THE MARTLEY WORKHOUSE SCANDAL was the headline news in Berrow's Journal exactly a century ago this week.

The secondary headlines declared: Master and Matron Charged with Drunkenness and Government Inquiry Demanded.

The Journal reported on a special meeting of the Martley Board of Guardians to which newspaper reporters had been invited for the first time ever, such was the great gravity of matters under discussion.

The Guardians were told of the deeply disturbing state of affairs discovered when an inspector paid a surprise visit to Martley Workhouse.

The Master and Matron were not present, and the inspector learned that inmates frequently went out of the workhouse without permission to visit public houses in the area.

One inmate confessed that he had just returned from a pub with two penny-worth of gin.

The inspector heard that inmates were regularly to be found drunk in the workhouse itself but, worse still, staff disclosed instances of the Master and Matron being guilty of "intemperance in other words, drunkenness.

There was further evidence too of the breakdown of discipline at the workhouse and of mal-administration by the Master and Matron, Mr and Mrs Battersea.

The workhouse children were ill-clothed and often dirty, paupers' food and Christmas fare had been withdrawn, and meals in general were not good enough and poor in content.

The Master and Matron gave an explanation for their absence on the day of the inspector's visit.

They had travelled into Worcester to arrange a concert at the workhouse, but several of the performers they wished to book were providing the entertainment at a Masonic banquet.

While they waited for them until late evening, they decided to visit the Theatre Royal the first time they had attended a place of amusement" in 10 years.

Nevertheless, the Martley Board of Guardians found all the explanations of the Master and Matron to be "unsatisfactory" and asked the Local Government Board to conduct an inquiry into the running of the Workhouse.

Crowquill, in his Journal comment column, stated: Mr and Mrs Battersea are well known in Worcester after 21 years service at Martley Workhouse, and the progress of the inquiry will be watched with no little interest.

Even so, Crowquill" said cynics were forecasting the Local Government Board inquiry would take at least two months to reach a verdict, by which time the terms of employment of the Master and Matron would have "long expired, making the inquiry seem purposeless.

Clearly, I shall come across the results of the inquiry when I look into later 1901 editions of the Journal in a few weeks time. I'll keep you posted!