Together Trust Archive

  The following blog post has been written by Katie Royle, a student at Manchester Metropolitan University currently studying for a Master's in Public History and Heritage. As part of her course Katie is using the Together Trust Archive located at Manchester Central Library to undertake research on some of the young people emigrated to Canada. This is the second part of  Katie's research into the Maddock family, detailing the brothers' life in Canada and beyond. In March 1892, Charlie, Joseph and David departed from Liverpool on the steamship SS Sarnia bound for Ontario, accompanied by 150 other boys from the Refuge. For most, it would have been the first time they had ever seen the sea, and many suffered terribly with seasickness over the ten day crossing. Each child had their own wooden trunk with their names inscribed, inside each were a summer and winter outfit, new underclothes, two pairs of boots, and a prayer book. Charlie had also saved up some money and bought...

The following blog post has been written by Katie Royle, a student at Manchester Metropolitan University currently studying for a Master's in Public History and Heritage. As part of her course Katie is using the Together Trust Archive located at Manchester Central Library to undertake research on some of the young people emigrated to Canada. This is the first part of Katie's research into the Maddock family, detailing the circumstances behind how the family came into contact with the Charity. It was a happy day when Charlie Maddock stood proudly in the church awaiting his new bride in Kingston, Ontario, in 1899. Dressed in his smartest suit, with his younger brother smiling by his side, he was ready to settle down and start a family with his new Canadian wife. Outside the church, the snow was over a foot deep, the air crisp and clear - a world away from his life in smog-filled industrial Manchester; a life of hardship and squalor that had been transformed forever just over...

Reading about the circumstances under which children came into the Charity's care it's clear why the Charity became increasingly involved in child protection cases, helping to bring some of these cases to court by opening a department specifically for child protection work in 1884. This branch of the Charity was in 1885 named the Manchester and Salford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In 1889 a new bill, the Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act, was passed and the Charity's magazine, The Christian Worker, in January 1890 recounted a case under this new bill at Manchester Police Court in which five siblings aged 11 and under were found by one of their officers 'shamefully neglected.' Conditions were described in the magazine as follows: 'In a corner of the wretched room where this family of seven lived, without fire or light in the midst of winter, were a few rags, filthy in the extreme, which served them all for a bed. In s...

The emigration of children to Canada by the charity then known as 'Manchester and Salford Refuges and Homes' has been well documented in this blog and looking through the admission books the number of entries which end 'Sailed for Canada' demonstrates how emigration was an important part of the charity's work from 1872 until the charity ended the practice in 1914. Seen by many charities at the time as a cost efficient way of offering poor and orphaned children a new life, the practice also offered a solution to the demand for farm and domestic labour in Canada. While the admission books frequently refer to emigration being at the child's own request, it's hard to imagine that many of the children who made the journey understood what they were signing up to. The difficult circumstances of these children's lives however mean it's easy to understand why the hope of a new life was so tempting. I've concentrated my attention so far on those that left ...

I have recently been exploring the charity's magazine, begun under the title The Christian Worker in 1879 and later becoming The Children's Haven in 1895 it was designed to promote Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refugees and Homes to the local community and encourage donations. There was a proliferation of newspapers and magazines from the mid-nineteenth century influenced by increased literacy in the population, a rise in consumer spending and a reduction in the cost of production. The charity recognised that a magazine was an effective way of communicating their work and seeking support from the local community, much as the Trust's social media accounts do now. There's one regular feature in the magazine sometimes called 'Notes of a Month's Work' or 'Leaves from the Diary of a Refuge...' which describe the circumstances under which children arrived at the Orphan Homes. These stories often describe young children in dire circumstanc...

Like many archives across the UK and Ireland, we have been sharing stories and images from the archive on Twitter for Explore Your Archive 2020.

On 2nd April 1896 a group of 173 boys, under the care of the Reverend Robert Wallace and his wife, journeyed aboard the Scotsman from Liverpool to the Marchmont Receiving Home in Belleville, Canada. Of the 173, approximately 70 boys were from the Manchester and Salford Refuges and Homes. It took eight days for the ship to arrive at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. On 14th April, Revd. Wallace reported the following: From The Children's Haven ( CH ), May 1896

In 2019, the Together Trust secured a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support the charity’s 150th anniversary celebrations and community projects in 2020. As part of this grant we are digitising and making accessible the charity’s annual reports dating from 1870-1919.

Much has been discussed in this blog about the emigration of the many young orphans of the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges and Homes (and those in the care of other charities) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Whilst the idea of the mass migration of vulnerable young children who had undergone life changing and traumatic events actions is unthinkable in the present day, it is, however, important to acknowledge and understand the circumstances which led to this. The first question we may now ask is whether the actions of these organisations was fully in the interest of the children: did places like Canada truly offer a new beginning, far removed from the poverty and squalor of urban Britain, or did the removal from familiar surroundings and family simply compound a child’s isolation and suffering? Did these wealthy philanthropists even consider such effects on the child, and were they truly motivated by philanthropic ideals or a need to remo...

After the last few days of snow and ice hit the United Kingdom it turned my thoughts to some of the wintry conditions experienced by those individuals who had made the trip across to Canada in the late 19th century.  Marchmont Home in the snow

We came across a newspaper article in the archive the other day, written by an individual who was ‘investigating the results and prospects of juvenile emigration’. Concentrating on those sent to Marchmont Home , the writer visited 50 boys and girls in the area surrounding Belleville over three weeks. Outside Marchmont Home

The Together Trust is pleased to announce that some of the work from its Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces project is now on display at Manchester Central Library . Costumes, artwork and material from the archive is on display within the exhibition area and audio clips and images can be viewed on the Library’s digital screens.  Costumes on display in the Reading Room

Some of our archives are having another little journey south to be displayed as part of a new exhibition at the Central Family Court in London. The exhibition entitled 'Respected and Protected: The Rights of Children ', focu ses on these entitlements through the ages and how these have changed and adapted over time. Respected and protected?

With only a few days left until Christmas Day we thought we’d finish off the year with a motto card from 1905. These were created yearly by the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge and Homes in order to send to all of their children in Canada. They were also given to all the young people in the Manchester Homes on Christmas Day morning.  motto card for 1905

Next week sees the gathering of archivists and conservators from all over the UK and beyond, to London, for the annual Archives and Records Association (ARA) conference. For the lone archivist working in the north of England, it’s a chance to travel to the bright lights of the capital city and mix with other like minded professionals. This creates an opportunity to share new ideas, receive advice from your peers and hear about some of the wonderful work going on in archive repositories across the country and beyond.

The problem with war is people’s lives become numbers. For those who died in a battle like the Somme , which had as many as 19,000 killed o n the first day alone, the sheer logistics of identifying and burying those who had died, was an overwhelming task. Those who were identified became a plot number, those who didn’t got an unmarked grave. The lives and stories behind those people become lost. For the young people from the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges and Homes who enlisted in World War One it was yet another adjustment to their ever changing lives. World War One Soldier  Let’s take Arthur as a good example : Arthu r was born in Manchester in 1892. His father was a labourer working in the st arch works.  He was born into a family with 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters. He was admitted into Prestwich Workhouse around 1905.  He was admitted to the Manchester Refuges in 1906.  In May of that year he emigrated to Canada.  ...