On one side of the [recreation ground] there ran the railway line and beyond that the Workhouse or Union. We could see inmates of this drab place working or walking about, they seemed to us a race apart, and I always felt sorry for the children there in such dreary clothes and penned away from other people. There was one bright spot concerning the Workhouse, and that was a band composed of some of the boys. This was established in 1866, when approximately £30 had been granted to buy musical instruments for the boys in the Home. They used to play once a week on Wednesday evenings during the summer, in the circular bandstand in the [recreation ground] and Mum made a point of taking us to hear them, much to our delight and pleasure. When the boys were old enough, they were accepted into the Army as instrumentalists, so saving the Workhouse money.