Before the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the formation of larger unions, individual or grouped parishes maintained local poorhouses.
Bond End (then Burton Extra) had a township workhouse from 1727. Stanton had a workhouse which in the 1770s could house up to 20 inmates.
Burton set up a workhouse in 1728 in a converted barn at the west side of Anderstaff Lane (now Wetmore Road), by 1776, it could house 60 inmates. In 1782, Thomas Hopkins and his wife were appointed as Governor and Governess at a salary of £20. In 1835, William Coxon was the master of the establishment. The building was sold in 1847 and later became a brewery warehouse.
In around 1802, six local parishes formed a union under the terms of Gilbert’s Act of 1782. The union erected a workhouse at Rosliston and arrangements were made for its use with a further parishes in the area. The three-storey building could accommodate 82 inmates. It had gardens, orchards, and land for keeping hens and a cow. In its final year of operation in 1838 it was being run by John Campion and his daughter whose combined salary was over £36 per annum.
In 1840, the workhouse ceased functioning and the site was sold off to Joshua Hardy for the sum of £200 who converted the building into a terrace of houses. The buildings were demolished in the early 1960s to make way for wider development.