted that the Christmas Market Show of December 1840 found that the stock exhibited had been ‘exceedingly short’ ; however forty gentlemen had attended a dinner after the event at the White Horse. Additionally, The Sailsbury and Winchester Journal in December 1842 expressed the large attendance to the White Horse inn after the successful market that took place on December 15, describing how respectful agriculturists announced their intentions to compete in the next Christmas Market competition which would ensure the funding was available to the Society in charge. The same year, Newport saw their annual Christmas Cattle Show bring less traffic, but the quality of cattle was nonetheless fine. Alongside these annual fares it was common to find the butchers preparing their extravagant Christmas displays each year. Picture a store front, full to the brim with cuts of meat and hanging stock leaving little gaps in between. These displays not only provided butchers with a showcase of their best stock but allowed the festive communities of Hampshire to pick out the perfect pieces for their Christmas dinners. In 1835, local farmers and landowners created the Romsey Market Committee which organised show markets. In turn their hope was to improve the quality of animals locally and increase the prices for them, prizes would be up for grabs for the best animals in show, like in the agricultural shows seen today.
The importance of the annual Christmas Market Shows clearly demonstrates that food was just as important to Christmas celebration as it is in the twenty-first century. While families today plan for an extravagant turkey dinner on Christmas day, it was a different tale for those living in poverty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. So, Ghost of Christmas Past, take us to the Workhouses of Hampshire on Christmas Day of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries.
Christmas in the Workhouse
Imagine a room filled with worn down tables and a dreary atmosphere, filled with sullen faces eating from overused plates with meals that would not be seen on any well to do families dining table. The arrival of December 25th brings with it festive greenery draped from the walls and ceilings, maybe a tree sits in the corner, and the kitchen is preparing a hearty meal for this special day. A gift provided by the benevolent rich people as one newspaper described them, accompanied by the annual commentary of how pleasant it was for the poor to be provided with a Christmas meal. How melancholy it is to think that they were only deemed important enough to be fed just once a year.They ate as if they were unaware of their next filling meal.
One workhouse is noted by the Christchurch Times in December 1899 to have been tastefully decorated with holly and evergreens which were a gift from Mr. J.E. Cooper-Dean, J.P., and Mr. A. Skinner of Highcliff. Additionally, the Christchurch Times of December 1899 described how an evergreen arch in the entrance hall illuminated the words ‘Welcome to all’ in bright lettering, while in the dining hall evergreens festooned and another scroll illuminated ‘A merry Xmas and a happy new year.’ in an article titled Christmas at the Workhouse. A once dull and miserable place for inmates who had hit rock bottom was now filled with festive cheer for just one day a year.
What did the inmates of the workhouses eat, however? Unlike the traditional dinner of today, which would include a turkey and golden roast potatoes with a river of gravy amongst many other ingredients, the dinner of the nineteenth century was an entirely different sight. Depending on class, one might expect a goose to sit upon their Christmas table, turkey was seen as a luxury only those with wealth could afford. In the Workhouses however, the inmates would have the luxury of lumps of roast beef and pounds of plum pudding to enjoy and of course, plenty of drinks to go around for it was Christmas Day after all.
In one Christchurch Workhouse, the inmates were able to enjoy ‘a day of good cheer’ thanks to the donations by Guardians as they were called. With the introduction of the Poor Law, new restrictions had been put in place. One newspaper, the Christchurch Times in 1899 describes how the Guardians and inmates tried to indulge in as much as they could within the guidelines of this new law. As many Workhouses would have been celebrating in this manner, it was no different for these inmates as the food on their tables consisted of roast pork, roast beef, vegetables, and of course plum pudding. Other luxuries included beer, tobacco, snuff, tea, mineral waters and sweets, oranges, nuts, and apples, it was clear that this day was one that those who found themselves in these institutions would look forward to each year. After the dinner the men were gifted with pipes to go with their new tobacco and the women were gifted with tea and sugar to enjoy all given in kindness by the Guardians and donors.
While it was quite customary for some of the guardians to attend the dinner, it was described by the Christchurch Times that in the year of 1899 this Christchurch Workhouse saw none of them but the inmates nonetheless were instructed at the end of the festive celebrations to show their appreciation to the kindness of the donors and of course the ladies and gentlemen who offered their time to serve the bountiful dinner on this day by giving three hearty cheers in thanks. Although it is easy to assume that it was merely just a Christmas meal that was provided by donors for the inmates of Workhouses at Christmas, however, some donors provided new cuffs and bed jackets and for children one newspaper thanked a Mrs. Thorne Dean for gifting dolls to the young of one Christchurch workhouse along with a Mrs. McGlynn who provided the children with new toys.
To picture a child who found themselves within such an institution simply due to no fault of their own being given a doll on such a joyous day, one must wonder, how must they have felt? For Christmas Day was one day a year they could forget they were within a place of harsh conditions, gloomy and full of unfortunate individuals who simply found themselves upon hard times. Children and Christmas are just as entwined today as they were back in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and newspapers reminded their readers this time of year was for the children. The advertisements of new toys available for purchase and the storefronts bearing the perfect Christmas gifts, those who found themselves within the workhouses would have only seen Christmas through the lens of the guardians and donors until they were able to enter the streets of Hampshire once more. However, how did the children within orphanages experience Christmas?
