Together Trust Archive

Imagine this... ...it’s 1870 and as a wealthy member of Manchester’s higher society you are strolling through the streets of Manchester, maybe after a trip to the Theatre Royal on Peter Street, when suddenly a small boy approaches you. “Buy a newspaper sir?” he pleads. Looking at him you can see he is barely over 8 years old. He’s small for his age after a lifetime of living in a crowded basement flat in Angel Meadow , rarely getting enough to eat and being largely neglected by his careless parents. Their only words are to tell him to not bother coming home until he has enough money to buy them their drink for the night. It’s coming up to midnight and the anxious look on his face tells you that tonight he has not achieved this… Street hawkers

  Are you interested in the history of Manchester? Want to know more about the many different organisations who contribute towards our understanding of our historic city? Then you have to be at this year’s Manchester Histories Festival 2012! http://www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk/whatson/ Following on from its successful event in 2009 the Manchester Histories Festival is gracing our doorstep again with the aims to “both celebrate the familiar and reveal the new and hidden histories from across Greater Manchester” . The festival runs from Friday 24th February to Sunday 4th March 2012 with a whole host of talks, walks and events on subjects that will interest everyone. Highlights include finding out more about your family history, participating in an archaeological dig or getting involved in a football debate. Annual Bazaar, 1930s The main ‘celebration day’ takes part on the 3rd March, largely centred around Manchester’s fabulous town hall. This will be bustling

Sometimes it’s as if the world contrives to know the end of a story. A chance encounter on Ancestry today revealed what happened to William, whose story is told in the last blog written on the 14th February. Until the 20th February, Ancestry are allowing free access to their Canadian Vital Records, which is perfect for people like me wanting to know the end to a certain love story…. On the 21st June 1916 William got married. The marriage took place in Hastings, Ontario around 60km down the road from Bethany where he wrote his lovesick letter. So what was the name of his spouse on the marriage certificate? Ethel  So our young romantic did not end up with his childhood sweetheart. He did however marry an English girl who we hope made him very happy! Case closed.

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” Spoken by Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Act I, Scene I, Line 134, William Shakespeare. Emigration party As it is Valentine’s Day I thought it apt to tell you a love story from within our archive. This isn't easy as many of the children who passed through our homes were young. Boys and girls were housed in separate buildings and interaction between sexes was few and far between.

“He who plants a tree does well; he who fells and saws it into planks does well; he who makes a bench of the planks does well; he who sitting on the bench, teaches a child, does better than the rest.” - Dean Farrar (Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges and Homes, Annual Report, 1936, p26). I found this in the archive the other day: Reformatory and Refuge Union, Educational Inspector's Report, 1892 It is one of our earliest examples of the education system in place at the Boy’s Refuge at Strangeways. The original set up of the Refuge back in 1870 was to provide food and shelter for those boys found on the streets of Manchester. Within a few months however, it became apparent that education and training was also needed. In 1870 the Elementary Education Act had come into being setting the framework for schooling of all children aged between the 5 to 12 years in England and Wales, although it was not compulsory for children to attend school until 1880.

Monday sees the start of National Apprenticeship Week , which takes place from 6th to 10th February 2012. National Apprenticeship Week aims to raise the profile of apprenticeships amongst employers, individuals, teachers, parents and the media. Of course Britain has a long history of apprenticeships , stretching back to the guilds of the Middle Ages. Here at the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes the charity partook in the training of apprentices for many of the boys who came into the Refuge on Francis Street, Strangeways. Carpentry department, Central Refuge, Strangeways