Together Trust Archive

Within a few yards of the Charity’s Central Refuge was Strangeways Prison, one of the largest prisons in England with 20,000 prisoners a year discharged according to the 1888 edition of the Charity’s magazine. From September 1887 employees from this Charity and others from Central Hall and the City Mission volunteered every morning between around 7 and 8 o'clock to greet prisoners newly released. An invitation card was given offering a cup of coffee, a simple breakfast of bread and butter and a friendly word at the Mission Room located in one the Charity’s buildings nearby. Annual reports state 10,000 released prisoners a year used the service.   From 1902 annual report, volunteers waiting for prisoners Articles in the Charity’s magazine ‘The Christian Worker’ had referred to Prison Gate Missions in other cities which seem to have been the inspiration to begin their own. The Charity’s main concern was to help the younger prisoners. While children were labelled as prisoners, t...

  Some of the services offered by the Trust within it's first 50 years were short lived and others served more as small acts of kindnesses and so often get overlooked when considering the number of services the Charity undertook during this period. The following initiatives offered when the Charity was based in central Manchester and Salford were targeted to identify and help the young and vulnerable residents of the city who didn’t have any protection. While these services may have been small, they were all part of the Charity’s mission to offer assistance to those most in need, whether it was a safe place to sleep or a hot drink. Boys' Rest 1881-1888 The Old Victory public house in Angel Meadow was converted by the Charity into a Coffee Tavern and lodging house for young people during these years, known as the Boys' Rest. M189/9/1/1 Boys' Rest The Angel Meadow area where this lodging house stood was notorious, the Charity’s magazine described the area as being ful...

  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...