The Caxton Brigade

There is never anything more satisfying to a researcher than the immortal words ‘out of copyright’. "Hurrah!" they think, "I can use this for any promotion I choose!"

And so a happy researcher comes to today’s ye olde story about the work of the Together Trust, settling on the tale of the Caxton Brigade.

Messenger Brigade outside the Children’s Shelter around 1910

I chose this subject after stumbling across a magazine that had been put online by ‘Internet Archive’. This was written in 1894 and was entitle: ‘The Quiver: an illustrated magazine for Sunday and general reading’.

Now that the magazine was out of copyright its contents had been digitised and put online, allowing for its research by any interested party (or wandering Archivist). Controversially I read the article on a Thursday, four whole days after the instructed Sunday, but as I classed it as ‘general reading’ I felt myself to be vindicated.

In this 1894 edition, an article appeared entitled ‘The Caxton Brigade in Manchester’, commending the work being carried out by the workers. They wrote:

“There could hardly be a nobler method of perpetuating the name of the first English printer than by associating it with such a truly benevolent enterprise, the aim of which is to assist in the battle of life poor lads who are willing to do their part.”

The Caxton Brigade was a branch of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes, which had come into being two months after the charity’s formation in January 1870. Originally known as the Messenger Brigade or Parcel Brigade the group comprised of poor boys who delivered letters, messages and parcels between the main railway stations in Manchester. 

Group of boys in the Parcel Brigade

According to the Quiver:

"the boys paid a small subscription for the use of the Society's uniform, and for the use of the reading room and lavatory. The uniforms are returned at seven o'clock in winter and nine in summer, but the boys are allowed to remain in the reading room for half an hour afterwards for the purpose of playing draughts or other games.”

Only thing missing is Jess the Cat!