  n 20th September the Rothbury Board of Guardians purchased a site for a new workhouse on Silverton Lane to the south of the town. The conveyance named the sellers of the land as "the Most Nobel Henry George Percy, Duke of Northumberland and the Honourable Henry Algernon George Percy". By the following year, a new workhouse and school had been erected in the Rothbury Board of Guardians invited tenders for a water supply to the building.
The new workhouse could accommodation 50 inmates. The main building at the centre of the site was two-storey block with the master and matrons accommodation at the centre, men's day room and dormitories to the east, and women's to the west. To the rear was a single-storey service block containing a wash-house, laundry, kitchen, shed, and mortuary. There was large separate annex to the south - possibly a casual ward for vagrants. the site layout can be seen on the floorplan, by which time the workhouse had become officially known as Rothbury Poor Law Institution.
The present owners, John & Maggie Wallace, bought the property in 1990, when it was divided into three units. They have undertaken all the conversions and restoration work themselves. The above information was kindly supplied by Peter Higginbotham, click here to visit Peter's website which contains more about the history of workhouses. |
In around 1932 , a separate single-storey timber built school room was added to the west of the main workhouse. By 1941, the establishment had been renamed Silverton House and was a home for forty-five young mental defectives, including fourteen epileptics. The patients' education was provided by the chief male nurse, together with one of the older girl patients, and activities included a percussion band. Advice from Board of Control inspectors was that teaching should concentrate on practical skills such as doing up buttons and shoelaces rather than reading and writing.
