Together Trust Archive

Exploring services provided by the Charity which are perhaps lesser-known brings me to their work with juvenile offenders which ultimately led to the creation in 1910 of a Remand Home dedicated to the care of young offenders until it closed in 1945.  Even before the creation of the Remand Home the Charity took an interest in children considered to be juvenile offenders. The Charity were particularly interested in the reasons for children being brought before the magistrates, recording that between December 1900 and January 1901 children were brought for, ‘begging’, ‘wandering’, ‘station loitering’, ‘stealing boots’ and being a ‘shop door thief’.  The Children’s Shelter opened in 1884 staying open 24 hours a day for any concerned person or official to take unaccompanied children. Some children found on the streets of Manchester or Salford were however taken to the Police Station and to Court for such ‘offences’ as begging, wandering or sleeping out. The Children's Shelter and R...

For those who read Andrew Simpson's blog dedicated to the history of Chorlton (and more!), you may already know that in celebration of the Together Trust's 150th year we are publishing a book on the history of the charity in 2020. We have worked closely with Andrew who has produced a fascinating read which delves into the history of the Together Trust, a charity whose unwavering dedication to improving the lives of young people is celebrated in this work. Andrew has consulted our vast and unique archive to tell the stories of some of the young people who in the early days of the charity found themselves destitute on the city's streets; following some of them on their journeys to Canada, and mapping the changes in child welfare in the process. The Parcel Brigade outside the Children's Shelter (c. 1915) - one of the images that inspired the cover illustration.

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

I thought we’d have a look today at the work of the Manchester Architect, F. B. Dunkerley and the work he did for the Manchester and Salford Refuges and Homes. Children’s Shelter, Chatham Street, 1910

Over the last fifty years the city of Manchester has been undertaking change. The 1960s saw extensive re-development of the city with the slums areas being cleared and new buildings taking their places. The detonation of an IRA bomb in the city centre in 1996 destroyed many buildings (although fortunately no lives were lost) and was a catalyst for the regeneration of many of the run down areas of the city. Today sees a Manchester populated with high rise buildings and new developments, a far cry from the slum areas of old. The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes opened up its services in many of these poorer parts of the city. Consequently few of its original buildings remain today. Plan of Central Refuge, 1895  

"Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests but many a little child received there has had no mother’s arms outstretched to receive him, no place to lay his head." This was observed by William Edmondson, Secretary to the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes, in 1921, when speaking of the charity’s Children Shelter on Chatham Street. The home was opened in 1883 to give shelter to children sleeping on the streets of Manchester. Up until 1920 it received 15,000 children through its doors, taking them out of the cold and into safety.  Children’s Shelter ‘Mother’ receiving a child from a policeman