Frith

During a professional working life in social care and mental health, and subsequently in a deeply researched series of books, Barone Hopper has quietly championed the vulnerable and the dispossessed. In Frith (an old English word for sanctuary) he explores in historical detail the succour available to life's unfortunates from early times until the present day. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, documents and maps, his story takes us from the support and security offered by the parish church in the Saxon and medieval periods, through the establishing of spitals, leper hospitals and pest houses to organised systems of relief from the days of the first Elizabeth to the Victorian workhouses and beyond. Set apart from the chronological account are poignant insights into the often wretched lives of individuals in need. We read, for example, local authority minutes from the 1820s dealing with Poor Law issues ('Pay to be stopped for one month on account of his son's stealing turnip greens'; 'Ordered to return to the Poorhouse, she being too young to be sent out to Australia.' 'Friday March 7th 1834; Snelling, Elenor 50/- to be paid to Toler (the beadle) for him to convey her and family to Portsmouth and to see that they go on board the vessel for America'), while from more recent times there are revealing transcripts of the author's conversations with a former Master of East Preston workhouse in West Sussex, and a history of modern Social Work in the twentieth century. The book in no way intends, or pretends, to emulate a history of the church (albeit any faith), architecture, art or fabric of buildings and their builders; the intention is to describe historic, secular caring for sick; needs and pauperism of an era of which employment for much of Barone's own personal life practiced, its care and professionalism. (Not virtue - just happened to be good at it). And, the major focus is the mantle of Sanctuary...Herewith, Frith.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION: xi Nonneminstre xi Chapter One 1 Lost Villages and Coastal Erosion 1 Lost villages 3 Chapter Two 11 Frith and Sanctuaries 11 Sanctuaries 13 Use and Abuse 14 Mafia as Sanctuary 15 Early Origins 15 Frith 17 Burpham 18 Leper Squints 24 Frith Boundaries 27 Prior Richard 28 Violation 30 Penalties 32 Hue and Cry 33 Sanctuary Rings 34 Steyning 35 Durham 35 Gloucester 36 York 37 Battle Abbey 39 Beaulieu Abbey 40 Dissolution 41 Fundraising and Charity, 1798 43 Crown Privilege 44 Chapter Three 49 Lazarettos and Leper Houses 49 Lazarettos 51 Medieval Leper Hospitals 52 Lepers 53 London Lazars 56 London Spitals 57 Sussex Leper Hospitals. 60 Origins 60 The Pest House 61 Plague Huts on the Hill 62 London 63 Italy 64 England 64 The Great Plague 65 Inoculation 66 Excavation 67 St James Leper Hospital Chichester 70 St Mary Magdalene 71 Chapter Four 79 Hospitals 79 Preamble 81 Pest Hospitals 81 'The Lepers Path', near Arundel. 85 Conclusion 88 Binderton 90 Brighton 91 Chichester 92 East Grinstead 94 Findon 95 Hastings 96 Horsham 97 Hurstpierpoint 98 Lewes 98 Midhurst 99 Petworth 100 Steyning 101 Storrington 102 Wisborough 102 Isolation Hospitals 103 Chapter Five 105 Vestry, 16th century, Churchwarden's Accounts 105 West Tarring. Before, and during, the early reformation. 105 Dissolution and Reformation 107 Before the Poor Law 107 Chapter Six 125 Vestry to Town Hall Care: 19th Century Accounts 125 Poor Laws 1601-1834 127 Vestry Notes 128 Questionnaire 1834 150 Formal National Questionnaire 1834 151 Background to Survey Replies 152 Poor Law Commissioner Questions 153 Chapter Seven 161 Nursing Lecture Notes 1906 161 Over Caring of Charitable Work 163 New Act 163 Local Government Board 164 Relieving Officer 164 Poor law case 164 Medical Officers of Health 165 Institutional relief in the workhouses 165 Infirmaries - Casual Ward 165 Children 165 Elementary Education 166 Industrial schools 166 Blind and Dumb 166 Metropolitan Asylums Board 166 Duty of Medical Officer. of Health 166 Recommended Reading 166 Aged/Epileptic/Children/Feeble-minded 167 Institutional Charities 167 Endowed Charity 167 Charities Organisation Society 167 Letter system 168 Disease of Phthisis 168 Health Societies 168 The Anti-tuberculosis Dispensaries 168 Hospital Sunday Fund 168 Surgical Aid Society 168 Convalescent Homes 168 Blind Houses 171 Charity 171 Relief 171 C.O.S. 171 Various ways assistance can be given 172 Unemployment 172 Helping boys and girls 172 Apprenticeship committee 172 Pensions 172 Chapter Eight 175 Workhouse: Poor Law, 19th - 20th century 175 Poorhouses 177 On the dole... 178 Nomenclature of the Poor House 179 Explorations 182 Old Parish Poorhouses and Workhouses of East Sussex visited. 182 Some of the Old Parish Poorhouses and Workhouses of West Sussex: 183 The almshouse and poor house becomes the Workhouse 184 Rustington and East Preston almshouse, 1620AD 185 East Preston Poor House (House of Industry, The Workhouse) 186 Extract from Worthing (Poor Law) Committee Minutes book. 186 General history of the site of the workhouse 189 East Preston Union Workhouse 191 East Preston Public Assistance Institution 192 The Site - East Preston Union Work House 194 Northview Workhouse 195 Duties of The gate (Spike)9 Porter: 195 Christmas Day at Northview 204 Christmas Day in the Workhouse 206 Breakup and Demolition 209 Cathy come home 211 Les Chalk - The Transcripts 213 Transcripts background, Northview Workhouse 213 Les and Peggy Chalk: (Transcript) 214 Les and Peggy give a tour of The Spike, as they remember it 219 Summary, 1983 262 British Manor 263 Frith Inn 264 Notes and References 267 Notes and references - Social Work and Northview Institution 291 Bibliography 293 Index 299 Names Index 303 About the Author 305 Addendum 307 The Little Manor 307

About the Author :
Born in 1937, Barone Hopper was in care as an evacuee during and after the war, and in 1940 was "bombed out" in the London blitz, which left him homeless for 12 years. His military life, from 1955-67 included national service and a period as a regular in the Royal Engineers, his thirteen months on Christmas Island making him a nuclear veteran. He was later a reservist in the Royal Engineers and a TAVR active reservist in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Early, varied, civilian careers included working in a Fleet Street photographic agency; as a West End dance teacher and, also, the press office for New Scotland Yard. Having qualified as a Registered Mental Nurse and in psychiatric child care, he became a Social Worker, working in child care, as well as with elderly and handicapped people. For more than thirty years he worked as a specialist psychiatric social worker, both in hospitals and out in the Sussex community, until his retirement in 2000. This is his sixth book.