4th January 2020 - 150 years of caring

Tomorrow, Saturday 4th January 2020, sees the Together Trust reach the grand old age of 150. The ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’ was opened on the 4th January 1870 at Number 16, Quay Street. On that first night, 10 lads presented themselves for admission:

The home was the brainchild of two men Leonard Kilbee Shaw and Richard Bramwell Taylor who saw the need to provide accommodation for those children living on the streets of Manchester.

16 Quay Street, 1870

The book ‘Making Rough Places Plain’ described this first home:

“The little dark room on the ground floor behind the Master and Matron's was the eating room; the front cellar did duty as a general living room by day and a school and band room at night. The back cellar, dark and damp as a cavern, was the bathroom and lavatory, while the sleeping accommodation upstairs was in the shape of hammocks, which were hung out round the rooms from strong hooks in the wall, each having two iron legs which fitted into sockets in the floor each morning these were lifted out and rolled up against the wall.”

Staff from the Together Trust will be marking the occasion of the charity’s beginnings, 150 years ago, by retracing the steps of its founders. Tomorrow sees them visiting the following landmarks.

St Ann’s Church – Leonard Kilbee Shaw and Richard Bramwell Taylor met here as they both became members of St Ann’s Church when they moved to Manchester from their respective home towns of Dublin, Ireland (1847) and Steel, Shropshire (late 1850s).

24 Queen’s Street – Site of the St. Ann’s Ragged School where Taylor (the Superintendent) persuaded Shaw to come and work voluntarily as a Sunday School Teacher. Here the two men realized the condition of the poorest children of Manchester and Salford, some of whom were absolutely homeless. One Sunday night in the winter of 1869, after the school had been dismissed, two boys, ragged, cold and hungry, still lingered behind. On being questioned why they did not go home, they replied that they had no home to go to: they had slept out several nights not being able to pay the trifle at the common lodging-house. Investigation afterwards proved the truth of their statement, and It was found that one had been sleeping under a railway arch in Salford, and the other up an old staircase in a Deansgate entry. It was proved also that these were by no means isolated cases, and it was there and then Shaw decided that at least shelter for the night should be provided for these little waifs of society-nobody's children.

16 Quay Street (Now Sunlight House) – where the very first home for boys was situated. Ten boys were admitted on that first night.

St. Pauls Church, Kersal – final resting place of Leonard Kilbee Shaw and some of the children who died in the homes.

Look out for images on our Facebook page @supporttogethertrust and Twitter accounts @togethertrust. It will begin the year of celebration of this momentous occasion in our history!