A pair of 167-year-old registers uncovered from the rubble of the former Barnet Workhouse will give historians a detailed insight into welfare systems in Victorian England.

The workhouse, which was the precursor to Barnet Hospital, is believed to have inspired Charles Dickens to write the scene where Oliver Twist famously asks for more. It was demolished in July last year.

But the discovery of two admissions and discharge registers, dated 1836 to 1838, which provide details of the ailments of inmates and brief descriptions of their backgrounds, has excited historians at the Barnet and District History Society.

"This is a vitally important document," explained society secretary Dr Gillian Gear.

"The registers are from a period before we had the national registration of births, marriages and deaths. This is a wonderful record of the circumstances of the poorer people who got missed out of most records."

Each parish had its own workhouse until 1834 when the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed, which recognised for the first time that the state had a responsibility to those unable to look after themselves.

Consequently, the separate parish workhouses were grouped into 'unions', administered by a Board of Guardians responsible to the central control of the Poor Law Commission.

"Hopefully the information will make us understand better whether these workhouses were good, bad or indifferent. There aren't that many whose records are as complete as Barnet and this adds more colour," said Dr Gear.

"It is not just worthwhile for Barnet people, these statistics give an insight into the history of Victorian care and welfare systems. It will add to the national consensus as to what was provided and how it varied from city to city and district to district.

"People are inclined to do workhouses down but they are better than the alternative which was to starve."

Inmates in the register include John Bell, a 54-year-old bricklayer from Chipping Barnet, who had lost the use of his right side following a stroke; menial servant and widow Sarah Hedge, 75, who was described as 'quarrelsome with the other inmates' and ran away; and William Ebbs, of East Barnet, who was illegitimate and abandoned by his mother and taken to the workhouse.

When he began working on his novel Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens was believed to have dined at the Red Lion pub in High Street, Barnet, where Barnet's Board of Guardians met.

"Oliver was like many of these children.

"He was a bastard, his mother died in the workhouse where he was brought up and he was apprenticed out to a sweep and ran away from his master," said Dr Gear.

"I'm convinced the workhouse influenced Dickens. It must have been a hot topic of conversation it was quite a fascination. This new life-changing idea was being introduced and he was bound to have visited the Barnet workhouse."

To see the register at Barnet Museum in Wood Street, Barnet, make an appointment with Dr Gillian Gear by calling 020 8440 8066.

Opening times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 2.30pm until 4.30pm and Saturday, 10.30am until 12.30pm, and 2pm until 4pm.