Dudley Bread and Soup Kitchen
1842. This very valuable and highly acceptable institution, to the distressed poor especially, was established by a number of benevolent ladies and gentlemen in the town, during one of those cycles of hard times and bad trade to which this town and district is periodically subject. Messrs. Thomas and Isaac Badger, Mr. Wm. Barrows, Mr. Cornelius Cartwright, Messrs. Bourne and Wainwright, the Rev. W. H. Cartwright, M.A., Vicar, &c., Miss Banks, Mrs. H. M. Wainwright, Mrs. Wm. Barrows, Mrs. Dr. Roberts, and other ladies and townsmen, lent a most willing hand to this work of charity. From that period, until now, this deserving institution yearly distributes its weekly bounty to thousands of distressed families, in our bleak and dreary winter months. Its income is about £300 a year.