British Home Children ……… be careful of what you are told ……

Now this is a direct response to the interpretation that the migration of thousands of young people to Canada and other parts of the old British Empire was a cynical piece of social engineering on the part of the Establishment to relocate some of the poorest young people in Britain and deposit them as cheap labour on the farms of Canada, and in the homes of respectable Canadians looking for domestic servants.

On admission, date unknown

Like all such sweeping historical generalizations it has an element of truth. 

Successive British Governments had for centuries been unloading those it judged to be criminals to penal colonies on the other side of the world, offered financial incentives to landless labourers in the 1840s to settle in Canada and the USA to relieve the agricultural poverty in parts of Britain, and in the 17th and 18th centuries sent thousands to the West Indies as indentured slaves for joining rebellions against the Crown.

Nor should we forget the vicious class-based legislation enacted against those who sought the vote or to combine in trade unions.

So yes, the Establishment was quite capable of overseeing the migration of children, although we should point out this was not a Government initiatve, but was driven by individials, charities and local government in the form of the Poor Law Unions.

But history is messy, does not always conform to one simple interpretation, and so it is with BHC.  Some of the Poor Law Unions did indeed do the sums and worked out it was cheaper to migrate than to care for destitute and orphaned children in care homes here in Britain.

Equally some Canadian employers saw the benefit of cheap young labour to whom all responsibility ended when they reached maturity.  Added to which there is a wealth of testimony to show how badly some BHC were treated.

But there are plenty of examples, especially from the Manchester based children’s charity I have researched, where the motive to migrate was driven by a desire to offer those who had been dealt the worst deal a better life.*

It fitted well with that idea which had originated in Germany of the positiveness of a rural community in direct contrast to the horrors of 19th century urban living, where workers were sucked into the cities by the Industrial Revolution, eked out a dismal existence in conditions which today we would equate with the Developing World.

Emma on admission to the Refuge

And where a bout of illness or unemployment could pitch them into dire poverty and the Workhouse, leading some families to seek for help by agreeing to send family members abroad.

At which point it is well to recognise the different phases of migration.  

In the first decades the attention was indeed on the destitute children, some of whom were drawn against their will into street crime and prostitution.

But within thirty years inroads had been made into eliminating the destitute from our streets, and more of those migrated came from families who saw no alternative but to offer up some for the fateful leap into the dark to live on another continent.  Often this was because of unemployment, or the death of the main breadwinner.  

For many of these, this was a temporary arrangement, whether it be the Workhouse, a charitable institution or crossing the Atlantic.

All of which begs us to examine the root causes of that “fragile and precarious existence which was the lot of the rural as well as the industrial workforce".

Emma in 1913

And that is down to an economic system and a political ideology which saw the poor as at times feckless and poverty as inevitable as sunrise and sun set.

I don’t defend BHC, but it was a response to a set of circumstances and some of those who were main players acted out of the best of motives.

In the case of my own BHC, he was an unruly and unpredictable young man, whose character had been formed by years of institutionalized care, and accepted migration as a better alternative to an Industrial Training Ship.

The exception to the rule or just one different side of BHC migration?

BHC remains still a relatively new historical study and interpretations will change with the passsage of time and the accumulation of new data.

And that is what makes it exciting and imbues it with the imperative to present it in its full unvarnished truth.

We do it no justice to BHC and by extension no service to the thousands who made that journey if we do not examine it with a forensic eye.

So be careful all those who would lead a charge, dismissing the feelings and views of others in pursuit of a narrow reading of the events, lest just around the corner the data offers a more grey, and nuanced interpretation.

Location; Manchester and Salford

Pictures; On admission, date unknown, Emma on admission to the Refuge, and Emma in 1913, courtesy of the Together 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. You can obtain copies of the book from, books@togethertrust.org.uk 

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 story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 19 ..........Maria Rye lays down the plan

Avenue House, the base for Miss Rye's operations, 1872

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is from Gail Collins, quoting Maria Rye who migrated children to Canada from 1869, and was one of the leading lights in the policy of sending children to Canada.*

“The children vary in age from 3 to 13 years; are all Protestants, and nearly all absolute Orphans; are bound (when not adopted) till they are 18 years old, on the following terms, viz: Up to 15 years old they are to be fed, clothed and sent to Sunday School. From 15 to 17 they are not clothed, but paid $3 a month wages, and $4 a month from 17 to 18.

