Norwest in Green and Yellow

Found this old Directors' Report from 1987 whilst rummaging through a pile of old papers. Why do we keep this old stuff? Things get put away and dumped into a junk room. Mine is a veritable trove of old ephemera, uncatalogued and piled in boxes.

Notice the green and yellow colour which was adopted by the Norwest Co-Op Society. The photograph doesn't do the yellow any favours it is really a strong canary yellow on paper. There is a list of all the members' half yearly meetings and there are 14 of them. There was one at Hardy Lane on Wednesday 21st October 1987 at 7.30pm and three others elsewhere on the same night. The Directors' and the people on the Members Relations Committee had to spread themselves across Greater Manchester over four different nights.

In the Member Relations Committee report the Woodcraft Folk, and the Norwest Co-Op New Mills Band are doing well. That band is still going after 200 years which is some achievement and have published some of their history in a book and still has The Co-Operative as a sponsor....website. However the demise of the Stretford branch of the Co-Operative Women's Guild was reported due to a decline in membership.

Turnover was over 77 million GBP, an increase of 630 thousand. Now I've kept this old bit of paper it would be a shame to throw it away. Or would it?

Tea Trolley rolls in

On recent visit to a meeting at the Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms managed to photograph the old tea trolley. It is one of the relics that has survived all the refurbishments of the premises over the years. Can't put a date on it but don't expect it to fetch much money in an antique auction. Some things survive and this has probably because it is not a fixture or fitting. Next time I'll inspect the underside for clues about its manufacture.

Actually seen it many times but paid it no heed until someone regaled a story of how it would be wheeled into the main room bearing a big tea pot and white cups and thus uplifting a dull and ponderous meeting. A nice refreshing brew and a break. That trolley has a history.

Fortunately the meeting this time wasn't dull. It was a history presentation by local historian Andrew Simpson. It was under the auspices of Withington Co-Operative Party and so had a local political theme. Going back to the 1832 General Election and forward to the contemporary political landscape with a nod to Chartism, Clarion, Peterloo and the Moss Side bye election of 1973.

As a nice touch one lucky person in the room won a copy of "The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy" written by the speaker. It has recently been published by The History Press. The rest of us had the opportunity to buy one and insist on a signed copy.

The tea trolley was rolled back into the kitchen, the post meeting social chatter followed and eventually everyone went home or to the pub.

Victory Year Co-Op Day

The first Saturday of July has been International Co-operators Day since 1923. Sometimes it is marked with events, in more recent years a family fun day in Morcambe, though i do remember a big event in The Lowry and in front of it a few years ago. Picture is for the 1945 celebrations in Wythenshawe Park which was also used as a Victory Celebration. All the usual timetable of events with speeches, children's sports and brass band.

Note the presenter of the prizes was to be Councillor Alf Robens who would have just been elected MP for Wansbeck, Northumberland two days earlier. Alf was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1910 and is best remembered for his days as Chairman of the National Coal Board (1960-1971).

The official opening was to be conducted by Councillor Elizabeth Yarwood, a Labour & Co-operative Party member, later to become a director of the Manchester & Salford Co-op, Lord Mayor of Manchester and awarded a Damehood in 1967.There is an Elizabeth Slinger Court, an appartement block in Wythenshawe. One year you are opening a festival in the park and thirty years later they name a nearby building after you.

There is a lot of history attached to the CWS (Manchester) Band which started out as the Tobacco Factory band but this is outside my field.

Local Members Meeting

Just to prove there were Members Meetings at Hardy Lane I found a notice in a Norwest Co-Op magazine from 1987. I might even been to it. We used to drift along to take a seat. Immediately the big concern was would the meeting be quorate. Can't remember what the quorum was but it might have been twenty members. Failure to obtain a quorum could result in the hall upstairs being removed from the schedule next time around.

At the top table would be the men and women from the various committees. You'd get a finance report which could either be brief and informative, or tedious references for you to look at the figures on page 23, page 29, page 36 & etc.

Then came the voting by either a show of a card, or a secret ballot into a sealed black box. All above board democratic stuff. Even at the time they were not very memorable but there used to be a sprinkling of older members who no doubt had been trooping down here for thirty odd years. Most of the others were involved with Woodcraft Folk who wanted repairs or a new coat of paint for the Hardy Lane Co-Operative Hall. I think there was a free raffle, and it was a prize of groceries or a voucher which made it a good evening when you won.

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.

Back to the Railway Arch

Underneath this arch there was a conference to form the CWS that met on a snowy Christmas Day in 1860. The story is in a previous post. The arches are there, the temperance hall in one of them has been replaced by a motor repair business. There is no blue plaque that highlights the event. The other places where other conferences were held to form a wholesale society have been demolished. The public hall in Ancoats, and the Jumbo Farm in Middleton.

What you are looking at is Hewitt Street, Manchester with a railway viaduct between Oxford Road Station and Deansgate Station. Should you ever be meandering up there the arch is just before Rowendale Street (used to be called Rowe Street) as you walk eastwards towards City Road. Top photograph is from "The story of the C.W.S.; the jubilee history of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, 1863-1913" by Percy Redfern and dates from around 1912. It is available at the Archives.Org

Under the Railway Arch

There was a meeting to form a co-operative wholesale society in a railway arch. I don't think any of the 50 or 60 delegates had top hats though, as illustrated here. Definitely not the attire for a working man. Muddy marshes of the Irwell river - had they never seen the brown-grey depressing trench of water that snakes its way tp fprm a boundary to the city. Oh how they stylise history back then 60 years ago and today.

The arch is on Hewlitt Street, Manchester under the railway line between Oxford Road and Deansgate. Built in 1849 as the Altrincham & South Junction Railway. Back then it was a temperance hall warmed with a smokey stove, and probably lit by oil lamps. In the 1870 street directory 89 Hewlitt Street was occupied by the British Workman Total Abstinence Society, but another organisation may have been there in 1860. There were plenty of temperance societies in Manchester in those times. Plenty of pubs doing a good trade too.

"It was a heroic way to spend Christmas. The conference was called for two o'clock and six o'clock pm on a day when trains ran as on Sundays, and at a period when a third class railway journey from Manchester to Halifax occupied at least three or four hours".

Sources : CWS Display Advert 1951. Quote from "The story of the C.W.S.; the jubilee history of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, 1863-1913" by Percy Redfern. It is available at the Archives.Org

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.

CP Meeting for Evacuation 1939

Picking up research again after a few months break.......it reveals a Communist Party public meeting at Hardy Lane Co-Op Rooms. It was back in April 1939. The Manchester Guardian gives a report of well-attended meeting on April 23rd. 'Miss May Ainley, the principle speaker, condemned the present evacuation proposals of the National Government as a scheme "still up in the air"..'. It was printed in a small column on page 5. There was concern as to where the children of Chorlton would be sent to in the event of a war. Five months later the evacuation did take place.

This is a departure from the usual hire of the hall to an organisation that wasn't a co-operative auxillery group or the Labour Party. No further details of anymore meetings of the Communist Party, or which branch, as yet.