About
The Grade II Listed Old Workhouse, also known as the Bridgend and Cowbridge Union Workhouse, was built between 1836-8 as a result of the Bridgend and Cowbridge Poor Law Union (formed in October 1836). The building was designed by George Wilkinson, who was famed for designing other workhouses in England and Wales and could house up to 200 occupants. Wilkinson favoured the Elizabethan style for his buildings, of which the Bridgend workhouse is a particularly fine example.
The building’s front elevation originally overlooked a garden and comprises of a near symmetrical series of pointed gables over the first-floor windows. The centre of the building is demarcated by three tall, pointed gables. The central gable contains a coat of arms, the two either side having small thin slit windows. The ground floor under the gables contains two Tudor style arched stone framed doors, in between which is a rectangular window. The rest of the first and second floor windows are rectangular with stone lintels and heads.
The workhouse was cruciform in plan with projecting ‘H’ shape wings to the west. Each wing was used for different genders and classes i.e., male/female, infirm/abled-bodied, young/old, mother and baby/children ward and so on. The workhouse even contained the first infirmary for the poor. Within the centre were two exercise yards, one for women and one for men. The workhouse was taken over in 1930 by the Public Assistance Committee of Glamorgan County Council, along with the poor relief responsibilities of the Bridgend and Cowbridge Union.
The workhouse infirmary became the Public Assistance Hospital and the Public Assistance Institution was taken over by the National Health Service, becoming the Bridgend General Hospital.
