1883 .......... one year in the work of the Manchester and Salford Children’s charity

Now 1883 was a busy year for our own children’s charity which had been established just thirteen years earlier as a rescue mission to feed and give a bed for the night to destitute boys on the streets of Manchester and Salford.

Outside the Refuge offices, circa 1900

Just over a decade and a bit later it had expanded into a whole range of support activities including homes for both boys and girls, vocational training, seaside holidays, along with campaigning for legislation to protect vulnerable children and intervening in the courts against neglectful and abusive parents.

And the key  to knowing about  the work of the charity, is to start with the annual reports, and at random I have chosen 1883.

It was a busy year but looking at the spread of reports from 1871 through to 1919 it was typical.

And with that in mind I thought it would be useful to focus on that report.*

The first port of call was the newspapers and in particular the Manchester Guardian, and starting next week I shall be delving into the archives.  Like all good research every item begs a whole set of questions which will take me off in all sorts of directions.

But for now it is that year of 1883 and that report.

The report began with the appalling news of the “virtual collapse of old central premises in Strangeways just when the new additional building was almost finished.”

But that hadn’t stopped the completion of extension scheme for Orphan  Girls’ Home Branch or the start of “The Seaside Home for weak, pale faced city children” which had been established at Lytham.

It is easy perhaps to react against the Victorian directness of language but  this and the other summer camps organized by the charity provided children with a holiday by the sea which for many would have been their first.  And some of the 225 children “under our care and training at the Refuge and branch homes” may well have been on one of those trips to the seaside.

The report detailed the gender split, and the number who had had one or both parents still living, and concluded by describing where 118 went onto who didn’t stay in the Refuge.

And that is all for now.

Location Manchester

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust

* Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, Manchester Guardian, March 12 1884

**The Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/who-we-are

In the midst of plenty ........ two children sleeping rough “one under a Salford Railway arch and the other below an old staircase in a Deansgate entry”

It still beggars belief that in a city some called the “second city of the Empire,” which proudly displayed its trade links to the world in its brand new Town Hall and would ambitiously build its own route to the sea children slept rough on the streets,  making a pitiful living selling matches, and shoe laces later in to the night.

First Shelter, Quay Street, 1870

But of course it happened and in response to the stories of children sleeping under a Salford Railway arch and another below an old staircase in a Deansgate entry, the Night Refuge for Homeless Boys opened its doors.

Its full title was “The Boys’ Refuge and Industrial Brigade” and on January 4 1870 if offered a handful of boys found on the streets of the twin cities, a bed and breakfast, before turning them out on to the streets again.

Within a decade the organisers had expanded into a  ranges of activities designed to help young people and a full half century later could point to a whole series of achievements, from rescuing children  off the streets to residential and vocational homes,  seaside holidays, and involvement both in the courts and in legislation to protect young people.

Along the way it also migrated some young people to Canada.

But it began with that one building.

It was on Quay Street off Deansgate and a quarter of century later Mr Shaw one of the prime movers in the shelter reflected on those early days.

“In a dark little room on the ground floor of the house was a living room where meals were served.  A front collar was a living-room by day and a school and band room at night.  The back cellar, described as being dark and damp as a cavern, was made to serve the purpose of a bathroom and lavatory .  

The sleeping accommodation was almost amusingly primitive. 

It took the shape of hammocks hung out round the upper room from strong hooks in the wall, each hammock having two iron legs which fitted into sockets in the floor.    [and] when the boys jumped into bed ‘with a burst’ away went the held fasts and sockets and even a portion of the wall too, and that a dusty heap in the middle of the floor was generally the rest.

Mr Shaw and a group of Boys, 1883

In the year 1870 there were some forty inmates of the Refuge.  Today nearly 500 boys and girls are being cared for and trained within the institution to a life of usefulness, while according to the last report issued in 1894 , not less than 2,595 children come more or less under the influence of the Society and its branches in the course of 12 months.”*

Those involved were motivated by strong religious convictions, but also by that simple and obvious response that not only was the plight of destitute and neglected children and an abomination but “while we leave the little children practically uncared for we shall never want for a fully supply of candidates for our reformatories, workhouses and goals.”

The building had a short life and the organisation relocated to Strangeways but the scale of the problem was such that one refuge was not enough.

That lack of provision was highlighted “in the winter months of 1871 when three boys applied at the Refuge looking for shelter.

