Tribune Archive

Over the years I've subscribed to many a left-ish magazine for a year or so. Some are still around New Statesman, Tribune and Red Pepper. Some have disappeared from the newsstands - Labour Weekly, New Socialist and others I don't recall.

Anyway there is a great archive of articles from The Tribune 1937-2011. It's every political battle for over 60 years. It is searchable, and as ever I put in the word "co-operation". The returns run into hundreds. Everything from Co-operative Party Conference reports, the need for mergers, and the links with the Labour Party. You might prefer the landmarks of Pearl Harbour, Miners Strike, Berlin Wall or the Tet Offensive. It's all there with those typos that come from digitizing print media to e-media.

There is a whole series "At the sign of the Wheatsheaf" which runs throughout the 1950's and 60's - one of those editorial advertisement features about current topics with a plug for CWS products. You'll need the link. Here it is : archive tribune.

Co-Op Farms

The Co-operative magazine for all members arrived yesterday. I think it is published quarterly. An easy light read of recipes, offers, and travel. This one had an informative article about Co-operative Farms, all 50,000 acres of them.

I was surprised that the biggest crop was wheat. Also that half the rapeseed crop is used for bio-fuel to heat the head office in Manchester. How long has this been going on?

This is big scale agriculture but it was interesting to see where the produce that is clearly labelled British in the Co-operatives 2,801 stores.

Pictures are from the magazine, and as ever they have been uploaded to Flickr.

Sauces of Empire

If there ever was a sauce of the Empire it would have to be Lea & Perrins Worcester Sauce, born in that town in 1837. It has the ingredients of Empire - sugar, molasses and tamarind. Though most people in Britain wouldn't know what tamarind looks like or that comes from India. But they've certainly tasted it for it also in the biggest brand of table sauce - HP Sauce. House of Parliament on the label, a favourite of Prime Minister Harold Wilson and now made in the Netherlands. That says what happened to Empire. It was overtaken by global capitalism and multi-nationals.

The picture is of TT sauce made by the CWS. It was around in the time of WWI, maybe even later. Now the Empire is shown on the hemispheres with the Dominions, the Raj and a colony. Not the East African acquisitions of Rhodesia, Uganda, Kenya etc. Ceylon isn't even on the map.

There were lots of sauces in bottles and usually they had two initials for their name. The CWS also had one called JP Sauce which carried on until at least the late 1950's. Unfortunately I've only got this bad reproduction of a TT Sauce label and no ingredient list. I have a theory why bottles of sauce have always been popular. It goes bland food, and making your own sauce for your meal is a step too far in skill or time. So reach for the bottle and liven up your plate with a consistent condiment.

This was No.6 in the Foods of Empire Series at the Co-Op.

Pop Up Demo

Usually it is history posts but I was passing by and hurriedly snatched some photos of a demonstration outside the Hardy Lane Co-Op store. By the time I returned after completing whatever it was I was doing elsewhere there was all quiet again. No evidence of any demonstration.

So what was it all about? Why were Unite members outside a branch of The Co-operative around midday on a Monday? But then I spotted an A5 small white sheet of paper on the floor. The other side revealed all....

There is a dispute in Bootle. MMP (Mayr-Melnhof Packaging) have locked out and sacked all their workers. Can you believe lock-outs, it's like the 1920's returned..what happened to rights under law?

What does Unite want?
"For the Co-Op to honour its commitments under the ETI Base Code and intervene to ensure that MMP respect the rights of its British workforce and return to the negotiating table in good faith." That's what the leaflet stated.

Origins of M&S

The story of a meeting by the young men of the Roby Brotherhood on Christmas Day 1858 is given as the start of the Manchester & Salford Equitable Co-operative. I quite like this artists impression of one of their meeting made 100 years later. But deep down you know it paints a myth of how it was.

The chaps were mostly in their late twenties and early thirties. Working men, young dads, who attended the Roby Chapel, a noted Congregationalist Church and Sunday School in Manchester founded by William Roby. They would have worked six days a week, so a Saturday off work for Christmas Day would have been most welcome. Though they would have lost a days wages. They met at a small house at 22 Pump Street, Manchester set amongst  mills, workshops and ironworks. Across London Road would have been a new railway station for Manchester (the one now called Piccadilly). Pump Street and most of this area was redeveloped at the start of the 20th Century when Whitworth Street and grander buildings were constructed. The old fire station was built on the site of Pump Street.

If you've ever organised a meeting then you'll know the getting enough seating is the first priority. You couldn't imagine a long table and lots of matching chairs like some upper middle class dinner party. Well not in small terraced abode on narrow cobbled street. The room would have been packed.

