Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Beech Road Co-op

Old Step M&S Co-op
There used to be a M&SE Co-op store on Beech Road, Chorlton. Try as I might I have never found a photograph of it. Even Andrew Simpson with his weblog of Chorlton history hasn't discovered one yet, and he has a knack of acquiring long forgotten postcards and old photographs.

The shop opened around 1915 or 1916. It is in the Street Directory for 1916. A butchers opened some years later around the corner. By 1967 they were gone. So in that 50 years it must have been captured on camera.

All we have to remind us is the mosaic step at the entrance to 64 Beech Road. The familiar green and white of the Society.

64 Beech Road Chorlton

The upstairs was used as Co-op Meeting room for social functions, Womens Guild, talks and such like. Very likely the entrance was on Stockton Road. Previous to its co-op days it was also a grocery store with the proprietor Nathianal Burrows.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think that Nathaniel Burrows shop was in the building at the other end of this little run of shops... Was Chorlton Whole Foods and is now a beauty shop. Nathaniel was my friends great great grandfather and he has a photo of the shop in 1910 and it definitely wasn't the old Loop shop. My friend says that the address was 64 Beech Road which is backed up in 1911 census. Could they have moved into the Loop shop between 1911 and the date that the Coop opened?

You can email : coop AT biffadigital.org with any information that will help in the making of this history.