Major Street Shelter, 1905

As the home was already full, they had to be turned away. Seeking warmth and shelter and being unable to afford three pence to stay in a lodging house for the night they had wandered up to the brickfields of Cheetham.

A few days later a newspaper reported on the demise of a young boy who had been burned to death at one of the brick kilns in the neighbourhood. This boy was one of the three who had, had to be turned away much to the consternation of the committee.

It was this incident that convinced the charity that they needed another building in which to receive any child in need of help, whatever the hour and this led to the opening of another on Major Street.

"Open all day and all night children in need of shelter could be brought and receive food and a bed for the night, whilst their individual circumstances were investigated. It ensured that no child requesting aid would ever be turned away again.”



Location; Manchester & Salford

Pictures; the first refuge opened in 1870 and a group of young boys from the charity in 1883, and the Major Street Shelter 1905 courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

* The Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges A quarter of a century’s progress, Manchester Guardian, January 4 1895

**A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Revealing more of the lives of the poor in Manchester

The project is simple enough and involves a study of the parents whose children were admitted to a children’s charity in the 1870’s and 80’s.

Angel Street, 1900

The charity was the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges which was established in 1870, and is the subject of a book I wrote with their archivist to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the organisation in 2020*.

The admission books show that in that first year the reasons for accepting young people were mixed.  In some cases both parents were dead and in other’s the surviving parent was finding it hard to manage while in a few cases there was evidence of neglect, cruelty and abuse.

Now each admission and the reasons behind it are unique, and to merely lump all the reasons under the general heading of poverty is unhelpful.

Of course long hours of work, seasonal unemployment, coupled with low wages poor housing conditions and an absence of a welfare state were always going to be the main reasons why many families fell apart.

But that is too state the obvious, what I wanted to do was to examine some of those families in more detail and in the process try to bring their lives out of the shadows and better understand the achievements of the charity.

I am well aware the evidence will be fragmentary and in many cases prove a dead end, but like all such projects you never quite know what will turn up.

44 Angel Street, 1897

From the outset even from a distance of almost 150 years there is a need to respect confidentiality which for the time being means that surnames have been omitted.

The starting point was the simple observation that the parents of children admitted to the Refuge in the 1870s and 80’s would have been born in the 1840’s and 50’s when Manchester was still going through the transformation from a pleasant enough small town to what the historian, Asa Briggs described as “the shock city of the Industrial Revolution.”*

Many of these parents may well have grown against a backdrop of poverty, where long term illness, unemployment or the death of a father or mother might plunge them into the Workhouse.

The study is still in its infancy but the research is proving very interesting.  Boy A had been admitted in the March of 1870 and the notes speak of a father who was a drunkard who “ill uses the boy.”

His mother was dead and while I now know her name I have yet to find out when she died.  The father had been born in Ireland and during the 1850s the family had lived in Liverpool, where all three children were born.

Boy A left the Refuge two years later.

Boy B had been born in Spalding, Linconlshire and both his parents were dead.  He too was admitted in 1870 and left the same year.

Angel Street, 1898

Nine years earlier he had been living with his older sister who he seems to have returned to when he left the Refuge.

The records report that he was “making a living from the streets” possibly selling newspapers or matchsticks.

We can track him into the early 20th century living very close to his old home and working as a glass maker and labourer.

In both cases the boy’s parents had migrated to Manchester and one was working as a shoe maker.

I don’t pretend that two cases on their own amount to a picture but they are a start, and the search for parents does seem to be proving successful.

So as they say watch this space.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Angel Street, 1900, m85543, 44 Angel Street, 1897, m08360,and  44 Angel Street 1898, m00195, S.L.Coulthurst, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

**Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities, 1963

Chorlton-cum-Hardy does its bit

Now, there is always a story behind a picture, and so it is with this one of a tent carrying the name Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

The tent, 1920s

We are in Birkdale in Southport, and during the late 19th century is the holiday camp for the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, which had been founded in 1870 to help destitute children.

At first the charity’s work was confined to offering bed for the night and breakfast to a handful of homeless young people.

Within a decade it had expanded to include girls as well as boys, had built permanent homes, established industrial training schools and was engaged in prosecuting neglectful and abusive parents as well as campaigning for legislation to protect young people who made a living from hawking products on the streets.

And amongst all these activities it organised summer holidays.

