Together Trust Archive

  Last week saw the celebration of the opening of our Manchester Central Library exhibition on 150 years of the Together Trust. The Mayor, trustees, supporters and friends celebrated the opening of this exhibition, with a particular highlight being performances from students past and present from Inscape House School. The exhibition demonstrates how the Trust has evolved and changed with the times. From humble beginnings in 1870 when a few hammocks within a house on Quay Street, Deansgate provided a safe place for homeless boys to stay, to offering over 40 different services supporting and championing the rights of children, adults, parents and carers across the north-west.  Being new to the Together Trust myself, this exhibition provides the perfect opportunity to understand more about the charity's history and see items from the Trust's archive. A personal favourite being admission book entries and photographs providing details of those the charity provided a home to. While ...

In 2019, the Together Trust secured a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support the charity’s 150th anniversary celebrations and community projects in 2020. As part of this grant we are digitising and making accessible the charity’s annual reports dating from 1870-1919.

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 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

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

“I’m Richard, 11 years old. I was in Salford Workhouse until my Mum got a job as a servant. I hope she manages to keep it with the amount she drinks. Would you like a game of cup and ball?” Richard, aged 11 We would like to introduce you to Richard. This is one of the lives we have been investigating during our young roots project ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ . The quote above introduces our audience to this orphan, as he meets a new admission to the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes. Throughout the radio script the young people involved in this project will tell the stories of their orphans, written through their own research into the individual children. It is their way of bringing these orphans' tales to life. Richard for example entered the homes in 1899 at the age of 11. His father had passed away and consequently the family had ended up in Salford Workhouse . His Mother had eventually managed to get a job as a domestic but could only take it...

This year’s Explore Your Archive campaign from T he Nat ional Archives runs from the 14th - 22nd November and aims to get more people aware of archives and what can be discovered within their collections. It’s also a reminder that archives are everywhere. Not just within the large libraries and universities of the country but also within small businesses, charities and even within the family home. It ranges from the thousand of records stored at the National Archives in Kew through to the family letters hidden in the drawer of a writing desk, or the hundreds of email correspondence of a long standing publisher. Part of the Together Trust Archive collection

On Monday 3rd November young people from the Together Trust’s education services all came together to lay poppies in memory of the 400 men associated with the charity, who had fought in World War One.  Part of the poppy display at Together Trust Centre, Cheadle

Over the last few months the Together Trust has been blogging about the charity during World War One. On Friday 7th November at 2:00pm some of these stories will be told at Manchester’s Central Library as pa rt of its series of Manchester Remembers, WW1 events that runs from 1st – 11th November. “Carrying on for the children” – The Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges in World War One By 1914 the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes was an established children’s charity and well known within the local community. The outbreak of the First World War however, saw the charity buffeted on many sides. Fighting for donations against the various War funds that were set up, it saw its financial income cut drastically; an increased number of children needing aid and those boys previously cared for head across the seas, some never to return. Despite heavy debt it spent the next four years fighting to continue to provide for those children in Manchester left desolate by the War....

Last Saturday the Together Trust attended the Manchester Histories Festival at the Town Hall . Here museums, galleries, academics, archives, local and family history societies, cultural organisations and community groups from across Greater Manchester came together to deliver activities, events and displays about the history of the city.  Manchester Histories Festival at Manchester Town Hall

‘Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding’ - Proverbs 4:7   For the last fo ur months we have had to suspend our genealogy service to the public. As regular readers of this blog will know we have a whole wealth of information on the young people who came under the care of the Together Trust. Our earlier material (that is no longer under the constrictions of the Data Protection Act ) is available to family historians to construct the lives of their ancestors. In the next few weeks this research service will be available again. Construction of Manchester Central Library, ea rly 1930’s*