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.

Major Emporiums 1959

The illustration shews the Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op major stores, that is they sold clothes and household goods besides food. It dates from 1959, the centenary of the Society. Hardy Lane doesn't feature for it is only a food store.

All this has now gone. The Co-Operative still has food stores in some of those locations, some in different buildings - Burnage, Knutsford, Stretford Gorse Hill, and Didsbury Village. The headquarters is now an industrial estate. The mobile shops long ceased travelling the south Manchester estates, the milk deliveries stopped possibly as late as the 1990's. The railway line running north-south to the left is now a successful metro tram service. The other railway line north-south right side now takes you to Manchester Airport.

I was checking an old telephone directory from 1959 and it listed seven M&SE shops with a Chorlton number. The prefix was CHO, nearby Stretford was LON presumably for Longford as in the big park in the that town. It could have been used in London but wasn't.

Here is the list :
Funerals 347 Barlow Moor Road CHO 4138, still trading next to Hardy Lane store.
Coal Sidings, Albany Road CHO 4947 - now a car park for Morrisons
Grocery & Drapery, 442 Barlow Moor Road - now a computer games shop and a bookmakers
Grocery, 14 Milton Grove CHO 1052 - now a driving test centre
Grocery & Butchers, 66 Beech Road CHO 1053 - now a gift shop and a restaurant
Grocery, 90 Warwick Road South CHO 1809 - now an independent convenience store
Grocery & Butchers, 349-351 Barlow Moor Road CHO 2115 - the Hardy Lane store

I always thought the coal sidings were private coal merchants but the local co-op had coal delivered there too. The picture of those sidings is from 1960 and is being used for other goods too. What was delivered in all those drums? Courtesy of Manchester City Libraries (number M18314) and their brilliant collection of archive online images. The illustration is from Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald Jubilee Souvenir 1959.

Co-Operate App

Essentially find a co-operative nearby with your mobile device. Yes, I downloaded it, and yes it came up lots of co-operatives in the vicinity and beyond. Just as it says in the write-up.

"Co-operate makes it easy for people to find co-operatives and mutuals across the UK. Whether they need food or phones, electricity or banking, Co-operate allows customers to download a better world on to their mobile phone."

Being a big fan of information at the fingertips this sort of thing appeals to me. Available for iPhone and Android and it is free. Hope the information will be kept up to date.
Details here.

Withington Road

It's been a long time to actually get down to Withington Road, Whalley Range, Manchester to see this revealed sign of the old Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-operative. Well yesterday I incorporated it into a trip to Alexandra Park nearby. That was to see a tree sculpture depicting Votes For Women and the WSPU. Around the corner on Deerpark Road is an apartment block called Roy Grainger Court. I'm presuming this is named after the late Roy who was active for many years in the Labour Party, West Didsbury Residents Association and a member of the Co-Operative Party. Another photo opportunity.

Back to the subject of the photo. The building dates from around 1928, and the shop has been restored and the old sign across the top revealed and protected by a transparent plastic sheet. Close up you can see the green tile work, and the black and white chess board tile flooring. The shop had an hall above being the meeting room for the Women's Guild, Co-Operative Party and other auxiliary organisations.

Hardy Lane store built a year later was to a lower budget construction. It omitted the lovely glazed green tile work, and ornate details of this solid building.

Should you wish for a closer inspection than visit this collection of eight photos on Flickr

Earlier post when the sign was revealed, it was back in 2009 - here.

Beech Road 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.



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.

Self Service 1950

Self Service was a retail format introduced into Britain from the USA around 1949. It came to Chorlton in the summer of 1950. In a long running programme the M and S Co-op rolled out the aisles and wire baskets to the branches. It took a further nine years for it appear at the Hardy Lane store.

These photos are in an article "Toasting Self Service", about the success of new way of shopping in the Chorlton branch. They are very likely have been photographed at the branch at 349-351 Barlow Moor Road. It was in the red brick building next to the Royal Oak. Quoting from the story...

When it was United

 
This photograph was taken in May 2004 when the store was still its original size, and a branch of United Co-operatives in their Late Shop format, read convenience store. The garden area and billboards are to the right now a car park and a side entrance. There are Labour election posters in the windows of the meeting rooms upstairs very likely from the local elections.

This is from Cooperative Stores on Flickr and if you like photographs of co-op shops and pack shots, that is pictures of products you would find on the shelves then click over there. It's a labour of love.

Oldest Business in Chorlton

Local historian Andrew Simpson has opened up a debate as to the oldest business in Chorlton. Alright there arn't many involved in the debate and they ain't going to fall out about it. All this was prompted by the relocation of H.T.Burt from Chorlton to Poynton recently. The men's fashion store was founded in 1895 and was featured in a Mary Portas Queen of Shops Tv programme in 2007.