"The first summer outings were just that and consisted of a day out by the sea but very quickly stretched to a week with the young people living in tents. The holiday season lasted just 3 weeks and in the first year in 1883, 48 boys were taken away to Morecambe. These numbers steadily increased over the years with the camp also visiting Blackpool and Llandudno before a more permanent site in Andsell, near Lytham, was chosen. Lent by John Talbot Clifton, Esquire of Lytham Hall, this site included Byrom Hall, allowing for shelter beyond the tents.  By the end of the 19th century, the camp had moved again, this time to Birkdale, Southport, which was able to accommodate 300 boys. 

The appeal, 1906

The increase of numbers showed just how popular the holidays were. At its height of popularity, children could be seen queuing outside the Children's Shelter on Chatham Street, Manchester for a place at the Summer Camp. 

Poor boys were often recommended by City Missionaries, Ragged School Teachers and other workers amongst the poor. 

The only qualification for attendance was “the need of the rest and change”.

The season now ran from May, through the summer for 20 weeks. Eventually the tents were replaced by corrugated huts which were lined with pitch pine and according to one commentator were “quite impervious to wind and weather” which was all to the good given that many of the annual reports described the summer weather as challenging.

Much of the finance came from voluntary contributions which brings us back to that tent.
The trust made much of what a contribution would pay for, explaining that “six shillings, covers railway fare and maintenance and £60 per week would cover all expenses while £2000 would meet the season’s needs.”*

And in the case of some organizations, like Sunday Schools and the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood this extended to tents.

At present I can’t track the source of the funding for our tent, but it dates from the 1920s.

The picture comes from the archives of the charity which today is called the Together Trust and is based in Cheadle.

And is in the new book on the history of the trust which was been written by me and Liz Sykes to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the charity.


Location; Chorlton and Southport



Picture; The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Tent, circa 1920s, courtesy of the Together Trust**

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

** Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

“We have longed that we could take each child and transplant it into a happy Christian home” ........ looking into the work of a children’s charity no. 2*

I am as guilty as many of not looking deeply enough into the motivation that drove those men and women who ran our children’s charities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and did their utmost to improve the lot of young people who at best were living precarious lives and at worst were destitute with some on the edge of crime.

In the rush to look at the cause of the scandal and the variety of responses, the motives of those engaged in the work tend to get glossed over and relegated to that vague acknowledgement of “Christian values” and a humanitarian concern for those less fortunate.

And in the case of the migrating agencies there is that darker assumption that the move to send children to Canada and other parts of the empire was nothing more than a ruthless cost cutting exercise where the bill for maintaining young people in care was more than the price of transporting them across the Atlantic.

It is an analysis which perhaps fits with a more cynical view of how the authorities weighed up the care of the poor and one that I fully embraced.

But history is messy and open to all sorts of interpretations and even that comment attributed to Dr Barnardo that the children migrated were “the building blocks of Empire” is easy to misrepresent.

So I think it is time to dig deeper into the ideas of those men and women engaged in the work of our own children’s charity.

A story which can be found in  the new book on the Together Trust which as the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges was responsible to “turning around” the lives of many very poor children.**

The starting point has been the reports of the annual meetings and the charity’s own publications, including its monthly magazine, the fund raising pamphlets and those given over to advancing practical solutions to child street labour and feckless parents.

What comes over time and time again is the outrage that young lives were being wasted and that in the absence of alternative provision children were being exploited, abused and in some cases left to live on the streets.

Added to that there was a strong Christian  belief, but one which did not get in the way of helping either the young people or those parents who through no fault of their own found themselves on the extreme margin of poverty.

The annual reports stressed that the overriding principle was never to turn the deserving away and that the “door was always open.”

In the same way the “team” went looking to help, whether it was on the streets where they encountered homeless children or back streets and enclosed courts of the twin cities.***

In Angel Meadow reckoned to be one of the worst slums they called on a Mrs J one Sunday evening in the February of 1880 who confided “I’ve striven hard to keep them out of the workhouse, and now what’ll become of them?”  She had made a living as a street hawker but was now too ill to move out of her bed.

The eldest two, a lad of 20 and his sister aged 18 were in prison and remaining four were in desperate need of help. All were “fine children [and] it was wonder to see them so fresh and ruddy in such a locality.

Probably, as they grew up, the bloom would pass away; but whatever the physical atmosphere might be, there could be no mistake about the moral atmosphere surrounding them.”****

And so while there was a need for the four to be placed in a Christian home, the real issue was about taking the children out of the environment no matter the cost and in the process the report touched on the very contentious and current debate on the rights of the parent over the perceived needs of the child.

It is never an easy one to reconcile and I have seen arguments advanced that in some cases this led to charities making judgements which were high handed and brutal.

