spikes
Some of the more punitive aspects of the workhouses were missing from spikes, but the standard of housing was basic. In the 1930s there were 17,000 people in spikes in the country, and 80 were found sleeping rough during a street count in London. In 1843, workhouses had been given the power to detain male tramps for up to four hours while they performed the required task of work. Once vagrants had done their stint of work, they were given a lump of bread and released to go on their way. However, even with an early start to the work, this meant that only half the day remained to tramp to another workhouse. Return to the same spike was not allowed within 30 days with the penalty being four nights detention with three days work being performed in between. To avoid this penalty, tramping circuits evolved linking a long progression of spikes before eventually returning to the first. Nights at a spike might intersperse with sleeping rough or in farm outhouses, especially in the summer months. Those entering the casual ward on a Saturday evening were detained an extra day since no work was performed on Sunday. George Orwell's account of a Spike describes a desultory Sunday where the inmates were locked up for the day: