Southwell Workhouse and Infirmary

Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

Visted 25 September 2025

Car park - layer of fine gravel on a hard surface, it was easy to travel over in a wheelchair. By the car park is the visitor reception building with large double doors. The building houses a small shop with cold snacks, drinks and souvenirs. There is a well equipped disabled toilet here.

Signage - visitors are not provided with a printed map of the area, however there is a large site map panel outside the reception building. The site itself has a good number of signposts and the volunteer guides are happy to help.

Outside paths - most of the paths are concrete. It is mainly flat ground. From the visitor reception there is a 200 metre path to the workhouse. The infirmary has a flagstone path to its entrance which is challenging to move over in a wheelchair.

Access inside - the main challange when moving around the workhouse and infirmary in a wheelchair are the doorways. The Victorian doorways are narrow. Our standard sized wheelchair (68 cm wide) only just cleared the width of the doorways. Extra manouvering was required in several tight spaces. A number of doorway threshholds required extra effort to passover due to ridges. Some doors needed to be held open, but wedges were available. The workhouse doesn't have an elevator and some may find the staircases steep. We didn't go upstairs nor to the cellar, as the wheelchair is too heavy to carry up and down. There was a lot to see on the ground floor and there were books available for visitors to look at that shows the upper floors and the cellar for people who cannot access these areas (see photo). The infirmary does have a lift allowing us to look around the wards.

Lighting - it was well lit in all rooms.

Sound - chatter from other visitors, including school children. No loud, disturbing noises.

Cafe - this is on the ground floor of the infirmary. It has a good selection of hot and cold cafe fare. There is space to move around the tables in a wheelchair.

Toilets - there are three disabled access toilets located in toilet blocks around the site.

Dog access - assistance dogs are all welcome on the site.

Gardens - it is possible to go through the gardens in a wheelchair. The paths were smooth and wide enough for wheelchairs.

Staff - the volunteer guides were very helpful and informative. There were a couple of reenactment actors also there on the day of our visit.

For more information visit: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/nottinghamshire-lincolnshire/the-workhouse-and-infirmary