Together Trust Archive

“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door”.` 'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more." -  The Raven , Edgar Allan Poe (1 845)  It’s Halloween at the Together Trust and as staff members dress up in scary costumes to raise money for the charity the archive delves deep into its gloomy depths in search of spooky tales. Can you tell the difference?

As tonight is Halloween we thought we’d delve headfirst through the dust and dirt to find tales of some ghostly visits from the archive... In 1920 the Together Trust purchased 22 acres of land in Cheadle, Cheshire in order to take children out of the slums of Manchester into the cleaner air of the countryside. With the land came Belmont House which was formally the residence of the Milne family. The Milne’s were well known in Manchester due to their Department Store, which was set up on Deansgate and known to many as Kendal Milne (now House of Frasier ) since 1836. Belmont itself was built around the 1800s and adapted by Alfred Waterhouse in 1864, a famous architect best known for his design of the Natural History Museum in London and Manchester Town Hall .