That said “our four” went into the care of the Refuge with the permission of the mother.

At which point there will be some who are uncomfortable with the heavy Christian emphasis of the report which concluded with the team “speaking a few words of Him who never yet cast out one who truly came to Him” and reflecting that “we can each help to cast a rope over the ship’s side, to help the poor sinking ones below, drawing them safely home to that blessed Home where there shall be no more misery and sin for ‘there  the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.”

But this also was underscored by a very practical commitment, reflected in another report in the Worker which detailed the care in the four of the homes run by the charity in Lower Broughton in Salford.

The four were home to fifty-eight boys and young men all of whom had been trained and found jobs, ranging from painters to organ builders, joiners and engravings.*****

And the idea of helping young people to help themselves was also at the core of the charities work.  There were vocational training homes, "brigades of young lads" as well training for girls in an assortment of skills.

The Refuge stressed the need for good vocationl education provided by the State.

Next; singling out some of those who served the charity.

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; from the Worker, 1880

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

**The Worker, February 1880

***Manchester and Salford

**** The Worker, February 1880

***** No.1 Home for Working Boys, Sussex Street, No. 2, 214 Broughton Road, No. 3, St John’s Place, Great Clowes Street, and No. 4, 8 Camp Street

Looking for the lost parents ............. and the work of a children's charity

Now as an idea the project to search out the parents of children admitted to a children’s charity in 1870 seemed a good one.

Poverty caused by the Cotton famine, 1862

After all if you want to get a better understanding why young people went into care looking at their parents seemed to have merit.

These parents would have been born in the 1840’s and 50’s when Manchester was still a city being transformed into what one historian has called the “shock city of the Industrial Revolution.”

So it followed that just possibly by tracking the lives of the parents we might get an insight into how those changes affected them and what if any was the impact on how they brought up their children.

The impact of the Cotton famine, in 1862

It was of course always a project on the edge and on reflection I should have been prepared for the fact that there would be many dead ends.

But the first few case studies proved encouraging.

In one case I was able to track one set of parents back to Ireland in the 1820s, follow them to Liverpool and then onto Manchester.

In another case the search led to number 8 Back Richard Street which was a closed court and entered through a narrow passage from Richard Street which was off Cupid's Alley.

Back Richard Street just east of Richard Street, 1849

Here in 1861 the family of four shared the house with the Lindsay family which consisted of Mr and Mrs Lindsay and their four children and another four boarders, making in total fourteen people in the one house.

Next door was almost as equally crowded with ten people, while the surrounding properties ranged from four down to one occupant.

I can’t yet ascertain the size of number 8 which may have been larger than its neighbours but this was still overcrowding.

And the area was densely packed with over 100 properties and 11 courts in a small area bounded by Cupid’s Alley to the north and part of Little Quay Street to the south.

Added to which on the opposite side of Cupid’s Alley stood a Soda Works, Hat factory and Silk Finishing Works.

Not I think an environment which offered much hope for its inhabitants, and in the case of our family at number 8 things were only going to get worse.

In 1870 when our boy was admitted to the charity his mother had deserted the family leaving her disabled husband to look after the two children.

McConnel and Co Mill, 1820

By which time they were living in Wrighton Street which it would appear was so mean that it didn’t warrant an inclusion on the street directory.

But the trail which I hoped would take me back in time to learn more about the mother and father went nowhere.

And not for the first time I had that feeling that the poor do not willingly share their secrets.

Of course the reality is that it is seldom a deliberate decision and more that history has stubbornly ignored not only their secrets put pretty much everything else about them.

Some never made it on to the census records and for those living as sub tenants or boarders they would never be included in the rate books.  Some never married and others may not even have been registered at birth, making the search very difficult.

At home during the Cotton Famine, 1862

A search for the parents of the first twenty to be admitted to the charity in 1870 was pretty much a failure, and where there was an evidence trail it petered out in most cases somewhere between 1861 and the 1850s.

That said there were a few which proved fruitful and at least two boys who we can track into the early years of the twentieth century.

And with patience and by widening the number of boys I look at I think we will get somewhere, and that will help the book which is the story of that charity which began in 1870, was known as the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge and is now the together Trust.