If through any unforseen circumstances, it is necessary for a child to be returned to the Home, due notice of the same must be given in writing, one month before the child is removed; and if the child has been away from the Home six months, her clothes must be returned new and whole, and in the same number as they left the Home. 

In no case can a child be passed on to another family without first consulting Miss Rye, and in case of the death of persons (husband or wife) taking children, it is particularly requested that an immediate notice of the fact be sent to the Home.
Miss Rye reserves to herself the right of removing any child with whose treatment she is not satisfied.

MARIA S RYE

Hon Secretary 

N.B. Only children under nine years of age can be adopted.”

Picture; Avenue House, High Street, Peckham, from the OS map of London, 1862-72, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Gail Collins died peacefully in her sleep on March 16,2020. Although we never met we shared a a passionate interest in British Home Children and often communicated on the subject.

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 18 ..........Mrs Lottie Moffatt applies for a boy

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is Mrs Lottie Moffatt’s application in 1915 for a British Home Child to work on her farm in North Sydney, Cape Breton County, N.S.

The forms were fairly standard and don’t seem to vary from charitable agency.

This is from the Middlemore Home which arranged the settlement of my great uncle on behalf of the Guardians of the Derby Poor Law Union in 1914.

The details of the agreement were not always adhered to and have led to the accusation that for many the scheme was a way of getting cheap farm labour.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 17 .......... the letter home

We have none of the letters my great uncle sent to his family.

I know he wrote to his sister and I am guessing will also have written to my grandfather and his brothers, but none have survived.

Instead all we have are a few letters found in his file held by the charity which took him over to Canada from Derby in the May of 1914.

But in their way these are all the more significant given that they were written just after he had enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was bound for England.

His had not been a happy year in Canada.

He was sent back from the first two farms he had been placed on and ran away from the third.

The army was too prove equally challenging to a man who found accepting regulations and instructions very difficult which was very understandable given his early life.

But he stuck it out for the “duration” and so was one of the British Home Children who served their adoptive country.

Picture; letter from Roger James Hall/James Rogers, February 2 1916 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 16 .......... Australia and other parts of the Commonwealth

The story of the children sent to Canada from the late 19th century into the early 20th has almost passed out of living memory, but those who went to Australia were still leaving our shores in the 1970s.*

These Australian stories are no less harrowing than those young people who travelled across the Atlantic.

This shabby little episode, this last flickering of a discredited policy in child care was exposed by Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker in the 1980s.

Her work in providing a history for all those Australians who grew up with no knowledge of a family in Britain or the circumstances which led to them being sent to Australia is documented in her book Empty Cradles which in turn became the film Oranges and Sunshine.**

Pictures, cover from the book Empty Cradles, and the film Oranges and Sunshine

*Growing up in Australia with no past, no family and just unanswered questions ..... Empty Cradles, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/growing-up-in-australia-with-no-past-no.html


**Empty Cradles, was published in 1994. Its sales of 75,000 copies helped to fund the work of the Child Migrants Trust at a critical time when British government grants had been stopped. Empty Cradles has been dramatised as the 2011 feature film Oranges and Sunshine.


The Child Migrants Trust was established in 1987 by Margaret Humphreys CBE, OAM. It addresses the issues surrounding the deportation of children from Britain. In the post-war period, child migrants as young as three were shipped to Canada, New Zealand, the former Rhodesia and Australia, a practice that continued as late as 1970. http://www.childmigrantstrust.com/

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 15 .......... reunited with family

Shipping records, 1925

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.

One of the hardest things to cope with in the story of British Home Children is that sense of loss at being separated from family.

Now I have no idea whether my great uncle Roger was in regular contact with his two brothers one of whom was my grandfather, and I can be fairly certain that he never wrote to his father.

All of which leaves his mother and his sister.

His mother remains a shadowy figure who if I have this right had only a temporary grip of reality in later life, and certainly when her children were growing up was at one point deemed “unfit to have control” and this may account for great uncle Roger choosing his aunt as his next of kin when he enlisted in the Canadian army.

Great Aunt Laura with her husband, circa 1930

Laura was his sister.

She was born in the Derby Workhouse in 1902 and in 1925 he helped persuade her to leave Britain for Canada.

In one of her letters great aunt Laura wrote that he persuaded her to join him and I guess she may well have done so using the Empire Settlement scheme which aimed to migrate large numbers of British women as domestic servants.

