Co-Op Check Tin

So you stumble over some item for sale, puzzled by the object and curiosity wants answers. Said item is a co-operative check tin possibly from the 1920's. It's not made by a co-operative but is made for co-operative shoppers to keep little slips of paper safe. On paying for their purchases customers were given a small paper receipt with the amount spent and their membership number.

I suppose some would keep these safe and calculate if their dividend on purchases had been tallied correctly. I suspect not many could be that bothered and accepted the dividend listed by the co-op head office.

Nostalgic history forums always quote people who can still remember their divi number of the family. It was ingrained into memory at an early age, for ever, and is recited for life.

Metal boxes were given away to promote a company's products. Who doesn't like a bright useful tin to keep safe items and make homes tidy. This one came compliments of Hargreaves Brothers & Co. and maybe dates from the 1920's. It's four sides announced that you must remember to buy the following :- Linoleo Floor Polish, Gipsy Black Lead, Ocean Blue in squares & Bags, and Glosso Metal Polish. An age of coal powered grime and relentless cleaning. Note those brand names they end in the letter "O". As in Brasso, Silvo, Zeppo and so on.

Hargreaves Brothers and Co started as makers of black lead and metal polish in Gipsyville which is in Hull way back in 1868. When this tin was issued the company may have been taken over by Reckitts & Son in 1922. An even older Hull company, founded in 1840 that also made starch and cleaning products.

Whether any of these products were sold alongside the CWS own brand, can't say. You get the impression from co-op histories that only CWS goods were sold but that wasn't the case. Leading brands and own brands did stack side by side in the stores. It's that co-operative magazines and advertising promoted CWS products. Very likely Glosso was available at your local co-op.

Early Co-operatives Ancoats

Alright it's not Chorlton, we're still in Ancoats in the 1860's which is where the M&SE Co-op Society opened in 1859. Seventy years of expansion later they reached Hardy Lane.

Classified adverts in 19th Century newspapers are full of property transactions and from these you find parcels of land up for sale and how much rent was payable. By order of the trustees under the will of the late James Thompson four lots of property in Salford, Ardwick and Ancoats in Manchester went up for auction in May 1862. One lot took my eye as there was a co-operative store on the land. Also the Indigo Street Independent Chapel, schoolroom, butchers, the Royal Hen & Chickens Brewery and twenty five cottages.  Cottages is describing back to back one up one down small terrace houses. All packed into 1,750 square yards with the River Medlock as the northern boundary. If the census was checked we could find how many souls resided in this block.

It is a small area. A mere 20 per cent of a football pitch, about two penalty areas and the semi-circle in front of it. I've seen plenty of football pitches so have this area of land fixed in my mind - Old Trafford is 1.82 acres and City's pitch 1.84 acres. This plot of land is 0.36 acres. I doubt if there was a tree, garden or blade of grass in sight.

But what was the co-operative store? It wasn't the Equitable Society, and I think it is the Industrial Society. "The society commenced operations on a small scale in 1856, in Bridge Street" - report by Mr. H. R. Bayley the Secretary, at the 7th annual tea party of the Industrial Society at the Free Trade Hall. Can't be sure which Bridge Street in Manchester that was, there were several before streets were renamed in the 1960's to stop confusion with postal addresses. He goes on to say "another store had been erected in Stockport Road during the last year at a cost of £1,020. " - Manchester Courier Wednesday 1st February 1865.

"There was an earlier Manchester and Salford Industrial Society before 1859. It had a shop at 519, Ashton Old Road, Openshaw, and one in Ardwick, with a stone beehive over the door. The beehive was still there in 1878, but over a toffee shop." George Jacob Holyoake in his "History of Co-operation" Chapter 16.

Still can't be absolutely certain. Yet all this is typical of the start of modern consumer co-operation, that began with the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844. On grimy back streets, in sooty industrial cities. All this area has been swept away in slum clearance, the Mancunian Way was built nearby and a small industrial estate put in place.

Photo of Indigo Street, Gable of No. 18, m11739 taken in 1901 courtesey of Manchester City Libraries Image Collection.

Earlier post on Manchester & Salford Industrial Co-op Society - here.

