[Report from the Poor Law Commission in 1838]
“The Governor is a retired supervisor of excise; his former occupation has accustomed him to accuracy in accounts, and his services on the Kent and Sussex coast have inured him to the firmness required in his present situation; and the most refractory have given way to the discipline of the house.
The building is in general judiciously planned. The Governors apartments in the centre, between the male and female wards, and overlooking the two yards.
The number of inmates at present is 62, principally aged, deserted children, and a few children of parents who are unable to maintain them.
The able bodied, who are sometimes sent in are soon induced by the order, the cleanliness, the abstinence of fermented liquor, and the general restraint, to quit as soon as possible and seek work for themselves. Nearly 200 persons are sent into the house in the course of the year.
The able bodied are employed in raising and drawing gravel and in the repair of roads. The cheapness at which they can be maintained is a material object; for the charge is heavy. Some obstinate paupers frequently use that as a means of wearying out their parish and obtaining their own way.
As children can be maintained here for 1/6d per week, the parishes avoid the evil of the large allowances usually made for bastards which operate as a premium on immorality.”