He was most insistent that she should go and may have helped with money, but by the time she set sail he had moved west and in her own words she didn’t fancy the wilderness and eventually settled in Ontario.

In time she married and raised a large family some of whom I rediscovered while looking for great uncle Roger.

And there is both the upside and downside of this BHC story for while she appeared to stay in touch we have lost him and I doubt that we will ever uncover what finally happened to him.

But in the process of looking for him and rereading her letters written in the 1970s and came across my Canadian family which has sort of reunited us.

Sadly I never met my great aunt although she did come to Britain in 1968 returning to Derby where she must have met my grandparents and her other surviving brother but for reasons I can't fathom I was either not told of the journey or it has slipped from my memory.

Such are the ups and downs of BHC stories.

Pictues; Laura Pember, nee Hall circa 1930s, and passenger details from the Pember/Simpson family collection

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 14 .......... bound for Canada

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

The image from the Together Trust collection carries the title "On Board."

The Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuges like other organisations looking after destitute and abandoned children sent young people to Canada.

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

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 13.......... speaking out against migrating children

The Manchester Guardian, October 5 1907

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.

Not everyone involved with the care of children in Britain agreed that migrating poor, destitute and abused children to Canada was the right policy.

Three of those who campaigned against the practice were the three socialist Guardians on the board of the Chorlton Union.

The Chorlton Union was responsible for the administration of the Poor Law across south Manchester and had within its care groups of young children.

Dr and Mrs Garret along with Thomas Skivington opposed the policy arguing that it there was not sufficient monitoring of the children migrated, that there were cases of abuse and that there was evidence that some children were deeply unhappy.

Futhermore the employment of young children in Canada contradicted British law governing children at work, was often a means for providing cheap labour and above all ignored the need to address poverty and child abuse in Britain.

The three also campaigned against the petty but often cruel practices of the workhouse.

Thomas Skivington was also active in the unemployment campaigns of the early 20th century as well as arguing for a more just and equal society.*

The Garrett’s went on to establish a clinic in north Wales for working class children suffering from the unhealthy conditions in the city.**

Picture; from the Manchester Guardian October 5th 1907

*Lives revealed, commitments rediscovered
 http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lives-revealed-commitments-rediscovered.html

** Dr Garrett, http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/wales/archive/bbc-north-west-wales-conwy-dr-garretts-childrens-home-history.pdf

The story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 12 .......... the decision that made a British Home Child

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.


WILLIAM HALL, entered on 8 May 1913, age 14, reason given as mother unfit to have control.  To be placed on TS Exmouth until the age of 18.

LAURA HALL, entered on 8 May 1913, age 11, reason given as mother unfit to have control.  To be put to domestic service until 18.

ROGER HALL, entered 30 Dec 1913, age 15, no reason given.  To be sent to TS Exmouth until 18. 

Now I say this was the decision which made my great uncle into a British Home Child.

It comes from a report which a colleague found in the records of the Derby Poor Law Union.  Not much of the archive has survived and the background to how the authorities got involved is lost.

But it will be familiar to many and continues to be replicated to this day.

Now I say this was the decision which made my great uncle Roger into a British Home Child, but to be fair it was only one of the steps.

His mother had returned to Derby in 1902 to give birth to her last child in the Derby Work House having separated from my great grandfather.

Both my grandfather and great uncle were placed on a training ship which was really a naval boot camp for wayward boys.

Here they were taught seamanship in a strict environment, but for whatever reason great uncle Roger declined the placement and I can only think the Poor Law Guardians either decided or offered him the alternative of a passage to Canada.

All of which makes the reasons for his arrival in Canada a little different.  He was not homeless nor was he an orphan and there does seem to have been some attempt to keep here in Britain and not foist him off across the Atlantic.

And judging by what his sister said over sixty years later both he and my grandfather were running wild and were challenging children.

The part played by my great grandmother is unknown.  There is evidence that both her and my great grandfather were themselves challenging adults, and separated leaving her to bring up three children under the age of five while having their last child on her own in the Derby Work House.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

Pictures; a training ship, Picture; from the archives of the Together Trust, courtesy of the Archivist, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-blog.html

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 11 .......... a success story

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.



Tom and Frances were two of the children migrated to Canada by the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges.

The Refuge had begun in a modest way in 1870, providing a bed and meal for the night for boys found homeless on the streets of Manchester & Salford.

It quickly extended its work to girls as well as boys, provided long term care for the destitute, and abused, while publically campaigning against child exploitation as well as using the law to prosecute neglectful parents.

