Together Trust Archive

 While the initial aim of the Charity on its inception in 1870 was to provide safe accommodation and food to orphan boys who didn’t have these essentials, it wasn’t long before the Charity started to broaden their aims. One of the first ways it did so was to provide boys with a means of employment by establishing a Shoeblack Brigade and a Messenger Brigade. These Brigades were in operation by February 1870, only a month after the Charity’s first refuge accommodation was opened on Quay Street, Manchester. Shoeblack brigades were already well established in London, and with the permission of the authorities in Manchester boys in this Brigade dressed in scarlet tunics could occupy positions in twelve stands around the city and earn money by cleaning the shoes and boots of the city’s residents. The railway had come to Manchester in 1830 and with the population of the city ever expanding the Charity spotted another opportunity with the establishment of their Messenger Brigade. This ...

Somehow we find ourselves in 2015. I was reminded yesterday on Twitter (quite ashamedly) that the charity had turned 145 years old. England has changed a great deal in those 145 years but unfortunately not quite enough for the Together Trust to no longer be needed. It seems apt today to have a look at how the Refuge was viewed back in 1870 when it first began and how it fulfilled a need, long felt in Manchester, of providing a home and temporary employment for the destitute lads of the city.  First Home, Quay Street

We all know the story by now – on the 4th January 1870 two businessmen, Leonard Shaw and Richard Taylor opened a ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’ at 16 Quay Street , Manchester. This provided primitive accommodation for up to 40 boys as well as work within messenger and shoeblack brigades set up by the charity. Shaw and Taylor excelled at setting up the home and ensuring sponsors and assistance from members of the community. What they did not have experience in however, was caring for the boys themselves. This problem was solved by the appointment of a couple from London, Walter Thurlow Browne and his wife Emma. They became the first Master and Matron of the Quay Street home providing care and support to the boys. Walter T Browne on the back row 

In 1888 a set of buildings were purchased on Great Ducie Street, near to the main Central Refuge on Francis Street. These were originally held under lease from the Lord Ducie estate, until ambitious construction works commissioned by the Refuge to replace the old buildings were completed in 1890. Artist's impression of the 1890 building