Together Trust Archive

Strolling through the streets of Manchester yesterday I soon found myself outside House of Fraser on Deansgate. The building has been a large department store since 1835 when Thomas Kendal, James Milne and Adam Faulkner bought the shop. It has traded under various names before becoming part of the House of Fraser chain in 2005, but is still known to most Mancunians’ as Kendal Milne . The sight of the building got me thinking about our own connection to one of these famous families, the Milnes, and how they have contributed to the charity’s history... Belmont House in the 1950s

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 .