This is a brief guide to researching records related to social assistance, welfare and housing within our collections here at Explore York Libraries & Archives.
The relief of poverty, organisation of charities, provision of housing and aged care underwent large changes over time and this guide provide an overview of the records relating to these subjects held in the civic and community collections held by Explore York.
The earliest records covered in this guide cover records relating charity provided by religious bodies that provided assistance in a spiritual sense to the populace. Over the course of the preceding centuries assistance began increasingly to be taken over by local government bodies in the form of social welfare through the Poor Law. The 20th century saw the provision of welfare move to be responsibility of local and national government bodies. From the 18th century onwards charities took on a complementary role to provide social assistance. Please note that some records within these collections are subject to Data Protection legislation.
A seperate collection guide available that covers the Poor Law collection [PLU] is available.
To help you begin your research there are some introductory resources below.
Records relating to the provison of social welfare, assistance and housing can be found predomnately in the York Civic Archvie [Reference: Y], however, records realing assistance by non-public bodies are also present throughout the community collections.
You can find more information on how best to search our archive catalogue on our How to Search page: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/how-to-search
- Charity accounts, leases and deeds, 15th-17th century [Reference: Y/SOC/3]
- Poor Relief records relating to poor relief prior to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, 1500s-1800s [Reference: Y/SOC/2/1]
- York Poor Law Union and Workhouse records (including records of the York Public Assistance Committee), late 17th century-1960s [Reference: PLU]
- Records of the York Female Friendly Society, 1786-1986 [Reference: YFF]
- Property and housing, 19th-20th century [Reference: Y/PPT/6/1]
- Records of the York Penitentiary Society, 1808-1950 [Reference: PEN]
- John Hodgson’s Charitable Trust, 1896-January 2010 [Reference: HOD]
- Minutes of committees relating to social assistance and social welfare, 1900-1974 ( [Reference: Y/COU/5/10]
- Records of York Rotary, 1921-2025 [Reference: YRO]
- Records relating to poor relief after the Poor Law Amendment Act,1834 comprising of records created by the Yorkshire Casual Poor Assistance Authority, 1930s-1940s [Reference: Y/SOC/2/2]
- Town Clerk welfare correspondence and administrative papers relating to the establishment of York’s Public Assistance Committee, Town Clerk, 1940s-1970s [Reference: Y/SOC/1/1]
- Housing Committee files relating to the building and maintenance of council housing, particularly post-World War II, 1932-1973 [Reference: Y/SOC/4/2]
Our archive collections can be searched and browsed on the archive catalogue: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/index.php/
You can find more information on how to search the archive catalogue on the ‘How to Search’ webpage: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/how-to-search
To book an appointment to access our archive collections and find details of our opening times and how to book an appointment, please refer to our ‘Visiting us’ webpage: https://exploreyork.org.uk/archives/visiting-us/
- Rowntree, S. Poverty and the Welfare State, Longmans Green and Co. 1951 [Shelf mark: 301.441]
- Nuttgens, Patrick. The Home Front : Housing the People, 1840-1990, London : BBC, 1989 [Shelf mark: 363.5(Y)]
Our local history and special collections can be searched and browsed using our library catalogue: https://catalogue.exploreyork.org.uk/client/en_GB/default/
- Borthwick Institute for Archives: https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/
- The National Archive ‘How to look for records of… Public health and social policy in the 20th century’ guide: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/twentieth-century-public-health-social-policy/