The book covers the full 150 years of its existence and was published in 2020

Location; Manchester

Pictures; suffering amongst cotton workers in 1862, from the Illustrated London News, m10038, McConnel-And-Co's-Mill, 1820, Ancoats, m52533, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
  and Back Richard Street, Richard Street, 1849, from the Manchester & Salford OS, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Suggestions for a Christmas present and an outrageous piece of self promotion ........ nu 7 The Ever Open Door

Now very soon lots of you will be pondering on Christmas presents and so with that in mind here the last suggestion.

The Ever Open Door was commissioned by the Together Trust and tells the story of the charity from its early days in 1870 offering a bed for destitute boys to a huge organization, offering homes, help, and industrial training for young people which continues that work today.

Its history over the last 150 years mirrors the changes in how we thought and carried out the care of young people, and that makes it an interesting subject to study, offering as it does insights into the changing thinking and policies surrounding looked after young people.

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Living on the streets ………… Manchester 1870

Some of us will in the course of family research come across the relative who was living on the streets, which will be as shocking as that other revelation that they may also have spent time in the Workhouse.

On admission, date unknown

But it is easy to gloss over the realties of being destitute, seeing it as the precursor to the story of what happened next.

And yet, those experiences are vital in helping understand the extent of the problem and the efforts of some to combat it.

Today we may be quite surprised at the absence of provision for homeless children in the twin cities of Manchester and Salford, but in 1869 there was no where to offer them safety and a degree of comfort.

All of which makes that decision by Leonard K Shaw, and his fellow teachers including Mr B. Taylor to set up a place of safety where homeless young people could come and be given a bed for the night and breakfast the following morning a hugely important one.

The Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuge opened on January 4 1870 at 16 Quay Street off Deansgate and at first was limited to just twelve beds.

The admission book for that first year recorded that one lad aged fifteen had been “living on the streets and sleeping in Boiler Houses” while William Owen who was just eleven had been “staying in a house of ill fame” on Hardman Street and two brothers who presented themselves at the door of the Refuge were regularly “sleeping in a yard at the back of one of the worst houses in the Charter Street neighbourhood.”

The extent of the homelessness was shocking. In the first decade of its existence the Refuge had picked a thousand young people off the streets and according to the Chief Constable the number apprehended with no fixed home amounted to 1,063 between 1870-72 and while this fell away slightly during remainder of the decade it still stood at 603 in 1879.

Emma on admission to the Refuge, 1913

Nor did the problem abate, in 1886 the Refuge reported that during the previous year it had provided 4,984 meals and given a bed to 1,648 young people.

Behind each of those admissions was a story.  Thomas from Salford, had had been living on the streets for three years having been turned out of the family home by his parents while what had pushed another “on to the streets for some time had been an unkind stepfather.”

But not all of those who occupied a bed were there because of their parents.  Some had left home to find work in the city but without sufficient funds for a lodging house had been “helped with a free supper, a bed and a breakfast, and are afterwards put in the way of returning to the country or their town and sometimes helped to get to sea or to join the army.

In this way many youths have been saved from the alternative of having to spend a night on one of the brick-fields of the city, with the result perhaps of being arrested and sent to prison for "sleeping out.” 

And the risk of arrest was a real one with all its attendant horrors of a night in the cells.  That said the police increasingly used the shelter as an alternative to the lock up in preparation for an appearance in the police courts.

Emma after admission to the Refuge, 1913

Both the authorities and the charity were well aware of the risks that living on the streets posed.

On one of his nightly trips across Manchester and Salford, Leonard Shaw encountered “groups of idle vagrant boys and girls from about 15 to 18 years of age ..... on Angel Street and Charter Street, few of them can read and write, and many have been in prison.”*

The Refuge offered the chance for some at least to turn their lives around and many did just that.

Adapted from the newly published book on the work of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges, published  by the Together Trust as part of the events to
commemorate the Trust’s 150th anniversary.

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

* Saving the Children, Work of the Boys ‘and Girls’ Refuges, Manchester Guardian, April 12 1912







**The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. You can obtain copies of the book from, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/     But given the current circumstances there may be a delay in getting books out in the post to people.

Following the archive trail …… the history blog I like

Now, I am always pleased when the Together Trust posts a new story on its blog about it’s past, which dates back to 1870.*

I have been following the work of this children’s charity for more than a decade and have written about them over the years.**

Like all good blogs, it is concise, delivers a fascinating piece of history and offers up links to pursue the stories.

This month’s edition focuses on the charity’s magazine, The Christian Worker and provides an insight into the work of the charity and a tantalizing search for two young people.

And that is all I am going to say, after all the real fun is in reading Caroline’s article in her own words, which can be accessed by following the link.

