Together Trust Archive

As promised we return to share our Explore Your Archive tweets for the year so far , so you can explore our archive.

Our project Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces has now come to an end. It has been a fascinating journey through the archives for our young people as they discovered stories about not only the charity’s own history , but also what Manchester was like in the nineteenth century. 

We are excited to announce we have a brand new  search engine on our Together Trust website to help people see if their ancestors were ever in one of our Manchester homes . New search facility

Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces has seen more of its work displayed at Cheadle Library. As the charity now resides in the area on Schools Hill, it allows some of the work completed by young people from the area to have their project on display and inform the local community about the history of the Together Trust .  Display at Cheadle Library

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

As promised this week heralds the grand unveiling of our much anticipated Heritage Lottery Funded film, ‘A Journey to Canada’. The production was first shown during our two performances of ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ to a live audience. We are now able to put the film online, so that those who couldn’t make the performance are able to see the work created by our young people. A Journey to Canada

We had a fantastic time last week as our Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces project showcased all the work completed so far in two interactive performances. Audiences made up of Together Trust staff, service users and the local community gathered together on the 24th and 25th November to be taken back in time to the nineteenth century. The show included a radio piece, detailing the story of one orphan’s journey from Manchester to Canada and our heritage documentary film, ‘A Journey to Canada’, alongside a live performance. Boat scene looking towards Canada

It is now only a few days until our two HLF performances of Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces. The young people involved have been working hard to create a theatrical extravaganza to entertain and educate the local population about the Together Trust’s past. Orphan's histories

We return this week to our Heritage Lottery Fund project, Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces. Over the last few weeks the young people involved have been learning lots of new skills in preparation for their two live performances on the 24th and 25th November.  Promotional Material

Our Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ is back in full swing again. Over the summer we’ve been busy working on our new film ‘A Journey to Canada’, where our young people have partaken in new experiences and worked in front of the camera, to produce a historical documentary based on the Together Trust’s past . We are really excited to reveal the result of this work, which will be shown for the first time during two live performances at the Together Trust Centre in November.  Film Introduction ‘A Journey to Canada’ builds on previous work completed by young people at the Together Trust, who have been learning about the experiences of orphans who used to live in the charity’s homes in the early 1900s. The film centres round young people today experiencing activities that would have been undertaken by these 19th century orphans, embarking on their journey to Canada to start a new life. We are now working on two live performances in which to showc...

As a charity archive we have many things to be grateful for. Firstly the fact that our ancestors have so lovingly preserved our records of old and passed them through the generations. There is a wealth of social history at our hands which contribute substantially both to the history of Manchester and to the history of childcare. We are also lucky that we have the means to continue to care for this collection today. Like many charities however, the Together Trust does not have the facilities to do this onsite. Archives need special conditions to ensure they are preserved for as long as possible. These include factors like stable temperatures and humidity, dust and pest free environments and protective packaging. Without these, archive materials can deteriorate at a faster rate, making access difficult. Records storage

We ar e excited to announce that the full version of our audio/visual piece for Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces is on our website for everyone to view. The project now has a dedicated webpage on our Together Trust website, to allow us to share some of the amazing work our young people have been doing with the local community and beyond. As well as our audio/visual clip, we will be adding to this page as further work is completed. We hope people will enjoy watching them as much as we have enjoyed making them.     In costume

The sun was s hining yesterday as we descended on Manchester Central Library for our long awaited Heritage Lottery Funded performance of Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces . A part of the fabulous Manchester Histories Festival , it was a privilege to be part of such an important series of events in Manchester’s calendar.  Our orphans on display

With only a week left to go until our first live performance of our Heritage Lottery Funded Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces , we thought we’d tell a few more stories about the orphans taking centre stage on Tuesday 7th June.  Lily, Sophia, Richard and Joseph

We’re s lowly approaching our big performance at Manchester Histories Festival on the 7th June. L ast week we told you all about the audio script, which we’ve recorded as part of the performance. This tells the story of Susannah , a girl who was admitted into the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes and was subsequently emigrated to Canada. The young people want to give you more than just an educational story however. Further skills have been developed in song writing and costume making alongside the main recording. Two songs have been created for the piece, one describing the sea journey made from Liverpool to Canada, and the other concentrating on education in Manchester in the late ninet eenth century. Composing sea shanties

Our Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces project is now in full swing. As highlighted in last week’s blog the research collated by the young people is now being put to good use in their radio script, telling the tale of Susannah, a young girl admitted to the homes of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes in the late nineteenth century. Susannah

Over the last few weeks we’ve been bringing you up-to-date with some of the visits we’ve partaken in, in connection with our Young Roots project, ‘ Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces ’. Both Salford Museum and Art Gallery and Merseyside Maritime Museum have been excellent in providing a background context to the project. The information gathered has been integral for the first outcome of the project: a radio script documenting the stories of the children who entered the Manchester Refuge homes and emigrated to Canada. Emigration Party outside Manchester Town Hall, 1897

Last week on our Young Roots update we worked with one of our heritage partners, Salford Museum and Art Gallery , to better understand Salford at the turn of the nineteenth century. This was important for the young people to see what the area would have been like for their orphans, prior to being admitted into one of the Manchester Refuge’s homes. This wasn’t the only city involved in our orphan’s journeys however. As these cases involved children who went across to Canada, we also needed to know about Liverpool. It was from here that the journey across the sea began. I n Liv erpool - Leaving the Port, 1894

Our Young Roots project, Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces is currently going full steam ahead. Over the last few months the young people involved have been partaking in various sessions to create a greater understanding of Manchester and Salford in the late 1800s and see how the cities approached childcare. It is area which is perhaps underrepresented in the research arena, especially in regards to what the voluntary organisations did. As mentioned before in these blogs the importance of caring for and maintaining charity archives to enrich our understanding of social welfare is imperative. We are hoping the project will incite more interest in the charity’s roots.  Documents from the archive

As promised, this week’s blog will be concentrating on our young roots project ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ , bringing our readers up to date with some of the work that has been completed so far. The project is based around the history of the Together Trust, concentrating particularly on the charity’s Victorian roots. Young people receiving services from the Together Trust today have been learning about these children from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s, with the aim of bringing their stories to life.  One of the orphans stories to be researched