Together Trust Archive

Over the next few blogs we’re going to be looking in more depth at the Central Refuge in Strangeways. The following description comes from the ‘Sheffield Reporter’, whose journalist made a visit to the home in May 1881. This was a reconnaissance trip to see if there could be a similar set up for the children of Sheffield, as an alternative to the workhouse or industrial schools. Central Refuge, Francis Street

This rather lovely photograph below shows one of our boys, Charles, dressed in the uniform of the charity’s Newspaper Brigade. The group was formed ‘for the purpose of counteracting the pernicious influence of bad books by the introduction of pure literature, in a cheap and an attractive form, into the homes of the people’ ( The Quiver : an illustrated magazine for Sunday and general reading [1894]). Charles in uniform   Those admitted to the Brigade were not usually resident in one of the charity’s homes. On application, a form was completed to determine place of birth, position of family, the education standard passed, and whether "he has been used to selling papers”. Once admitted, conduct was closely watched, parents, or guardians, visited periodically and a report of behaviour and the condition of home was completed. When the boys were old enough, the Committee undertook to find them regular employment. It will be noted that the service was strictly for boys, the R...

We’ve spoken before on this blog about the Remand Home that was set up in 1910 as part of the Children’s Shelter on Chatham Street. The archives reveal separate admission books for the Remand Home from this date, although magistrates were using other homes belonging to the charity from 1896 to house boys who had been convicted of a crime. Ra ilings on the roof top of the Remand Home