HOO POOR LAW UNION OR BOARD OF GUARDIANS RECORDS

G/HO

1835-1933

fonds

The Poor Law Unions were established under the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834, to replace the administration of the ancient Poor Law system which had been undertaken by individual parishes. Under the new act, groups, or Unions, of parishes were created to increase cooperation in administering poor relief over a wider area, to create centralised Union workhouses and to remedy the uneven financial burdens which had fallen on parishes. The Poor Law Unions were abolished in 1930 and their work placed in the hands of district Guardians' Committees, whose records for Kent are held at the Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone.

For records of poor relief in the parishes making up the Hoo Union prior to 1835, see the records of the relevant individual parishes.