Location; Manchester and Salford

Picture; cover of the Christian Worker, 1880, courtesy of the Together Trust

*Together Trust Archive, https://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.com/2022/07/following-archive-trail.html

**The Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=the+together+Trust

Celebrating 150 years ……. The Together Trust 1870-2020

The plan was a simple one.

After 150 years of caring for young people the Together Trust would mount a series of events, which described the history of the charity, explored its many and different activities over a century and a half and a look to the future.

The charity had begun in 1870 with the modest aim of providing a bed and a meal for some destitute young people found on the streets of Manchester and Salford.

Within a decade its work had expanded to include girls, maintained a series of homes, and training centres, offered holidays by the seaside, settled some children in Canada, and even operated a scheme to help newly released prisoners.

My involvement in collaboration with Liz Sykes who was the Trust’s archivist was to write the book.*

All was set fair, but things happen which as we all know was Covid, which meant celebrations were put on hold, and were revisited with a mix of virtual events including the traditional December festival.

But for an organization which had started with a handful of volunteers and access to a building which could provide bed and breakfast for just 6 destitute boys, weathered two world wars a Depression and sought a new caring role with the coming of the Welfare State, the Covid lock down was a mere inconvenience. 

And with relaxing of restrictions the charity staged the very successful unveiling of a plaque recording the first night shelter on Quay Street in July of last year.

This was followed up with an event in April at Centra Ref in St Peter’s Square with an exhibition of the Trust’s story which showcased some of the work and achievements of young people.

The event was a success and led to a renewed interest in the book, The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, by Andrew Simpson.*

The book is divided into three sections, which focus on the early work of the charity, describes its changing role as a partner of the agencies that made up the Welfare State, and looks forward to the challenges of the 21st century.

And if you want more on the story of the Trust and the book just follow the link*

So that is it ...... a good night was held by all with some pretty inspiring stories, a rich vein of history and an exciting look into the future.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; 150 Years of the Together Trust’ exhibition! April 27th, 202 Central Ref, courtesy of the Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

* The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

**A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

The story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 20 ...... the book

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects which are in no particular order, have been selected purely at random and will reflect one of many different stories.

And today we conclude with the story of one children's charity which  migrated young people.

This was the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges, which today is the Together Trust.

But its involvement with BHC was only one part of a huge commitment to the welfare of young people which began in the late 19th century and continues today.

The Ever Open Door was commissioned by the Together Trust and tells the story of the charity from its early days in 1870 offering a bed for destitute boys to a huge organization, offering homes, help, and industrial training for young people which continues that work today.

Its history over the last 150 years mirrors the changes in how we thought and carried out the care of young people, and that makes it an interesting subject to study, offering as it does insights into the changing thinking and policies surrounding looked after young people.

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

A picture ….. a charity …… and the book ….. 150 years of caring for young people

I am looking at a picture of a group of young people who were migrated from Manchester to Canada in 1898.

The Emigration Party, 1898

It was sent over by Lori who runs one of the leading Canadian British Home Children research sites.*

Lori added that “I posted this photo in 2013 all I said was they were from the Manchester Union - thought I'd pass it along. No idea who brought them”.

All of which seemed unpromising as a line of inquiry.

But, and there is always a but, the fact that the young people were from Manchester offered up the chance that they were migrated by the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Homes, and that took me to the charity’s archivist.

Liz replied “I do recognise the image. It is one of our parties – Mrs Shaw is sat in the middle. We did migrate children from the unions so it is possible some are. I would guess most are from our homes though”.

And that opens up the possibility that a trawl of the charity’s records will reveal the names of some of the children.

Mrs. Shaw all dressed in black

But that research will always have to be qualified by considerations of confidentiality and so I rather think for now, those young people will remain in the shadows.

But not so Mrs. Shaw whose husband was one of the founder members of the charity which had been established in 1870 to provide a night’s lodging and breakfast to destitute boys who lived on the streets of Manchester and Salford.

The charity quickly grew into an organization which looked after the welfare of both boys and girls, was involved in industrial training for young people, migrated some, and ran homes as well as holidays by the sea for others.  

It also sought prosecutions for parents who were cruel or neglectful, campaigned to change the law on the employment of young children and helped newly released prisoners offering them a meal and assistance in finding work.

And although it has undergone a series of name changes over the last 150 year it is still in the business of helping young people.  Today it is known as the Together Trust and its headquarters are in Cheadle.

