An event leading to improvement in workhouse conditions in Britain in the 1840s. The Poor Law of 1834 had resulted in a worsening of conditions in workhouses to discourage all but the really needy from applying for admission. In 1845 able‐bodied labourers at the workhouse at Andover, Hampshire, were found to be eating the gristle and marrow from bones they were crushing to make manure. A committee was set up to investigate and the result was the establishment of a new Poor Law Board, responsible to Parliament, and some improvement in workhouse conditions.