The front runners were Ken Foster's Cycle Logic since 1954, then topped by Richardson's Bakery on Beech Road from 1947, and a serious contender R. Pepperdine & Sons, Funeral Directors on Manchester Rd which started in 1873 in Moss Side. But in the mix is the Hardy Lane Co-op Store from 1929. Now operated by The Co-operative after all the mergers that have reduced over a thousand co-operative societies down to a score or so. Should we include the public houses for the Horse & Jockey has a claim for serving ale on that site of Chorlton Green for 500 years?

Anyway you can read the original postings at Chorlton History, and you get a couple of pictures with them.

Oldest Business in Chorlton
The great debate? (part2)

A store in every district

Below is a list of branches from the M&SE Co-op in south Manchester back in 1951 (source Kelly's Street Directory but was probably compiled in 1950). It shows a network of small branches, though it isn't a network for the consumer. People used to shop local without the use of the car. Shop more often for a smaller basket, and had a lot less choice. Another point is how the districts they are in have changed in the last 50 years. Didsbury is no considered a much bigger area, as it improves the value of your house.

• Burnage                       Kingsway
• Brooks's Bar               23-35 Moss Lane West
• Chorlton-cum-Hardy   442-444 Barlow Moor Road (Hardy Lane store)
                                     66 Beech Road
                                     35 Stockton Road ( next to 66 Beech Road)
                                     90-92 Warwick Road South (in Stretford / Trafford)
                                     349-351 Barlow Moor Road (centre of Chorlton)
• Didsbury                     220-222 Fog Lane
                                     106-116 Wilmslow Road
• East Didsbury              476-480 Burnage Lane
                                     179 School Lane
                                     61-63 Ladybarn Lane
• West Didsbury            129 Burton Road
                                     36-38 Merseybank Avenue (Merseybank Estate)
• Whalley Range            14 Milton Grove
                                     98 Withington Road
• Withington                   164-166 Parrs Wood Road
                                     87 Wilmslow Road
                                     86-90 Mauldeth Road West

Also opened in 1929 #4

This was the Co-op store at Green End in Burnage. One of the seven opened in 1929, along with Hardy Lane. There is a photograph taken in 1929 in the Manchester Libraries image collection - here. The store is on the left of a large parade of shops. Now the parade faces a small roundabout but back then there were just tram tracks running along Burnage Lane.

Again there is a access to flat roof at the back of the shop. The address given is 476, 478 & 480 Burnage Lane in the Kelly's Street Directory for 1951.

Also opened in 1929 #3

Old Co-op Building Burnage
Originally uploaded by lorenzo23

There were seven new M&SE Co-ops opened in 1929. Only Hardy Lane has survived as a Co-op. The list of the seven and eventually I got around to Burnage to spot some of them. Now a small independant grocery store and newsagents - at least it is not boarded up and derelict. It's at the corner of Parrs Wood Road and Heyscroft Road.

It has the roof at the back you can walk out onto, as did Hardy Lane. It also has two satellite dishes. Click the picture for the bigger view.

Also Opened in 1929 # 2 - Warwick Road South

Notice the background

The photo looks like it was taken in the recent General Election, the one last May, those rosettes that are clue. However is the story is from today about the Labour Leadership campaign with Ed Milliband MP as one of the contenders. That's Hardy Lane Co-op in the background which is more the interest for this weblog.
Lucy rejoins the campaign trail from the South Manchester Reporter July 1st 2010.

Ladybarn Branch

Took a detour through Ladybarn in south Manchester. There are some great old buildings in the district and then there is this former M&SE Co-op branch on Ladybarn Lane dating from the 1920's. Until it closed, it held the meetings of Withington Co-operative Party from the 1930's until the store and hall were closed in the 1970's.

Withington Constituency Labour Party issued a ‘Year Book’ in March 1968. Year book is a bit of an exaggeration. It is a mere sixteen pages slightly bigger than A5 printed on a Roneo or Gestetner machine. A copy survives in Manchester Central Reference Library. It includes some Withington Divisional Co-operative Party details. The membership was approximately 10. The meetings were held on the 2nd Friday of the month in the Ladybarn Co-op Hall, Ladybarn Lane at 7.45pm. Chair - Mrs. Willoughby 41 Lindleywood Road: Secretary Miss H.F.Messenger 8 Westbourne Road (which is the side street by this Co-op store), and Treasurer Mrs. D.Crivat 245 Manley Road. Cost 1/- per year (shortly to rise to 2/6d). That year seven speakers were booked and there were two social events. Contact with the Labour Party was been maintained through Mr. J. Lilley, a sponsored candidate.

