Happy birthday to the Together Trust!

 

Today, the 4^th Jan 2012, sees the Together Trust celebrate 142 years of providing care and support to children and young people in the North West. The many services that are provided today are a far cry from our first home, which was set up to care for street children, but without our humble beginnings we would never have grown into the diverse charity we are today.

 

First home on Quay Street, Manchester

Here is the first home, situated at number 16 Quay Street, around the area which Sunlight House in Manchester now occupies. Rented for a few shillings a week it catered as a ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’. Inside the boys got a bath, slept on hammocks at night and were given breakfast, before being left to fend for themselves during the day. The home was under the watchful supervision of a couple from London, Mr and Mrs Walter Browne.

 First page of the first admissions book

From that first night the founder of this charity, Mr. L. K. Shaw, kept records of all the boys that passed through the home. His diary describes the first few boys admitted to the shelter:

“First boy admitted – when he presented himself he was in a state of utter destitution and covered with vermin. For some time he had been the companion of thieves. His father had been committed to prison for burglary and his whole surroundings were of the most disreputable character.”

“Second boy – was admitted a short time afterwards. This lad was in a worst state than the first. He had on only a pair of ragged trousers and an apology for a shirt. His body was covered in sores and bruises caused by the cruelty of a drunken mother. He stated that his father was in Portland Prison and the boy was known as a market lurcher and one of the worst of thieves.”

142 years have now passed since these first ragged boys were given a helping hand by the charity. However we are not the only charity to be celebrating our 142^nd birthday this year. Both the British Red Cross and the first of Barnardo’s Homes also began their important work in 1870. Happy birthday to us all!