Boston Society reported in February 1900:

"The inmates of Boston Workhouse are about to revel. The dietary table has been revised, and henceforth they will be allowed meat on six days of the week and pudding on four days. Friday is a meatless day but the able-bodied men are to have a pound of suet pudding for dinner, served up with gravy, treacle or sauce, the other inmates, of course, partaking in proportion."

"The Local Government Board have also expressed a desire that the dietary table shall include, when possible, lettuces, onions, watercress and suchlike, which, however, is no new arrangement at Boston Workhouse."

"But the piece de resistance of the new dietary table will be produced every Wednesday in the shape of Irish Stew.
There will be no half laps about this diet, either, for the specifications lay down that not less than five ounces of meat, or 10 ounces of neck of mutton, shall be stewed and served to each able-bodied inmate. There are rollicking times ahead in the Big House down South end!"

At this time Boston Union comprised forty-two parishes spread over almost 102,000 acres, with a population of 38,221. Children were still being taught on the premises when, in 1903, approval was given for a new infirmary and laundry to be built at the workhouse, and for a heating system to be installed. The outbreak of World War I found the board of guardians in jingoistic mood: at the end of August 1914 a resolution was sent to the government urging that the large number of vagrants of military age should be forcibly enlisted, one member declaring they would at least be suitable for guarding the breweries!

The Boston Union came to an end after some ninety-four years, the last meeting of the guardians being held on 22 March 1930 in the boardroom at what was then officially known as the "poor law institution", though still generally termed the workhouse. There were seventy men, fifty-one women, ten children and fourteen infants resident; and even up to that date a punishment book was maintained, and solitary confinement, with bread and water in place of the main meal, was still imposed.

There were fifty-one guardians, of whom auctioneer Ben Killingworth and coal merchant Walter Woodthorpe were chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, with William Henry Lunn as clerk. Three relieving officers were employed, as had been the case in 1836; L.V. and A.C. Brumblecombe were master and matron; and the medical officer was Dr. Reginald Tuxford. The board's functions were taken over by Holland County Council, but another six years elapsed before Boston got its first children's home, Holly Cottages on Fenside Road.

Improvements to the former workhouse were carried out in the years leading up to World War II, during which it was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and became HMS Arbella. After the war, the infirmary block was brought back into use, to provide residential accommodation for sixty elderly people - a "temporary expedient" which lasted over twenty years.

Boston It's Story and People, Geo. S. Bagley