History

The Together Trust was founded as the Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes in 1870 by Leonard Kilbee Shaw and Richard Bramwell Taylor, who were Sunday school teachers at St Ann's Church, Manchester. They were determined to take some action to help the many children and young people whom they observed living rough on the city's streets.

1870 to 1920

When Leonard Shaw arrived in Manchester in the mid nineteenth century he entered a city of great hardship for many children. Overcrowding, bad housing, unemployment, poverty and disease were rife. For those without a home the only alternative to the streets was the workhouse. His encounter with two homeless boys in 1869, on the front porch of St. Ann’s Sunday School where he worked, made Shaw painfully aware of the ‘abandonment’ of hundreds of boys in the city. For the next thirty two years of his life he worked tirelessly in an attempt to relieve the plights of thousands of young people in Manchester and change social attitude towards street children.

On the 4th January 1870, with money raised from local businesses, Shaw and Taylor opened their first home for boys at 16 Quay Street, Deansgate. From this small beginning, where young boys were given a bed for the night in return for working during the day as boot blacks and office messengers, the organisation has grown and thrived. As well as various residential homes, for both boys and girls, the ‘Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girl’s Refuges and Homes and Children’s Aid Society’, also established a Children’s Shelter (1884), a Seaside Convalescent Home (1883) and Bethesda, a home for ‘crippled and incurable children’ (1890). Other branches included the establishment of an emigration scheme to Canada (1871) and emigration training homes, a Summer Camp to provide a week’s holiday for boys away from the city slums (1883) the first Manchester branch of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, (1884) and a prison gate mission (1887). By 1920 the Refuge had helped around 125,000 children through its various services.

Click for a list of Manchester and Salford Boys and Girls Refuges and Homes (1870-1920)

Emigration

Like many other children’s societies, the Refuge had become involved in the emigration of thousands of children overseas from 1872. The Charity saw this as a way to remove children from undesirable and often dangerous surroundings, to start a new life in the British Colonies. The children emigrated would be in good health with either no parents or in situations which could be dangerous to their well-being. Out of these, only those who showed willingness to leave the country were emigrated. The children often came from the Orphan Homes on George Street and prior to departure they would be trained for life overseas, either at the William Stevenson Emigration Training Home for Boys on Great Ducie Street or, for girls, at Rosen Hallas.

Between the years of 1872 and 1921 around 2129 children were emigrated to the Refuge’s receiving centre at Marchmont, in Belleville, Ontario. From here the children would be placed with a suitable farming family, who were required to provide food, clothing and shelter, as well as wages to the older children, in return for their help in the home or on the farm. They were also responsible for ensuring the child attended school during part of the year and providing a suitable religious upbringing. At least yearly visits and reports were carried out to make sure the children were being well treated and were happy in their homes. Emigration was stalled during the First World War and only a few children travelled through us after 1918.

The Together Trust holds information on all of the children who it emigrated to Canada. If you think your ancestor may have been emigrated by us please contact the Records, Archives and Information Officer.

1920 to 1990

In 1920 the second chapter in the organisation's development was written when the Trustees purchased the 22.5 acre Belmont Estate in Cheadle and created The Children's Garden Village. Two houses known as Crossley Gaddum and Hayes Shaw were built in 1923 and 1925 respectively, (now the base of Inscape House and CYCES School) as homes for orphaned and destitute children. Belmont House (now a neighbouring home for the elderly) was a flagship home for girls. The Milne family, who lived in Belmont House until the organisation purchased it, funded the Milne Perrins Sanatorium (on the site of the present Together Trust Centre) for when the children were ill.

The 1944 Education Act and the 1948 Curtis Report (which in effect produced the first social services for children) changed the landscape for the organisation. The Refuge was now able to receive much higher levels of funding from the new Welfare State to finance its activities, and the need to rely on charitable giving was much reduced. So it bought several properties to establish children's homes: Linden (1958), Lerryn (1960) Highlea (1963) and Lockhart House (1965). This provided young people with a more family-style atmosphere in the community. The empty homes left at Belmont were taken over by the Bethesda service in 1958. In 1960 the organisation changed its name to the Boys and Girls Welfare Society (BGWS).

1990 to present

Over the last twenty years the Together Trust has grown considerably, entering into areas that had previously been the work of local authorities. As well as continuing to look after children through residential placements the charity has also branched out into education, fostering and adoption. Bold investment in 1993 led to the opening of both Inscape House School and Bridge College, providing education for autistic children and older students with disabilities respectively. The Together Trust also ran CYCES, originally with Derbyshire LEA at Taxal Edge, Whaley Bridge and then by itself on the Cheadle site from 1994.  

The increase in the Together Trust's provision continued apace. Celebrations for the 125th anniversary introduced a new logo which proudly adorned the BGWS Centre as it opened in 1998 to accommodate the new Fostering service, training and many other activities. The family of around 50 care, support and special education services was completed when the Together Trust was approved as an Adoption Agency from 2003 until 2009. In 2005 the Society saw the need to establish a new identity for the organisation to better reflect its stakeholders, the services it provides and the environment it now operates in and changed its name to the ‘Together Trust’. Since then the Together Trust has become a registered domiciliary care agency to meet the growing demand for direct services in family homes.