Together Trust Archive

We’ve spoken before on this blog about how vital our records are to many different communities in the local area. This week sees archives across Manchester, and the rest of the UK, come together to raise awareness of their collections and their value to society. 

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

Here is a photograph sent across to me quite recently of a little white house. I wonder whether any of our regular readers may have an inkling as to what this building (now converted to residential flats) used to be. The blue sky would probably give a good clue that it was not one of our Manchester homes…. The white house*

Many of our different blogs have taken quotes or stories from the book ‘Making Rough Places Plain’. Consequently it may be time to delve into this publication a bit deeper. Front pages of 'Making Rough Places Plain'

“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door”.` 'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more." -  The Raven , Edgar Allan Poe (1 845)  It’s Halloween at the Together Trust and as staff members dress up in scary costumes to raise money for the charity the archive delves deep into its gloomy depths in search of spooky tales. Can you tell the difference?

We have had another exciting donation for our archive collection this week.  First Page of Daddy's Bobby Book

I was lent a book recently entitled, ' The Gangs of Manchester: The Story of The Scuttlers' by Andrew Davies . The book revolves around Manchester at the end of the nineteenth century and the turf wars which existed between groups of teenagers. Scuttlers belonged to their own distinct group; the Bengal Tigers, the Meadow Lads and the Pollard Street Scuttlers, to name a few, fiercely defended their own patch. Weapons included belt buckles and knives as well as the boy’s fists and feet. From 1870 the industrial slums of Manchester and Salford saw the emergence of a brutal gang culture that lasted for 30 years.  Strangeways Prison – A common sight to many a scuttler “A scuttler is a lad, usually between the ages of 14 and 18, or even 19, and scuttling consists of the fighting of two opposed bands of youths, who are armed with various weapons”. — Alexander Devine , Scuttlers and Scuttling: Their Prevention and Cure. (Manchester, 1890)  So how is this book relevan...

On Sunday 6th October Inscape House opened its doors to former pupils and staff to celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary. This had been preceded on Friday by the grand opening of its newly built extension. The outcome was a lot of laughter, catching up with old friends and plenty of cake! It seems apt after a weekend of celebration to look a bit more closely at the last 20 years of the school. It has been an interesting one! Inscape Birthday Cake

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

We recently had a request from a genealogist looking for an ancestor that was living at a house on Tetlow Lane , Broughton in the 1901 census. Tetlow Grove House, Tetlow Lane

After the last few blogs about the importance of documents for establishing identity I thought we would look at some more of our fabulous emigration collection and the individuals they represented. Passengers on the boat to Canada

Last week was spent in the delightful city of Cardiff at this year’s ARA conference . As well as an array of speakers on various different subjects one of the most intriguing, in relation to the charity, was that of Michael Jones, who was mentioned in our last blog . The importance of records for establishing identity