Refuge for the street children of Manchester, more pictures of the work of the Manchester & Salford Boys and Girls Refuge

The Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuge was set up in 1870 to provide a night’s accommodation for homeless boys on the streets of Manchester.

Within a decade it had developed its role as a rescue organisation, extended this to girls, began work on giving youngsters a future and started campaigning against the exploitation of children as well as highlighting child cruelty.  Very early on the Refuge’s became involved with the British Home Children scheme.

The first home had been at 16 Quay Street, Deansgate and contained twelve hammocks giving homeless boys a bed for the night and breakfast in the morning before having to fend for themselves during the day.  It opened on January 4th 1870 and closed a year later when the central headquarters was established in Strangeways in the autumn of 1871 on Francis Street where boys received shelter and education and were assigned a form of work suitable to their abilities.*

And in the next few decades they expanded the Strangeways buildings, widened their care to include girls, set up holiday camps, dabbled the settlement of children in Canada and were active through the courts pursuing neglectful and abusive parents.

These pictures were taken of some of the children in the care of the Refuge

Pictures; by courtesy of the Together Trust

*The Together Trust, http://www.togethertrust.org.uk/uploads/assets/files/How%20we%20help/Manchester-Salford-Boys-Girls-Homes-1870-1920.pdf