Together Trust Archive

With only a few days left until Christmas Day we thought we’d finish off the year with a motto card from 1905. These were created yearly by the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge and Homes in order to send to all of their children in Canada. They were also given to all the young people in the Manchester Homes on Christmas Day morning.  motto card for 1905

In the early days of the charity’s formation, the committee helped mainly older boys. It i s likely they were the most visible and mo re likely to be seen sleeping out on the city streets. Looking at the first admission book all boys admitted were aged between 10 and 16. At that time of life the charity deemed boys who had been brought up on the street not easy to manage and a decision was made to take them younger, to try and have a more positive influence. This resulted, in 1875, with the creation of the first O rphan H ome. Originally on Johnson Street, these catered for younger children and were much smaller in size th a n the main Central Refuge on Franc is S t reet.  Orphan’s Homes, George Street, 1904

As promised this week heralds the grand unveiling of our much anticipated Heritage Lottery Funded film, ‘A Journey to Canada’. The production was first shown during our two performances of ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ to a live audience. We are now able to put the film online, so that those who couldn’t make the performance are able to see the work created by our young people. A Journey to Canada

We had a fantastic time last week as our Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces project showcased all the work completed so far in two interactive performances. Audiences made up of Together Trust staff, service users and the local community gathered together on the 24th and 25th November to be taken back in time to the nineteenth century. The show included a radio piece, detailing the story of one orphan’s journey from Manchester to Canada and our heritage documentary film, ‘A Journey to Canada’, alongside a live performance. Boat scene looking towards Canada

It is now only a few days until our two HLF performances of Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces. The young people involved have been working hard to create a theatrical extravaganza to entertain and educate the local population about the Together Trust’s past. Orphan's histories

We return this week to our Heritage Lottery Fund project, Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces. Over the last few weeks the young people involved have been learning lots of new skills in preparation for their two live performances on the 24th and 25th November.  Promotional Material

As it’s Friday afternoon it’s time for a short story about one of our accomplished children and how their talents started whilst under the care of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes. Joseph Jennings

The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes, as regular readers to our blog will know, sailed across to Canada twice a year with parties of children. These parties were heading for a new life out of the city slums, on to the rich farming lands of Ontario. Their journey has already been well documented throughout this blog .    In the corn at Marc hmont

Our Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces’ is back in full swing again. Over the summer we’ve been busy working on our new film ‘A Journey to Canada’, where our young people have partaken in new experiences and worked in front of the camera, to produce a historical documentary based on the Together Trust’s past . We are really excited to reveal the result of this work, which will be shown for the first time during two live performances at the Together Trust Centre in November.  Film Introduction ‘A Journey to Canada’ builds on previous work completed by young people at the Together Trust, who have been learning about the experiences of orphans who used to live in the charity’s homes in the early 1900s. The film centres round young people today experiencing activities that would have been undertaken by these 19th century orphans, embarking on their journey to Canada to start a new life. We are now working on two live performances in which to showc...

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

It’s been a while since we thought back to our Refuge boys on the Western Front. In September 1916 the Battle of the Somme was still raging and the Manchester population read the newspapers everyday, to try and gain some understanding into what was happening 400 miles away.  Refuge soldiers

The Archives and Records Association (ARA) Conference is over for another year but as always it created plenty of opportunity for debate and learning. For a charity archivist it was a bit like being the proverbial ‘small fish in a big pond’ as professionals gathered from all sectors, ready to convey new techniques, technologies and ideas to the world of archives. For this small fish it meant an opportunity to discover and rethink methods of how to preserve, make access to and promote our own small collection.  Wembley Stadium