All of which is covered in the new book The Ever Open Door which was commissioned by the charity as part of the celebrations to mark their 150th year.**

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2, is available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Picture; Girls Emigration Party, 1898, from the collection of Lori Oschefski, © Together Trust, 1898

*British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association, https://www.britishhomechildren.com/media

**The Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

Happy birthday to the Together Trust ..... serving the needs of young people from Manchester and Salford since 1870

 So, the new year has brought our first birthday, which for us is the 151st of the Together Trust which began as the Manchester and Salford Boys' and Girls's Refuge.

The celebrations for its 150th were a little muted given the restrictions around the virus, but the year closed with the AGM and a Christmas service acknowledging the charities history and continued work with young people and families.

For those wanting help in tracking family members who may have passed through the care of the charity the Trust will respond to requests for help.

In the meantime there is the book, published last year which celebrates the history of the Together Trust from its beginnings in 1870, through to today.

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Listening to the story of the Together Trust ..... on YouTube

Now the impact of Covid precautions has made all of us more innovative in how we communicate with each other.

And so it was with the planned launch of the book The Ever Open Door, which tells the story of the Together Trust, which first started work in 1870, offering a bed and a meal to destitute children living in Manchester and Salford.*

It had been commissioned by the Trust to coincide with the 150th anniversary of its founding, and was to be launched at a series of events during 2020.

Of course the events never happened and as the year drew to a close, the decision was taken to record some chapters of the book which would form part of the annual Christmas Concert, along with an item at the end of the charity’s AGM.

Both readings would be part of a power point display featuring images from the work of the Trust over the last 150 years.

And today the first of those readings has been released on YouTube.**

The obvious choice for a reader was me, given that I wrote the book  in collaboration with the Trust’s archivist Liz Sykes.

I make no claims to be the Richard Burton or Lawrence Oliver of the 21st century, but it was fun to do and sits as an Andrew first with the first walk and talk I did back in 2008, and the first power point presentation a year later.

Leaving aside all of that, the audio piece is an extract from chapter one, with pictures from from the Trust’s archives.

And that is it.

The Ever Open Door: 150 years of the Together Trust, Andrew Simpson, The Together Trust, 2020, 140p, £14-99. ISBN 978-1-5272-5671-2. Available from, The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A Beginning, Chapter One, The Ever Open Door, 150 years of the Together Trust Andrew Simpson, 2020, The Together Trust

** A Beginning, Chapter One, Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADLsibEJP1w

 

Doing Christmas ……… with the Manchester children’s charity …….. no. 3 …… Christmas Dinner

A short series exploring in just one image a day the work of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Shelter over Christmas.

The charity was formed in 1870 to give six destitute boys a night’s shelter but very quickly  expanded its  work to include, girls, industrial training and homes as well as helping newly released prisoners.

The full story of the charity was published earlier this year as The Ever Open Door,* and is available from The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; Toys for Christmas, Children’s Haven Magazine, 1902, courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Doing Christmas ……… with the Manchester children’s charity …….. no. 2 …… Christmas Toys

A short series exploring in just one image a day the work of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Shelter over Christmas.

The charity was formed in 1870 to give six destitute boys a night’s shelter but very quickly  expanded its  work to include, girls, industrial training and homes as well as helping newly released prisoners.

The full story of the charity was published earlier this year as The Ever Open Door, and is available from The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; Toys for Christmas, Children’s Haven Magazine, 1902, courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Doing Christmas ……… with the Manchester children’s charity …….. no. 1 ……The appeal

A short series exploring in just one image a day the work of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges and Shelter over Christmas.

The charity was formed in 1870 to give six destitute boys a night’s shelter but very quickly  expanded its  work to include, girls, industrial training and homes as well as helping newly released prisoners.

The full story of the charity was published earlier this year as The Ever Open Door,* and is available from The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; Christmas Collection Leaflet, 1898, courtesy of the Together Trust, https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/

*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

Looking after the child ........ part one taking sides ....... the Manchester & Salford Children’s charity

Now there remains a big debate within BHC studies as to how far the intervention of the children’s charities engaged in migration was benign and to the good or flawed and smacked of a degree of arrogant interference in the rights of parents.

And it is in many ways a continuing debate as the recent court case involving the dispute between a hospital and the wishes of a mother and father to pursue alternative treatment for their very ill child demonstrates.

I guess the devil is in the detail and for many it will be a very personal choice of which side the BHC debate falls.

And as someone with experience of the work of social workers I know it really pretty much comes down to “dammed if you do and damned if you don’t.”

