How it all began....



The Old Refuge Yard, Strangeways, Together Trust Archive, PH/4/15



This is one of my favourite pictures within the hundreds of images kept by the Together Trust. It is also one of our oldest. It was taken in 1873, three years after the charity was founded by Leonard Shaw and Richard Taylor on the 4th January 1870 in a small terraced house on Quay Street in Manchester. The charity provided basic shelter for the night and food for boys who would otherwise be living on the streets. The photograph shows a number of the boys (girls weren’t provided for until 1878) in the yard of the charity’s second home, the Central Refuge on Francis Street. Many of the prominent committee members can be seen on this photograph and at the front are the Refuge’s Drum and Fife band, which were a regular sight on the streets of Manchester

Over the years the charity has been know to people under different names. In the early days it was recognised as the ‘Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes’, after 1960 as the ‘Boys and Girls Welfare Society’ and now as the Together Trust.

Different aspects of the Together Trust’s history will be explored over the coming months. Like to know more about a certain home or period in the Together Trusts history? Why not comment and let us know.

Further details about the Together Trust can be found at www.togethertrust.org.uk