Together Trust Archive

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.

We had a little trip to York last week. Lovely though the city is however, our adventure did not take in the sights of the Cathedral, a trip through the Yorvik Centre or a walk around the city walls. Instead it took us to York University, and more specifically to the Borthwick Archives , in order to deposit a number of our precious books. One of the History Books ready for digitisation

We’ve mentioned before in this blog about the lack of buildings which now remain in the city centre relating to the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girl’s Refuges and Homes. As we stated last week the charity by the 1900’s had homes spread across Manchester and Salford with thousands of children using our services every year. In 1900 the charity was well and truly established within the community. Today however, very little remains to advertise this.  Ol d advertising leaflet on display in Manchester A chance visit to a watering hole in Manchester however, revealed photographs of the charity are still displayed around the city. The image above was in pride of place on a wall surrounded by other iconic pictures of Manchester. As it was originally an advert for the Summer Camp it is freely in the public domain. The people who spotted and decided to display this image in the pub may not know the context of the image but it is comforting to know that not all traces of the cha...

When a family history request is made there are often a number of documents that have been kept within a case file which can be provided to researchers. Material such as application forms, visitor reports and indenture forms have been mentioned on this blog before. What are not included in these files however, often to the dismay of the genealogist, are individual images of the children. Leap frog in the garden

Seeing as it’s a Friday we are going back to our odd photograph of the week.

We hope all our readers had a fantastic Christmas! In the Central Refuge Yard, 1890 As always, as we welcome in the New Year, the Together Trust celebrates another 12 months of helping people break through barriers. The beginning of January is always a special time of the year for the charity as it takes pride in its long illustrious history and celebrates another birthday. Today we reach the grand old age of 143! I thought we’d celebrate this wondrous event with two images taken from one of our older photograph albums. The first was taken in the Refuge Yard on Francis Street, Manchester and shows a group photograph of the Caxton Brigade alongside Mr Shaw , one of the charity's founders.

The Together Trust has a number of photograph albums within its collection, which contain various images of the young people under its care as well as the different buildings used and events attended. Many of these photographs have been labelled by the committee members who put them together, either with the name of the young person or the event that was being attended. The photograph below for example, highlights that the group of girls shown were from the Heathfield Home and were about to be emigrated to Canada in 1885. Girls from Heathfield to Canada

We’ve been playing in the archive again! This time I took two of the Charity’s Design Team to have a look at a few of the treasures within our collection (it was definitely for their benefit and not just because I wanted them to take some lovely photographs for use in this blog!). It also gave me the opportunity to have a closer look at some of our photograph books and select some powerful images not previously seen by the Together Trust. You lucky people will be the first to view these photographs over the next few weeks. John G. ‘posing’ for the camera

I found this photograph within the archive this week. At play at the Central Refuge

One of the lovely things about compiling this blog every week is that it gives me a chance to show you some of the absolute gems the Together Trust holds in its archive. In terms of a charity collection we have a staggering wealth of archival material (even if I do say so myself!), documenting the charity's actions and the people who have been in our care. Our earlier material gives researchers an insight into later Victorian Manchester in terms of charity, philanthropy and attitude towards children. There are few gaps and all of the children who entered any one of our homes or services are documented. Not only were our founders and early committee inspirational in the work they did, they also had the foresight to ensure these records were preserved for future generations… Pamphlets written by committee members advertising the charity

Last Saturday was a special day for the Together Trust as the charity welcomed some old friends back to its central offices. Past service users of the Together Trust’s residential homes returned to Cheadle to reminisce, see old friends and look around the buildings which they used to live in. We hope it was enjoyed by all who attended. We certainly loved hearing their stories! Playing table tennis in the Belmont grounds

 The Old Refuge Yard, Strangeways, Together Trust Archive, PH/4/15