Together Trust Archive

 I've recently been exploring some of the Trust's records relating to Bethesda, a home for children with disabilities and long-term health conditions which was opened in 1890 and closed in 1999. The Bethesda service demonstrates how the Charity adapted to changing times and the work carried out at Bethesda had a long-term impact, influencing subsequent services provided by the Charity. The Bethesda service existed in a number of different locations throughout its history. Between 1890 and 1958 it was located in George Street, Cheetham Hill providing a home for orphaned children with disabilities or those whose health conditions meant their parents could not care for them. The terminology used to describe the service at this time, 'Bethesda Home for Crippled and Incurable Children' would certainly not be used today but was reflective of attitudes of the time. Emotive language was used to encourage donations as seen in the 1891 Annual Report's description of Bethesda ...

As we enjoy, what could be, the remaining few days of warm sunshine before autumn approaches, it seemed apt to return to Old Colwyn and the seaside home of Tanllwyfan, which opened 100 years ago. This provided for children, not eligible for admission to the permanent homes, a recuperating agency by the seaside for several weeks. The new home at Old Colwyn

“We are again in the midst of summer joys and sunshine, and to many of your readers it will mean happy times in the fields and woods, or by the cool seashore. But to hundreds pent up in the great city it will mean weariness and wasting. Dirt and squalor are bad enough in the winter, but sunshine and beauty of summer seem to exaggerate these miseries.” - Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser (May 1888). In the dreariness of our so-called summer in Manchester this year, the above quote may seem a little mocking, but so read an article in a local newspaper in 1888 calling for funds to send a ‘sick and pale-faced child’ to the Seaside Home at Lytham . Seaside Home, Lytham