It also provided holiday homes for the children in its care, vocational training and from 1870 till 1914 migrated some children to Canada.

It was one of the first charities to stop sending children.

This is a letter from one of its agents commenting on two of the children who were sent across.

Picture; from the archives of the Together Trust, courtesy of the Archivist, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-blog.html

The story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 10 .......... the parent

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.

Now I do not have a picture of my great uncle who went over to Canada in the May of 1914 with the Middlemore charity, and only a handful of photographs of his sibling’s one of whom was my grandfather.

But I do have one of his father who was my great grandfather and that I think will be rare amongst the stories of British Home Children.

He was Montague Hall who was born in 1872, served in the old Queens army from 1888-92 and lived with my great grandmother for eight years

This one was taken sometime around 1914 when he had re-enlisted in the British Army.

His relationship with my great grandmother was I think a tempestuous one, and they separated sometime in 1902.

He stayed in Gravesend in Kent and she returned to Derby with her three surviving sons where she had her daughter in the Workhouse later that year.

All of the children spent time in care and were later placed by the Poor Law Guardians with employers.

Great Uncle Jack was apprenticed to a blacksmith, Laura was sent into service in Northumberland, and granddad went to sea, leaving my great uncle Roger to cross the Atlantic where he was placed on different farms before running away to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and changing his name and lying about his age along the way.

On arriving in Britain with his regiment he was stationed just a few miles away from his father who by then had married and had a second family.

Which brings me back to the picture which was supplied my cousin who is the granddaughter of Montague’s marriage..

Neither families knew of the existence of the other but both were searching for Montague’s story and in that bizarre way we found each other through my great uncle.

Picture; Montague Hall circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 9 .......... the migration party 1897

Manchester Town Hall, 1897

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.

The year is 1897 and we are on the steps of Manchester Town Hall which is a building I know very well.

The young people staring back at us are about to leave for Canada under the care of the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges.

The scene will have been replicated countless times from the beginning of the practice and the Manchester & Salford Boys’ & Girls’ Refuges continued sending young people till 1914.

The Together Trust holds many similar images and for those of us with a BHC in our family, pictures like this are a powerful link to link to that person.

Now I never knew my great uncle who left Derby with the Middlemore organization in 1914, and I have no pictures of him and few letters and other personal effects, so in a way this is the best I can do.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

Picture, Migration Party, Manchester Town Hall, 1897, courtesy of the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

The story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 8 .......... signing off a British Home Child

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is one of the signing off documents employed by the Middlemore charity which had been engaged by the Derby Union to transport my great uncle to Canada in 1914.

In his case he signed himself out of their trust by running away from his placement on the farm of S.V. Griffiths and enlisting in the C.E.F. and serving his adopted country in the Great War.

Picture; from the records of the Middlemore charity, in the  collection of Andrew Simpson

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 7 .......... a farmhouse and the home of a British Home Child

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is a photograph of Saye V. Griffith’s farmhouse in Sunbury County, N.B.  It is also where my great uncle spent a few unhappy months as a farm hand, before being sent back to the Middlemore Home at Fairview Station, Halifax, N.S.

Such unhappy experiences were common enough although it has to be said that he met great kindness and understanding from his second placement with Mrs Moffat at her farm in Cape Breton, N.S.  Not that this stay proved anymore successful.

Many of the farms were remote, and the work totally different from what a lot of the children had known in Britain.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, courtesy of Angela Flaubert, 2010

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 5 .......... the Attestation papers of James Rogers, serving his adopted country

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is part of the attestation papers of James Rogers who enlisted in C.E.F, in 1915.  His given name was Roger Games Hall and he arrived in Canada in 1914.

His was an unhappy first year and he failed to settle in his first two farms and ran away from his third to Join the C.E.F.  He lied about his age and changed his name.

He served his adopted country until the duration in 1918.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 4 .......... an indenture

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is an indenture from the archives of the Together Trust, courtesy of Liz Sykes the archivist who writes,

Robert and Ellen A. Bilbrough – Wallace were in charge of the Marchmont Home in Belleville, Ontario between 1877 – 1912. 

Here, emigrated children would stay for a few weeks before going to work for people in the local area. Indentures like the one above were signed as a set of rules governing certain stipulations. 

Many conditions had to be met by the farmer along with references from an upstanding member of the community, i.e. a minister of religion or a magistrate and all applications had to be counter-signed.  