Christmas Charity
So far it is clear that food is a significant custom when it comes to Christmas charity and good tidings for the poor, however, what else happened around Hampshire in terms of charitable behaviour? Several charitable people donated to schools and other institutions throughout the festive season, and subscription services were created to aid in spreading the costs over the Christmas period. However, some viewed charitable behaviour at Christmas as a custom that links back to the religious belief of taking care of thy neighbour. Some argue that charitable behaviour such as donating food to the poor is merely an act of custom that appears just once a year as part of Christmas traditions. Of course, there must have been some genuine cases of donations to the poor from kind-hearted individuals but how would it have been possible to know who truly cared for the poor over keeping up with traditions once a year.
With the tale of Santa Claus bringing presents down the chimney on the night of Christmas eve, it’s clear that the festival is for the children, an understanding that has resonated through households for centuries. So how has Christmas charity aided the children who found themselves living in poverty? The Royal Victoria Girls’ School was awarded 110 articles of warm and useful clothing to ninety-one girls, a gift most generous to the girls who were orphaned during the nineteenth century. It was custom even in Medieval England for the gentry to provide the poorest members of the community with shelter and clothing over the festive period. Such a tradition that King Charles I made a legislation which directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates to fulfil the old style tradition of generosity as John Ashton details in his book A Righte Merrie Christmaffe!! This custom continued throughout the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, as described in Hampshire Advertiser in January 1845 where the Duke of Cambridge gifted every poor person in the parish of Kew upwards to 800 lbs of beef with addition to 200 loaves and beer. In addition to food the Duke of Cambridge further provided the poor with a sack of coal to each family. In comparison to the gifts provided to the girls at The Royal Victoria Girls’ School, the Duke of Cambridge presented eighty children at the Queen’s Free School with a suit of clothes further described by the Hampshire Advertiser in 1845. The 76 girls of Hampshire Girls’ Orphanage in Southampton had the treat of a glittering Christmas tree and Father Christmas himself to give out gifts in 1932. Additionally, the Royal Seaman and Marines’ Orphan Schools and Female Orphan Home in Portsmouth was given a Christmas tree by Sir William Pink which stood tall surrounded by toys subscribed by the ladies and gentlemen of a local committee as noted by the Hampshire Telegraph in January 1906. While the workhouses celebrated through the benevolence of guardians the orphanages were aided by the support of the local committees to ensure they were taken care of during the festive season
Other charitable acts included several benevolent county residents gifting to the community such as one Mrs. Dottin of Hampshire who gave instructions for the distribution of her annual bequests of clothing and fuel to the poor at Christmas. Sir George Rose is noted to have distributed his usual contribution of bread, meat, and clothing to a hundred poor families of Lyndhurst in 1831.
One institution that some might find unexpected to have any form of Christmas celebration is the jails of Hampshire. While in newspapers such as the Hampshire Independant in 1848 the spelling is gaol, we can see through the articles published throughout the December months that festive charity didn’t stop at the workhouses but extended into the jails to ensure inmates received a hearty meal on Christmas Day.
Hampshire’s Christmas past is full of fascinating acts of charity and goodwill, with many a tradition that seeps into the festivities of today. The charities that provided for those in poverty filled the pages of newspapers to acknowledge the acts of kindness that filled the counties respectfully. Be it the providing of food on Christmas day to the clothing to ensure the poor are provided for during the colder months, it is clear then that Hampshire residents were benevolent folk who took care of those less fortunate at Christmas time.
By Sophie Curtis
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Christmas Benefactions. Hampshire Advertiser Saturday 23 December, 1843.
The Royal Victoria Girls’ School, Hampshire Advertiser Saturday 04 January, 1845.
Christmas Cheer, Hampshire Independent, Saturday 30 December, 1848.
Christmas in the Gaol, Hampshire Independent, Saturday 30 December, 1848.
Naval Orphanage Christmas Tree, Hampshire Telegraph, Saturday 06 January, 1906.
Christmas Day At The Workhouse, Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal. Saturday 02 January, 1897.
Christmas Charities, English Chronicle and Whitehall Evening Post, Tuesday 04 January, 1831.
The R.S.H Infirmary. Christmas Festivities, Southern Echo, Monday 28 December, 1896.
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Christmas Morning at the Lamb Memorial Hall. Southern Echo, Monday 28 December, 1896.
Christmastide At Southampton in the Workhouse. Southern Echo, Monday 28 December, 1896.
Their Christmas Treat. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 31 December, 1931.
Christmas Cheer Fund - How Totton Helped. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 31 December, 1931.
Christmas At The Workhouse. Christchurch Times, Saturday 30 December, 1899.
Romsey Christmas Cattle Show and Dinner. Hampshire Independent, Saturday 19 December 1840.
Romsey Local History Society. FO1/10179. Image of Harding’s Butcher Shop Christmas Display. 1910
Ashton, John. A Righte Merrie Chriftmaffe!!! The Story of Chrift-Tide . London: The Leadenhall Press , n.d.
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Newell, Paul. A Victorian Portrayal of Christmas 1837-1859. Moyhill Publishing, 2021.
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Taffe, James. Christmas with the Tudors. Independently Published, 2023.