The decision to take a child into care may be criticised as heavy handed, but woe betide the local agency who doesn’t act and faces cries of dereliction of duty when something horrible happens.

All of which is very much to the fore as I continue with the book on the Together Trust and in particular begin looking at its role in intervening on behalf of young people during the late 19th century.*

The activities of the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges was all embracing and almost from the beginning it campaigned on behalf of those young children making a living from selling on the streets and by intervening in the courts to prosecute neglectful and abusive parents.

The slow progress to the legal protection of children in the work place dated back to the 1830s but almost four decades on those who worked the streets selling newspapers, matches and fuses were left unprotected.

Evidence presented to the Home Secretary by a deputation from Manchester and Salford in 1878 highlighted a situation where “children from four to seven years of age were sent into the streets to sell newspapers, matches, and various other articles at all hours, winter and summer without regard to the inclemency of the weather, and the practice was rapidly increasing.” **

Mr Shaw added that “in one evening’s work ten members went through the streets and laboured till twelve o’clock, each member taking a street in Manchester.  

In that time they took to their homes some fifty varying in age from five to twelve years” and estimated that over Manchester in the three hours up to midnight “there must be somewhere near 1,000 of these children.”

Apart from the sheer scandal of the level of exploitation and the degree of suffering there was that ever present concern that these young people were in great risk.

Mr Shaw continued that “they had watched little girls of six and ten years of age in the streets growing into women, singing and speaking to men, and learning all sorts of evil; and they could point to some who adopted the streets for their living.”

But the lack of resources at a local level made it difficult to enforce existing legislation.
In 1880 Mr Shaw published Street Arabism Its Cause and Its Cure which set out a clear programme to eradicate the scandal.

This included the employment of more staff to enforce existing regulations along with the establishment of regulated brigades of street sellers who were furnished with a uniform and badge which would operate in conjunction with a register of those engaged in the brigades.

There would be a prohibition on children under ten years of age hawking any article on the streets, with a restriction on the hours worked by children under fourteen and the provision that parents would be responsible for each breach of the regulations.

And it was this last suggestion which weighed heavily with the Refuge who had concluded that many of the children selling on the streets were not orphans, nor destitute but had parents, returned home at the end of the night and fitted in their street work after school.

Leaving aside the moralistic tone of much of the commentaries which referred to lazy and drunken parents the Refuge argued that in their experience the children were there on the streets to supplement or provide an income for their mothers and fathers.

It followed then that the charity should be become directly involved in the protection of young people.

To that end in 1884 the Refuge set up a Child’s Protection Department in which “26 cases of child cruelty and neglect had been investigated”  The following year the Manchester and Salford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed as a branch of the Refuge operating from the Children’s Shelter originally located on Major Street.

In its first full year 522 cases of cruelly-treated children were dealt with. Of this number around 80 were admitted into the Refuge’s various homes. Some cases were taken to court and the parents prosecuted.

In 1889 an Act for the Better Prevention of Cruelty to Children was passed giving the Refuge greater power to deal with cases of neglect and over the next ten years 9922 cases were dealt with by the charity.
Cases like that of the death of William Brown aged ten of Salford in  1893.

The court heard that he had died after “unnecessary suffering and injury to his health by his mother beating and striking him” and keeping him in a scullery in the family home on Pearson Street in Broughton."***

The Refuge took up the case and obtained a successful conviction for “unnecessary suffering and cruel neglect on the part of the mother” who was sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment with hard labour. ****

Commenting on this successful prosecution Mr Shaw in a letter to the Manchester Guardian made the promise that “those who cruelly and brutally torture helpless children will receive no mercy at our hands.” ******
He added that during the January of that year the Refuge investigated 37 cases involving the welfare of 137 young people and of the 37, “six were taken to court with more still pending while in the majority a sharp warning and a watchful eye will accomplish that prevention which is the chief object of our society.”

And that resolute and remorseless task was continued until 1895 when after the establishment of a local branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children the previous year the Refuge handed over “this painful but necessary duty.”

Location; Manchester

Pictures;s from the Worker 1880


*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust

**Young Children and Late Hours Deputation to Mr Cross, Manchester Guardian, May 11 1878

**Street Arabism Its Cause and Cure, L.K. Shaw, 1880, Manchester, page 11

 *** Police Intelligence, Manchester Guardian February 25, 1893

**** The Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Leonrad K. Shaw, Correspondence, Manchester Guardian, February 28, 1893