View source for Sussex Poor Law Unions

''[[Sussex, England Genealogy|Sussex]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Sussex Newspapers|Newspapers]]'' <br> 

An Act of Parliament in the year 1834 took the responsibility of administering to the poor from the local parish church to the doorstep of civil government. The government grouped each civil parish into a union of parishes. There were nearly 600 such unions throughout England, each one comprising close to 20 or more parishes, and were specifically setup to meet the demands of the poor among their local populations, with a workhouse on the premises. The responsbility was transferred from local parishes to a Board of Guardians in each union. These groupings or unions were known as poor-law unions.