Sanatogen Story

Late Sunday afternoon, in the Hardy Lane Co-op for some bits and bats shopping and spotted some Sanatogen wine. It had two faces (that's rows of bottles to you but in grocery school they are called faces 'cos they face the customer. Almost certain these are a new addition, albeit it might be a temporary one.

Tonic wines still enjoy some popularity. Buckfast is the most popular these days but mostly bought by those who want a cheap alcohol and caffeine hit. Wincarnis rarely seen in shops, is still available, and is one from the 19th Century. Originally back in 1881 it had meat extracts in it hence the name literally Wine-Carnis (from Latin for meat).

The display advert is from 1939, which makes it over 70 years old. Not the 50 years old as quoted all over the web. However Sanatogen as a powder in a bottle has been on sale since at least 1904. Sold by chemists a nerve tonic and pick-me-up. The active ingredient is Sodium Glycerophosphate - which in small quantities is reported to have health benefits. Mixing it with fortified British Wine (not English Wine) came later. British Wine is made from imported grape must, or grape juice concentrate and fermented here. It attracted less tax that imported wines from wine producing countries. It was thus cheaper, and its taste appealed to a British palate that liked heavy sweet sherries, ports and ginger wine - QC Cream, Enva Cream Sherry (actually the queen of Cyprus Sherry), and VP Cream are some examples.

Anyway passed on the 15% strength Sanatogen for the time being, and went for the Sainte Martha, a very quaffable Languedoc. A French red is more to my taste and the past purchases haven't failed to please.

Household Hints

Couldn't resist posting this. It's the simple appealing artwork in two colours. Putting a blue frock on a blue background and still achieving depth says something about how our brains interpret two dimensions.

The handy booklet for the home was issued by the Co-operative Wholesale Society around 1937. It has 50 pages and 16.5 cms x 10 cms ( 6.5 x 4 inches in size).

Obviously aimed at the busy female homemaker who spends her day in an apron and a neckerchief that wouldn't look out of place at a Soviet young pioneers meeting.

Prices Down Penny Savings

A style of advertising price cuts that appears puzzling in the modern 2012 age. The year is 1947 and such generic products as margarine and butter have been reduced by a couple of pence. It was an age of counting the pennies when a penny bought something. No mention of the brand or the actual selling price. Notice it is just the basics apart from the absence of tea, coffee and flour. The "Double Savings" is a reference to the "Divi" being the second saving.

Reference : M&S Co-operative Herald monthly magazines from 1947.

Co-Op Matchbox Labels

A whole series of pictures of matchbox labels was recently uploaded to Flickr by coophistorian as a contribution to Co-Ops Fortnight 2012.

They are a history of an everyday that barely exists in 2012. People don't need matches like they used to, and cheap disposable lighters came along for those who do need a flame.

In the recent past nearly everyone would have needed matches. Not just cigarette smokers, and pipe smokers needed more of them, but to start coal burning fires and ignite gas rings on the stove top. Plus you could do lots of puzzles and tedious party tricks with them.

Hence the marketing opportunity, and they didn't use terms like that, to advertise to your customers. Most of the matchboxes are for the CWS and the matches British Made. But there is a selection from long gone famous Co-Op Societies - e.g. Barnsley British, Brighton, Yorkshire, even Normid. Often these were made in Belgium. Products promoted include Federation Flour, Lutona Cocoa, Prescription Tea (forerunner of 99 tea) and some I'd never heard of like Purple Seal Margarine, Golden Ball Marmalade and Laundene that whisks the dirt away.

So the next time I went into the Co-Op shop I added a box to my purchases. Not that I needed any. But just to see what was was still available.  Price 18p for over 40 brown tipped safety matches in the traditional cardboard box. Made in EU by the Swedish Match Company (they merged with Bryant & May way back in 1926) to form the world's biggest match company. You get a nice illustration of the Ark though matches would have been hard to strike in the deluge. Bit disappointed they didn't say Co-Op.


Matchbox labels from coophistorian on Flickr as a Slideshow, or as a Set (there are some pictures of co-op stores that have snuck in).
Related earlier post Co-Op Matches

Royal Biscuit Tins

Whenever you have a royal event then biscuit manufacturers get the tins painted up for the occasion. The Diamond Jubilee follows in this tradition. Advertisement (left) is from this week's glossy leaflet from The Co-operative that arrived with the free newspaper. Sure enough they were on the shelves in the shop. Bit tempted by a McVities. Oh how we like McVities. I wonder if they were made at their factory over in Levenshulme?

