Temporary Extensions to Workhouses

A very large extension of workhouse room, partly of a permanent and partly of a temporary nature was brought into use in County Galway during the season of distress, 1847-52. As the enlargement of workhouse accommodation was at once too slow and too extensive a process, where only a temporary emergency had to be provided against, it was not much resorted to; and generally speaking additional room was obtained either by the erection of timber sheds on the workhouse grounds, or, more commonly, by hiring unused stores and other buildings as auxiliary workhouses. In many cases the buildings rented were not adapted to the purpose, and they were frequently so overcrowded at times as to prove absolutely injurious to the health of the inmates.