Volume containing pre-printed questionnaire for manual answers to be entered at each inspection of the Visiting Committee to the Birr workhouse. The questionnaire comprises 16 questions on the condition of both the workhouse premises and the residents of the institution. The Visiting Committee answers either Yes or No to each question and there is space for observations, comments and sign-off by the clerk of the union and the chairperson of the board of guardians. Inspections begin as monthly occurrences in 1896 but are sporadic in frequency by 1920. Following the closure of the Birr workhouse in August 1921, during the 'Amalgamation' of the workhouses in the county, the newly constituted Board of Health opened the County Home in Tullamore workhouse. In 1938, a new visiting committee was formed and Mary K. Dunne, a member of the Visiting Committee in the 1920s, and her colleague, A. F. E. McMichael, seem to have repurposed this volume to record the inspection visits to the county home (in Tullamore). Rather than answer the pre-printed questionnaire template, written reports have been attached to the page, or the observations space is used to write a report, and it is stamped and signed by the Board of Health. The use of this re-purposed volume by the Board of Health lasted until December 1939.

Includes some loose correspondence from the Local Government Board (1905; 1911)

97 Minute Books

55 Rough Minute Books

1 Repayment of Relief Book

1 Rent Book

1 Document relating to the King's County Directory

1 Lease

3 Workhouse Registers

2 Financial Minute Books

1 Dispensary District Ledger

Minute books, accounts ledgers, reports, and ancillary material relating to the creation, administration, and eventual dissolution of Tullamore Union from its establishment in 1839 to the closure of Tullamore Workhouse in August 1921. The main set of records are the minute books of the boards of guardians, comprising 112 volumes from an original set of 128 volumes. Other material is financial in nature, such as the treasurer’s account books and rates returns. No workhouse admission and discharge registers survive, but an important volume entitled Application and Report Book from 1862/1863, provides details of the relief applications for approximately 500 applicants. Other workhouse material is in the form of provisions registers and daybooks, as well as an architectural drawing of alterations to the Infirmary at the workhouse. As the Board of Guardians also oversaw the dispensary districts in the union, there is a set of minute books relating to the five dispensary districts with accompanying district notices in poster form.

Ledger kept by the workhouse master, Daniel Rowan, recording all invoices received and the value of goods delivered or work completed on behalf of the Boards of Guardians, mainly suppliers of food and other provisions such as clothing and bedding.

Plan of the infirmary, Tullamore Workhouse, by John [Hill] showing proposed alterations. Scale 10ft to 1 inch.

Ledger recording provisions and necessities required per week for the workhouse, such as bread, beef, mutton, bacon, butter, potatoes, oatmeal, treacle, eggs, salt, condiments, tobacco, porter, and sanitary materials.

Only 10 minute books survive as records of Edenderry Union covering the years 1879-1919, with many large gaps. There are no extant workhouse registers, registers of deaths, workhouse ledgers, outdoor relief registers, or registers of accounts.

A further known minute book from 1895, which was rescued from the workhouse following its demolition in 1976 and is now in private hands, has been transcribed by Dr Ciaran Reilly in an article ‘The minute book of Edenderry Poor Law Union, 1895’ in Offaly Heritage, Vol. 7 (Tullamore, 2013)

The minutes contain the proceedings of the meetings of the boards of guardians and contain reports from the clerk of the union, the master of the workhouse, the sanitary officers and others.

Copies of outgoing letters from John V. Brown, clerk of Parsonstown Union to various recipients, particularly the Poor Law Commissioners, detailing reliefs and works. Also includes copy outgoing correspondence relating to assisted emigration schemes for inmates of the Parsonstown workhouse during the course of the Great Famine.