How do you solve a problem like Maria?

April 3

Ann and I spend most of the day in the magnificent Hive in Worcester, searching the local archive records on the Pershore Union Workhouse. There are boxes and boxes of records, but most relate to a later period. We start to go through the minute books of the weekly meetings of the Guardians which read like any other committee meeting minutes. After a time we realised that it is all about mending the drains, tendering for food supplies and managing accounts. There are only a few references to individuals when they are sent off to the lunatic asylum in Fairford Gloucs. We learn a lot about the mechanics of running the workhouse but nothing about the Tandys.

We realise that what we need are the Masters Day books, but despite help from the lovely staff, they can't be located. Am so frustrated that the Millenium history book which mentioned Maria did not reference their source. Instead we take a look at the 1830 to 1835 parish poor relief overseers books to see if Maria was "on benefits " before the workhouse opened in 1837. She isn't but we do find her grandmother Elizabeth Tandy who must have been 80 by then. She receives. 2s and. 6d a week right up until May 1834. The record then shows expenditure of £1 on her funeral.

April 4

We spend some time in the Heritage Centre in Pershore which is opened a few mornings a week in the Town Hall and run entirely by volunteers. We learn more about the town in general and the workhouse in particular but nothing about the Tandys .There are full transcripts of all the parish registers and monumental inscriptions. I think about the hours I spent at the Family Records Centre in Kew recording them all and sigh deeply.

The Abbey Church of Pershore Holy Cross