The work of Walter Thurlow Browne

We all know the story by now – on the 4th January 1870 two businessmen, Leonard Shaw and Richard Taylor opened a ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’ at 16 Quay Street, Manchester. This provided primitive accommodation for up to 40 boys as well as work within messenger and shoeblack brigades set up by the charity. Shaw and Taylor excelled at setting up the home and ensuring sponsors and assistance from members of the community. What they did not have experience in however, was caring for the boys themselves. This problem was solved by the appointment of a couple from London, Walter Thurlow Browne and his wife Emma. They became the first Master and Matron of the Quay Street home providing care and support to the boys.

Walter T Browne on the back row 

Born in Casitor-on-sea, Lincolnshire in 1840, Walter Browne already had experience in childcare having been heavily involved in the ragged schools in London. At Shaw’s invitation Walter and his wife travelled to Manchester to become involved in his pioneering experiment;

‘They were a motley group. Many of the roughest type with crimes of violence to their discredit, though so young. Worse than anything I had to deal with in London. They were very rowdy and I had to devise a means to entertain them.’

- Taken from 'The Children's Haven', 1914.

Drum and Fife Band

As well as setting up the messenger and shoeblack brigades, to ensure a form of employment for the boys and the first wood bundling agency in the city, he also set up musical bands. This started with a whistle band and soon developed into a fife and drum band. It entertained the boys in the evening in those early days before the Refuge provided other means of entertainment such as games rooms, a swimming room and reading room.

When the first home at Quay Street was deemed too small for the work the Browne’s accompanied the boys to their new home at the Central Refuge, Strangeways in May 1871. Here they oversaw the extension of the building until it accommodated 120 boys. A few years after the building was completed in 1883, a new calling beckoned Walter away from the Refuge to become ‘House Governor’ at Chethams in 1886. Here he was responsible for the welfare and later employment of the boys and for the hiring of teachers. He stayed here for the rest of his working life eventually becoming in charge of its famous library.