Wind the clock back 59 years to the Coronation and you have CWS biscuits manufactured at both their Cardiff or Crumpsall works. A collectors item and that's without you seeing the reverse side with an image of a dashing Duke of Edinburgh.

Royal biscuits date back to at least Queen Victoria with Huntley & Palmer making the Osborne in 1860 named after the big royal house on the Isle of Wight. There may have been Jubilee biscuit tins in her time.

Carr's made "Coronation Biscuits" with a vanilla flavour for Edward VII in 1902, and Huntley & Palmer produced "Royal Sovereign" filled with apricot jam for George V in 1912.

Note the decent interval of a year from the death of the last monarch to baking biscuits for the new one. When it came to Edward VIII the souvenirs for the forthcoming Coronation were in the shops in 1936. As we know it didn't take place, and George VI got the crowning in 1937, and the biscuit tins were in the stores. The CWS got the production lines rolling for commemoratives too.

There was a Silver Jubilee for George V in 1935. Those on unemployment benefit, and there would be many without a job received a little extra shilling, and 2/6d for under 14 dependents to mark the occasion. There has been no mention of a little extra for this year's event. However biscuits featured in the parties. "A gift of 30,500 caskets of biscuits has been made by Sir Alexander Grant for distribution at Jubille celebrations throughout Edinburgh" - Manchester Guardian 20th April 1935.

From the Coronation in 1953 the souvenir bandwagon has increased for each wedding, and now the third jubilee even more....

Now if heritage biscuit tins are for you then may I suggest you check out British Biscuit Tins with a searchable database and colour photographs.

The other good link is the Facebook page of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. It is a trove of nostalgia. They have an exhibition ‘Jubilee, Jubilee’ which runs to 31st August 2012. Should you be in Notting Hill, London I recommend a visit, you won't be disappointed seeing the cornucopia of artifacts.

Windows to a new world

 By chance I came across some interesting display advertisements from 1950. They are line drawings for this is when photographic reproduction in newspapers was limited and so everything from cars, fridges and bread was by illustration. They are interesting because they are by Richard Hilder (1905-1993) a great painter, especially of landscapes. He also a top illustrator, the chap who produced those classics of the countryside for the Shell Oil Company in the 1930's. The open road, speed and the slogan "That's Shell -That Was!" 'cos the car is in the distant of the spectacular scenery.

So far I've found thirteen low-fidelity reproductions for a series entitled "Windows To A New World". It would be good to obtain better reproductions and let them be seen by a wider audience.

The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers store on Toad Lane is one of them. That looks like the Central Stores of the Society in the background and I don't think that building exists anymore. Fortunately some had the foresight to save the old store otherwise it would just be a blue plaque on the side of a car park. Another is the E&S CWS Tea Warehouse on the Manchester Ship Canal. It was opposite the Pomona Docks on the Salford side. That has been demolished and the docks too.

Others in the series include the Bradford Co-Op Emporium a wonderful art deco building, the CWS Flour Mill at the Royal Victoria Dock in London, a mobile shop in Penrith, and Co-op Tullygoonigan Creamery in Northern Ireland. It's like a Pevsner guide of 1950's Britain.

Each advert extols the virtues of the CWS production and gives a little bit of history. "The CWS produces in its own 194 factories almost every other commodity needed in the home. Britain's biggest business, it helps more than 10,000,000 Co-op members cut their cost of living."


Well the factories have gone but at least we still have a museum and it re-opens soon.

For some better versions with more detail see the same advertisements in Lilliput magazine from the same time. A couple of good posts on Visual Rants, which gives more information about these drawings.

Minerals as in pop

The advert is for J and B Mineral Waters by the veritable Manchester institution of Jewsbury and Brown who had their main factory and laboratories at Ardwick Green. It was a short walk around the corner to the M and S Equitable Co-Op's head office and central stores on Downing Street, Manchester. The Victorian building remains reduced to the three storeys from the glory of five storeys.

They sold aerated waters, colloquially we call it "pop", soda water, ginger beer and cordials throughout Lancashire. It merged into Schweppes in 1964. Their old bottles and other memorabilia are sought after by collectors of such ephemera.