This comprehensive listing comes in four volumes: Parts 1-3 list the records of the Unions created under the New Poor Law of 1834, until their abolition in 1930. Records of earlier combinations of places to relieve the poor under Acts of Parliament are also included, but not the old poor law records of individual parishes. In many counties Poor Law Union records survive in vast quantities, whilst in others they have all but disappeared; and of course this varies from union to union. Locally held records are mostly in county record offices, but some are in smaller borough archive collections, and there is also a great deal of material for all unions in the Public Record Office. Detailed references are provided in these listings, and county sketch maps show union boundaries.
Entries under each union are divided into two categories. Under 'A' are listed those most likely to include names of paupers, (for instance, admission and discharge registers) and of the general public (as in rating valuations). Under 'B' are the more administrative records, still often including names, especially of staff, and of great importance to local and social historians.
This volume covers Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, huntingdonshire, Kent, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and Sussex.
