A Miserable Hovel

I came across the following cutting the other day purely by accident. It is from The Sheffield Daily Telegraph dated 18th January 1864 and it is a verbatim account of a death in Cumberland as reported by the Carlise Journal.

 

It is a desperately sad account of a life and death. And it is a timely reminder of what can occur when people are left to fend for themselves. It is also rather macabre in a way. In 1860, a £100.00 would be the equivalent of roughly £60,000 today, and so at today's prices, Mr Weales annual income of £20 would be in the region of £12,000 per annum or to put it more succinctly on par with today's minimum wage.Not a great deal of money but enough to subsist on. Mr Wheales seemed to live or "exist" at poverty level which is strange given his income.