FASCINATING documents unearthed in Ambleside’s Armitt Library have inspired a disturbing book on 19th century poverty in the village.

Barbara Crossley, a volunteer worker at the museum, believes the letters and other records she came across had ‘never previously seen the light of day since they were written’.

As well as revealing the dire state of some people’s lives in the area, they give an insight into how looking after the poor became too great a burden for local townships to bear.

Ms Crossley was so moved by her discovery, she felt compelled to reveal the true nature of the desperate times the time in a new book, Poverty In Ambleside.

She said: “I came acrosss letters written in the 1820s by the parish overseers, arg-uing that the financial cost of caring for the old and the sick, the single mothers and the unemployed was increa-sing, and the ratepayers sought drastic measures to call a halt.

“There were no central funds available, forcing individual townships to raise the funds from the rates – and some communities were far from wealthy.

“Historically, the parish overseers had discretion regarding both who they helped and how they helped them.

“There were no guidelines and the overseers could give money, a weekly pension or pay rent or they could give goods in kind such as a bag of flour or oats, or they could give a pair of clogs or jacket.

“The applicants had no rights, but depended on the goodwill of the men from the church vestry.”

In 1834, the State intervened with legislation introducing compulsory admission to workhouses. For Ambleside’s poor, this meant being sent to the workhouse in Kendal.

“With this legislation, the concept of the deserving and undeserving poor was born,” said Ms Crossley.

“The beggars’ entry book, found in Armitt Library, written by the village constable in 1848, describes his duty of escorting betgars, often men seeking work, out of Ambleside. The township did not want to add to its financial burden of care.”

Ms Crossley added: “The fundamental change that had taken place was that poverty had become a moral problem. The poor, it was said, brought their problems on themselves and the workhouse was, and remained until the 20th century, a place of shame.”

Poverty In Ambleside, which is being officially launched at the Armitt Library on December 10, is available from the library or Fred Holdsworth’s bookshop in Ambleside, priced £7.50.