Together Trust Archive

When the Together Trust moved to Cheadle in 1920, it took over a site, which formally belonged to the Milne family. The purchase of the estate, which cost £5,700 (around £125,000 in today's money), included 22.5 acres of land and Belmont House along with an assortment of farm buildings. Originally, the estate was supposed to consist of ten homes but in the end only four were built. Along with Belmont House these housed 120 children. By 1927 a Sanatorium was also built in order to cater for the children if they got sick. A rummage in the archive the other week revealed some statistics for the Sanatorium in its early days.  Sanatorium

In the early days of the charity’s formation, the committee helped mainly older boys. It i s likely they were the most visible and mo re likely to be seen sleeping out on the city streets. Looking at the first admission book all boys admitted were aged between 10 and 16. At that time of life the charity deemed boys who had been brought up on the street not easy to manage and a decision was made to take them younger, to try and have a more positive influence. This resulted, in 1875, with the creation of the first O rphan H ome. Originally on Johnson Street, these catered for younger children and were much smaller in size th a n the main Central Refuge on Franc is S t reet.  Orphan’s Homes, George Street, 1904

Building work on the Together Trust site is ongoing as the charity extends its Inscape service in Cheadle. Amongst the diggers and the builders, as the final bits of work are completed, history occasionally comes to light. Foundation walls of the Sanatorium

When the formation of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes took place on the 4th January 1870, it was all down to the endeavours of two men, Leonard Kilbee Shaw and Richard Bramwell Taylor. It was the passionate and personable Shaw however, who stood as the face of the charity in its early days. Although little has been written about Shaw, even less has come to light about his friend and co-founder Richard Taylor. Today we attempt to address this to a small degree. Richard Bramwell Taylor c. 1900

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 .