Below is an index of individuals who received assistance from the Blandford Poor Law Union in the 1850s and early 1860s, extracted from the following sources:

BG/BF/A/1/7, BG/BF/A/1/8 and BG/BF/A/1/9 – Minutes of the Blandford Union Board of Guardians (Dorset History Centre): lists of able-bodied individuals who received relief, usually because of their own or their families’ illness. Sometimes relief was given for funeral expenses or transport costs to hospital. There are also the occasional orders for the individual to enter the workhouse. These lists began to appear in the guardians’ minutes in December 1853 and have been transcribed to the end of 1861. The reference (in the final column) includes the date of the guardians’ meeting and the page number of the minute book.