Anyway they decided to form a co-operative on the lines of the Pioneers of Rochdale who had already been successfully trading for 15 years. They would rent a shop and when they had raised £100 and had 100 members it would open. Six months later that plan came to fruition. On the 4th June 1859 the shop opened at 168 Great Ancoats Street.

Cookbook of Empire

I was given a tattered copy of a small book "A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes" many years ago. Written by Charles Elme Francatelli back in 1852. For me it was a mere curiosity not being my style of cuisine. It is not an original but a 1978 reprint, and subsequent reprints you can still purchase. However the other week I came across the following...
"In January 1860 T. B. Potter Esq. M.P. presented 1,500 of Francatelli's cookery books for distribution amongst the members."

A generous gift to the M&SE Co-op from the radical politician and member for Rochdale, who would be well known to the directors of the Society. They shared the same politics of support for the Union cause in the American Civil War with the Union & Emancipation Society, and support for Garibaldi, a hero to radicals all over the world. Burning topics of the day.

Though Mr. Francatelli made his living and reputation as a chef for the toffs it was practical cookery books for the lower classes that he is remembered for. Those with an interest in improvement and ability for self-help might have found them useful. Recipes for a pie of small birds, or cooking oysters when those creatures were plentiful are included. How to cook potatoes in several styles covers some of the basics. Over a full page is given over to the humble haricot.

Besides the recipes it starts with what kitchen equipment to purchase. Those Victorians had to be content with a black cooking range with an oven next to a coal fire. Smoke, ash and no thermostats. A contrast to the current times when people have the best kitchens in the whole of human history but rely on ready made sauces and takeaways. Cooking from scratch ingredients is a minority activity, back then it was a neccessity. The values of economy and no waste still hold good today, even if the vegetables are boiled to almost mush. 

I'm going to use one of the recipes. It's long overdue. Some interesing biscuits called "Ginger Nuts". They are shaped like walnuts, and ginger was a popular spice in the days of Empire...

References :

Wikipedia entry for Charles Francatelli
Free e-book version
Manchester & Salford Co-operative Herald 1909 page 153

Guilds in the 1970's

Previous posts have told about activities of the Barlow Moor Mixed Guild, founded in 1931. The year of formation of organisations is recorded and celebrated with birthdays but the decline and dissolution is rarely written about. They fade and are no longer mentioned.

In the Norwest Members Handbook 1975-76 there is no mention of the Barlow Moor members meeting at Hardy Lane. However Didsbury Guild, a mixed guild for both men and women and affiliated to the National Guild of Co-Operators are holding their meetings at Hardy Lane.

So here are list of the remaining guilds :
Women's Guilds
Ashton-on-Mersey, Cheadle, Knutsford, Ladybarn, Stockport, Stretford (meeting at Taylor's Road, Gorse Hill), and Yew Tree. That's seven.

National Guild of Co-Operators (mixed guilds)
Didsbury, Heaton Moor, Hyde, Offerton, Old Trafford & Firswood (meeting at St.John's Lesser Hall, Ayres Road), Woodhouse Park, and Wythenshawe. That's also seven.

Also listed in the booklet is the Norwest Co-Op Young Wives Group in Hattersley. Then there are two Woodcraft Folk groups in Chorlton. The Elfins 6-9 years meet at Chorlton C of E School, and the Pioneers 10-13 years are at Hardy Lane on a Monday night.

For the seniors there was a Norwest Over 60's Club at Hardy Lane on a Tuesday at 1430h.

In 2011 only a small Wythenshawe Guild remained with 18 registered members. The nearest Women's Guild is in Runcorn. Woodcraft Folk carry on and the South Manchester Members Group now fulfil what would have been guild activity.

Links :
Co-operative Women's Guild

WCML Visit

Made an appointed visit to the Working Class Movement Library at 51 The Crescent in Salford. Have this journey well organised now. Tram from Chorlton to Deansgate, cross the bridge to the rail station, then catch a train just one stop to Salford Crescent. Coming back took train to Manchester Victoria, cross over to the tram to Chorlton. Not bad for a £3.20 rail zone one ticket.

The stuff I wanted to look at was waiting on the table. They have a lot more than they mention in the online catalogue. Browsed away for a couple of hours, snapping away with the camera instead of making copious notes.

Best bit was a centenary issue of the Herald magazine of the M&SE Co-Op published in 1959. Though I've concentrated on the Manchester & Salford because it is more interesting and further back in time the fact is the Hardy Lane store has been operated for longer under successor  societies. Norwest Co-Op took over in 1970 when the M&SE merged with the Pennine society and the Stockport society. Further mergers brought the Norwest Pioneers, United Norwest, then United and finally The Co-Operative.