The farmers were required to provide housing, food and clothing for the child and to ensure they attended Sunday school. 

They were also required to receive some schooling for part of the year alongside their jobs. 

This largely involved farm work for the boys and domestic duties in the house for the girls, although some would also partake in milking and egg collecting.    

© Liz Sykes November 2013

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

A story of British Home Children in 20 objects .... no. 2 ... Grace Ruth Sillett, from Susan Hillman Brazeau

Grace Ruth Sillett, born June 19, 1892, in Bungay, Suffolk, England, was one of 8 children of Harry Charlish Sillett and his wife, Margaret Ann (Mallett).  In 1898, Harry died of cancer, leaving Margaret financially destitute. 

Grace Ruth Sillett

Grace Ruth Sillett, born June 19, 1892, in Bungay, Suffolk, England, was one of 8 children of Harry Charlish Sillett and his wife, Margaret Ann (Mallett).  In 1898, Harry died of cancer, leaving Margaret financially destitute. 

Although she received assistance from the church, Margaret was unable to care for her children.  Refusing the workhouse, she permitted four of her daughters to be removed from her care.  

Grace, the only daughter sent to Dr. Barnardo’s, was admitted on May 7, 1900, age 7 years, 10 months. She was described as 3 feet, 5 inches; 44 pounds, shy, quiet and polite. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a dark complexion. Months later, she went to live with a couple in Thorndon, Suffolk for two years. 

In 1902, Grace set sail for Canada on the Colonian. Days after arriving at Hazelbrae Receiving Home in Peterborough, Ontario. she went to Brighton, Ontario, where she resided for the next 12 years with 4 different families. 

When she was 14, Grace asked if she had family in England and Barnardo’s helped her make contact with her mother. In 1965, after 65 years of separation, Grace returned to England and reunited with siblings.

Submitted by granddaughter, Susan (Hillman) Brazeau

Location; Suffolk and Canada

Picture; Grace’s Admission photo to Barnardo’s

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 1 ..........a report on a Home Child

A report on a home child, 1915

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.

Anyone who wants to nominate their own is free to do so, just add a description in no more than 200 words and send it to me.

This is a report on my great uncle, shortly after he was placed by the Middlemore Home with S.V. Griffiths who farmed in New Brunswick.

Such reports were supposed to be completed on each child and sent back to  the charity or Poor Law Union which sent the young person.

This did not always happen and concerns were raised by the socialist Guardians on the board of the Chorlton Poor Law that no reports had been sent back to Manchester on children in their care.

In the case of my great uncle two such reports have survived, neither of which is complimentary about his behaviour, but given his background before he left for Canada I doubt we should be surprised.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Getting the story out ….. in uncertain times

As we enter another period of lockdown, finding the most effective way of promoting the story of one children’s charity commemorating its 150th anniversary has been challenging.

The book, The Ever Open Door was commissioned by the Together Trust just over two years ago and told 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 as well as an after care service for released prisoners.

Of course advertising and selling the book, will always come second to caring for the young people at the heart of the work of the Together Trust.

But the proud story of its 150 years remains an important piece of social history, and with book shops closing and opportunities for book launches disappearing, the Trust has become inventive.

The book came out in early 2020, just as the first lockdown forced the cancellation of two book launches, and now as we enter a second shut down which sits on the back of Tier Three, the charity has found new ways to getting  its history out.

And they have now launched a new online way of offering the book for sale, and for those interested in the book, they just have to follow the link.*

All of which just leaves me to lift the notes from the back of the book for anyone who wants to know more, before they purchase.

“In 1870 a ‘Night Refuge for Homeless Boys’ was opened on Quay Street in Manchester. Founded by Dublin born Leonard Kilbee Shaw and Manchester businessman Richard Bramwell Taylor, it saw the beginning of a charity that has gone on to help thousands of children across Manchester, Salford and beyond.

Over the years the charity has adapted to the changing needs of young people in our society, with its names reflecting these changes: the ‘Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes’, as it was first known, then ‘The Boys and Girls Welfare Society’, and now ‘The Together Trust’. Celebrating the charity’s 150th anniversary, the book recounts the stories and achievements of a pioneering organisation that has been instrumental in improving child welfare”. 

The Ever Open Door, Author: Andrew Simpson / Together Trust

Paperback – March 2020

The Together Trust, https://shop.togethertrust.org.uk/