Institutions and places for 'excluded' groups of people
By Maggie Davidson
This essay below examines institutions and places for 'excluded' groups of people. People can be, or feel, excluded from mainstream society for many reasons including religious belief, ethnic or cultural origin etc.
Here I have focused on those classed as having a mental illness, or disability, or as criminal, vagrant or unemployed or feckless, and those with infectious diseases. The key places and buildings therefore include gaols, lock-ups, workhouses, isolation hospitals, pest houses and asylums.
Secondary historical sources relate how societies have viewed and responded to such groups and how this has changed from the early medieval period to the current day. However, these largely deal in generalities and represent an 'official' narrative written from the stance of those attempting to quarantine, cure, reform or punish these individuals.
Analysis of a specific local landscape over time offers the opportunity to examine how these places were created and influenced the development of towns and villages. It also allows us to assess how far these groups are visible in the archaeological and landscape record. Throughout, I have use contemporary terms such as 'mad', 'feeble minded', 'defective', 'vagrant' etc rather than the modern politically correct equivalents which I feel are essential to present the evidence and discuss the findings. I hope that this does not offend.