Had a trip to Salford Local History Library the other day. It's in the old Art Gallery next to the University. Small, comfortable and a friendly place to visit. One of the advantages of going is that it is never too busy. Another is that there is collection of Kelly's Street Directories that you can just pull of the shelf and browse. A bit battered but they do the job. The job was to see what other shops there were when the Co-op Stores opened in 1929.

Here is the answer:
Barlow Moor Road
343 Draper, Mrs. Margaret Duncan
345 Confectioner, George Smith
347 Florist, Joseph Cusick
349-351 Butchers and Grocers, M&SE Co-op
Here is Hardy Lane
355 Grocers, Brown & Clay
357 Confectioner, P Parker & Sons
359 Newsagent & Post Office, Mrs. Ethel Kelly
361 Draper, Mrs. Julia Fairbrother
363 Hardware, Mrs. Minnie Smith
365 Grocers, Mrs. Annie Forrest

Note there is no number 353. This has remained as an empty plot of land next to the Store and is now a car park for the Store. There was also no number 341, this site was built upon in the 1960's.

Funeral Directors

Next door to the Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms is a Funeral Directors shop - currently this is a firm called T.Broome though I'm told this is Co-operative Funeral Services trading under another name.

The picture is from the early 1950's when it was a branch of the Manchester & Salford Co-op Funeral department. Previously it is listed in street directories circa 1939 as a fruiterer.

The Seven of 1929

1929 is written in history books as the year of the Wall Street Crash. It was in late October. It was also the year when the Manchester & Salford Co-op opened a seven new stores. A new record for them. Here is a list of them, it includes Hardy Lane, and over the next few months I'll go and seek them out to see how they have fared over the last 80 years...

Ayres Road, Old Trafford - January 9th
Green End, Burnage - April 15th
Parrs Wood Road North, Burnage - June 15th (75th branch)
Warwick Road South, Firswood - June 22nd (77th branch)
Park Estate, West Timperley - September 21st (78th branch)
Hardy Lane, Chorlton - November 23rd (80th branch)
School Road, Sale - December 5th

Since found out the main Didsbury store on Wilmslow opened on Saturday 9th November - replacing the very small older store originally opened by the Didsbury & Barlow Moor Co-op Society (amalgamated with M&S Co-op 1901).

The numbering of the branches is taken from the story in the monthly M&S Co-op Herald and doesn't follow on correctly....mmmm.

The 1920's was a time of expansion for this co-op society. Year (new stores opened)
1920 (1), 1924 (4), 1925 (4), 1926 (4), 1927 (4), and 1928 (4). There were also some store closures which are harder to track.

Merseybank Co-op

Then and now photos invite scrutiny. The co-op store on Merseybank Avenue opened in 1931. Confusingly it was the 80th grocery branch of the M&S Co-op and so was Hardy Lane branch. Two stores must have closed between 1929 and 1931. In the older photograph the store is a stand alone building and the rest of the parade would have been added on later in matching materials. This was then the fourth co-op store in Chorlton. Was there a meeting room above the shop with an entrance through the narrow door on the left?

The modern picture was taken in 2007 by John Hacking. Another visit required to see what's happened since.

First Co-op Store in Chorlton

The Manchester & Salford Co-op opened its first store in Chorlton on Friday 24th March 1896 at 41 Wilbraham Road. "It is not the largest shop in the district, but it is quite equal in appearance to the best shop in Chorlton."
Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-op Society's Monthly Herald April 1896 Pg 1

The whole road was later re-numbered, so unsure where it was. That's until my old mate Andy sorted it all out with some old street directories. This is the building in a later guise as a Maypole Dairy store in 1959, and in 2009 as a betting shop. The M&S Co-op built a new store in 1900 just around the corner next to the Royal Oak public house. Now I always presumed this branch would have closed when the new store opened. But it is still listed in street directories until the 1909 editions. Which is a bit strange having two branches about 500 metres apart. A little more investigation needed to check this....The Hardy Lane store was the third store opened in the district.

Further reading : Maypole Dairies by David Clare

Refurbishment

After being closed for weeks the new enlarged Hardy Lane store opened on Saturday 15th November 2008. Now it has extended out the back the square footage of the sales area has doubled and consequently so did the sales. The meeting room is still be same size, and still features one of the steepest staircases in Manchester.

Warwick Road South

Opened on June 22nd, 1929 - three months before the Hardy Lane store was opened. It's in a similar style, or at least with similar brick and roof tiles. This is how it looks today - literally took the photo today. The store and its hall closed long ago, and some of the windows have been replaced. Situated at 90-92 Warwick Road South, Firswood, Manchester.