Pioneers Display

To promote the newly refurbished Rochdale Pioneers Museum there is a display of photographs with text at the Unicorn Co-Operative Grocery store in Chorlton.

It captures scenes from Toad Lane through the ages. The Pioneers only traded from this store for 23 years but it has become the shrine to the birthplace of co-operation.

You can probably give credit to George Jacob Holyoake for immortalising the Pioneers struggle and achievements with a book in 1857.

Fortunately the Co-operative Union had the foresight back around 1925 to buy the property when it was a pet shop and turn it into a museum.

Since then the story has been the subject of two films, in 1944 and 2012, several books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles.

Anyway it is a good display and many of the photographs will be new to a lot of people. A good example of co-operation between co-operatives.

Co-operative Graphic Novel

As it is International Year of Co-operatives a graphic novel has been, or is about to be released with the title being "The Co-operative Revolution". I've just acquired it, so am still reading it. The thing with graphic novels is you want to dwell over the pages and take in the artwork. Try to spot any quirky little doodles in the frames. "This graphic novel from master artist Polyp illustrates the history and enduring appeal of the co-operative movement" says the press release. It does.

It has four chapters - Yesterday, Today, Always and Tomorrow. Plus you get a potted timeline of events at the end. What you need to know - it starts with the Rochdale Pioneers, it goes into spaceships to Mars. It has 80 pages in colour. Full price £5.99. Published by New Internationalist on behalf of The Co-operative Group. It's the work of Polyp, a charming and amusing chap with a distinctive drawing style. He lives in Manchester. I'm going to enjoy finishing it, just need to make some quiet reading time.

ISBN is 978178026082. More Info here.

Early Manchester Co-operatives

What could have been on the mind of those co-operators starting with a shop on Great Ancoats Street back in 1859 was the number previous ventures in collective enterprise that had struggled in their trading.

We know about these early co-operative stores through the writings of J.M. Ludlow (John Malcolm) who made a tour of Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1850. He was a barrister in London and a central figure in the Christian Socialists. These chaps were inspired by the co-operative producers in France and the Chartists and the most noted of them was Charles Kingsley, who wrote under the pen name of Parson's Lot and became famous with a books called "The Water Babies" and "Alton Locke".

Though J.M.Ludlow favoured producer co-operatives over consumer co-operatives his reports tracked down several Societies retailing in Manchester and Salford. G.D.H. Cole writing "The Century of Co-operation" in 1944 is a touch scathing about him thinking co-operative principles were in a few people making hats together rather than members owning shops and paying dividend.

• Jersey Street Co-Operative Society, three stores and a bakery in Ancoats.
• Garrett Road Industrial, a co-operative store in Miles Platting
• Hudson Street, Salford, a co-operative store
• Harpurhey, a new co-op society
• Dyers' Trade Union, two stores, though he disapproved, holding them devoid of true co-operative principles
• Central Co-operative Agency, a branch at 13 Swan Street.
• Garden Lane, Salford, a co-op store and manufacturing with looms for some of its members.

There were others. The historian today trawls through online digitized newspapers looking for entries and finds a Chartist Co-operative Store in Hulme, or a case of embezzlement at the Flixton Co-operative and that's a small village west of Manchester near the River Irwell. The young Ludlow would be making enquiries in the terraced house districts of industrial Manchester for a small business run on co-operative principles.

In 1851 there was a Co-operative Conference in Bury in the April with 44 north of England co-ops attending, with 80 delegates, most of them from stores rather than workshops. Later in September there was a meeting of Associative Labour in Manchester with trade unionists, co-operators and sympathisers. The Rochdale Pioneers attended both meetings.

Small organisations only get their history written about if they survive long enough and grow big enough. Who knows anything about the Manchester Equitable Pioneers Co-operative attending the Bury conference? What happened to the Jersey Street Co-operative? Then the oldest in Manchester said their delegate Mr. Knight. "It started by offering 10s. shares (50p) with about 80 or 90 taken up. A capital of £400 and business of £120 weekly."

The success of the Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op wasn't assured when they started in 1859 but would have learnt that lack of capital and not attracting members would mean ultimate demise.

Photograph courtsey of Manchester Libraries Image Collection. It is Jersey Street in 1967, m10166, and looks like it hadn't changed since the start of the century. Don't know which building on Jersey Street was occupied by a co-operative store.

Membership still a quid

It costs just £1 (1 GBP) to join a consumer co-op. Unchanged for nearly 170 years. By today's values the original 28 Rochdale Pioneers (1844), or the 100 members to form the Manchester & Salford Equitable (1859) would have had to find £78 (78 GBP) to join their Society. Joining in 1929, when the Hardy Lane Co-Op store opened, the cost in today's money would be a little over £49 (49 GBP).

Then, as now the money can be withdrawn. Well it used to be but I've not checked recently. It also entitled you to a dividend on purchases. The M&SE in its early years also used to pay a dividend to non-members but at half the rate of members.

In the photographs is the application form to join the Norwest Co-Operative from around the mid-1980's. There was no dividend after the dividend stamps scheme ceased. The value of £1 then is equivalent to £2.37 in 2012.

You can join The Co-Operative online and you don't even have to send off £1 for it is deducted from your first dividend.

Civic Pride

Manchester Civic Week was 2nd - 9th October 1926. It featured a pageant through to Albert Square, concerts and you could visit factories in Trafford Park to see how products were produced. A full programme of pride and propaganda. The "Manchester Guardian" had a supplement and this is a colour advert from it.

This advert shows four co-operative societies that traded within the boundaries of the city - Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-operative Society, the Failsworth Industrial Society, Beswick Co-operative Society and the Blackley Co-operative Society. Just over the city limits would be the Prestwich, Eccles Provident, Pendleton, two Oldham societies, Bury, two Rochdale societies and etc.

Co-op Societies were fiercely independent, accountable to their local membership. The downside was they overlapped, and the Beswick opened stores in M&SE territory. Eventually the local strength proved to be a weakness when the multiples got their act together in the 1950's and had stores across the regions of England and with mergers and takeovers became national players.

There is all the symbolism of the sun's rays, a banner being hoisted by strong men above the Manchester coat of arms. The observant will notice that the ship only has two sails, currently it has three and in earlier 19th Century styles it came in full rigging of about 15 sales.

The quote is by George Jacob Holyoake and is a shortened version from which appears in his "The history of co-operation in England: its literature and its advocates" published in 1875.

There is some great silent newsreel footage shot of the parade into Albert Square, Manchester. Stealing the show is the visit by Sir Alan Cobham who was a celebrated air pioneer. Silent footage and copyright restricted but you can view it here.

Photo credits : Mickey Ashworth Flickr Photos

George Jacob Holyoake's book is in the Internet Archive. The quote is on page 5