The Gordon Boys' Home
Admission records we hold relating to the Gordon Boys’ Home in Manchester held in the Together Trust Archive have recently been digitised by the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society to help make these more accessible. It’s timely then to shed some light on the home’s very brief existence and explore how the Manchester and Salford Refuges (as the Together Trust was then known) came to take over after the home ran into difficulties. Established in 1888 by Alexander Devine, the Gordon Boys’ Home came about the year after a new piece of legislation known as The First Offender’s Act was established. This meant first offenders for minor crimes could avoid a prison sentence if they had fixed accommodation, which the Gordon Boys Home provided, first located off Rusholme Road and later at Cornbrook Abbey, Chester Road, Manchester. From a Sept 1890 entry of the Gordon Boy’s Home register showing a boy charged with stealing cloth and opera glasses from his employer being disch...
