Former Union Workhouse, Cerne Abbas, Dorset
The Cerne Union workhouse was built in 1836-7. The Poor Law Commissioners authorised an expenditure of £2,700 to build a workhouse for 130 inmates. It was designed by Charles Wallis. It followed the model "200-pauper" cruciform layout published by the Poor law Commissioners in 1836. In around 1841, following an outbreak of typhus fever, a separate isolation block was added to the rear of the main building. The workhouse inmates worked in gardens, fields and workshops and were paid in special tokens which could be redeemed at local village shops. From 1932 to 1955 the former workhouse site was used as a youth hostel. During the Second World War it housed evacuees from a London school. The building was later converted into flats known as Giant View after the nearby hillside figure carved in chalk.
