A Parliamentary Report of 1777 records a parish workhouse in Dedham for up to 48 inmates. The parish workhouse operated between 1725 and 1835 in a converted L-shaped building on Crown Street, now Whitmore House and/or Weavers Shed House (LB). An adjacent house is though to have been the workhouse master's house, now Sceoppa House. In 1775, the master received one shilling per week to feed and clothe each inmate. An inventory taken the same year included a workroom containing 20 spinning-wheels and four looms. Presumably, the residents would have been transferred to Lexden, Colchester, following the introduction of the 1834 Poor Act and the construction of the Lexden and Winstree Union Workhouse in 1836 (MCC4544).

The VCH records:

The workhouse or poorhouse recorded in 1671 may have been the cottage held by the churchwardens in 1672. It may have become the three timber framed cottages on Dedham Heath, which the parish held in 1838 and which were called a workhouse at their sale in 1840.
A house on Crown Street was adapted as a new workhouse in 1725. The accommodation was increased after 1730 using land, buildings, and money given by John Freeman. In 1775 the new master was to maintain paupers at 1s. per head; he put them to work on the 20 spinning wheels and 4 looms in the weaving room and another workshop in the house. In 1781 the parish experimented with leasing its poor, but by 1804 there was a salaried governor. By 1807 the workhouse ran a sack manufactory and the following year had a starching room and setting shop as well as spinning rooms. Medical assistance for the poor was provided from 1775, and a salaried doctor employed from 1801.
In addition to the 20-30 inmates of the work house in the early 19th century, 50-70 people received outdoor relief. Until 1801 such relief was in bread and meal; thereafter it was in money, although tea and coal were still given to the old and widowed, and clothing, furniture, accommodation, and loans were sometimes pro vided. The Speenhamland system was occasionally employed, and in 1808 the overseers themselves used subsidized pauper labour. In 1834 thirty-four Dedham men who had been refused outdoor relief marched to Colchester, where they were summarily dismissed by the justices.
The £464 spent on the poor in 1776 was by far the highest amount in the Colchester division of Lexden Hundred, and the average spent on the poor between 1783 and 1785, £458 7s. 10d., was second only to Great Horkesley. A very large sum, £2,701, was expended in 1801, but relief fell the following year to £1,300. It then rose gradually during the second decade of the century until between 1816 and 1819 it again exceeded £2000. Between 1820 and 1835 it averaged c.£1600. Nonetheless, expenditure per head of population was considerably lower than in many neighbouring parishes, which may explain the nearly £100 voluntarily subscribed for the poor in 1820.
The workhouse closed in 1835 and was sold in 1838 to Whitmore Baker, from whom it was later named Whitmore Place. Converted into tenements by 1841, it was in poor condition by 1937. Proposed demolition in the 1960s was successfully opposed by the parish council. It was restored and divided into four dwellings c.1970.<1>
('Dedham: Local government', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe, ed. Janet Cooper (London, 2001), pp. 177-179. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp177-179 [accessed 8 June 2016].)


The Listing for Weavers Shed House (NHLE no. 1273806) records:

DEDHAM CROWN STREET 1. 5214 Weavershed House [formerly listed as Whitmore Place excluding the south-east block (formerly the TM 0531 27/13 25.6.52 Old Workshouse)] II GV 2. Formerly the Old Workhouse 1725-1835, when closed and converted into several tenements. Original elevations largely discernable. Originally early Georgian brick, with mouldings, and enrichments. Built round a courtyard, with an L-planned building at north-east and north-west side, with a more elaborate building on the south-east side. This last probably the Masters' House. The L-plan building north wing has 2 storeys and attics, plastered first storey and brick ground storey walls. Jettied gable to street with restored exposed framing, and casement windows. Roof ridged, gabled, peg-tiled. A large external red brick chimney.-stack with tabled offsets at north-east return. The wing parallel to the street is of red brick in Flemish-bond, 2 storeys and 3 bays with ridged, gabled and peg tiled roof. Three gabled dormers with small-paned windows, eaves. Two small-paned sashes on first storey with one set of casements central: 2 millions and one transom. First floor band, central front door with elaborate cut-brick, rubbed lintel; and a pair of small-paned sashes either side, under straight arches with exposed boxes.