Politics and Publicity

I've done two previous posts on the Co-operative Rose Queen and the magnificent landau, now I've found another. It is from 1936, and yet another Chorlton girl Hilda Omerod is the "Queen".

"Politics and publicity were oddly mixed in the mile-long procession of decorated cars and gaily dressed children which wound its way from Ardwick Green to Platt Fields in a mass demonstration for Co-operators' Day on Saturday."

The event was organised jointly by the M&S Co-op Society's Co-operative Party and the Manchester and District Co-operative Party. It took place on the first Saturday of July which is International Co-operative Day. It still is, the first one was in 1923.

The two-horse landau gets a mention...."once the carriage of the Lord Mayors of Manchester. The horses still wore the city arms in their harness, and 'they do enjoy following a good band,' said J. Railton, their coachman...

Besides the floats and the bands there were some political speeches, and two resolutions passed by the crowds listening. Once of them condemned the National Government for abandoning sanctions against Italy. These had been announced during the Second Italo-Abyssian War. That's one Mussolini had won in May, and Emperor Haile Selassie went into exile in Britain with the gold reserves. The National Government had a policy of appeasement of fascist dictators Mussolini, Hitler and later Franco.

Source : Manchester Guardian Monday July 6th 1936.
Picture : Eccles Co-operative Record August 1935 page 183. A horse drawn float from a previous International Co-operative Day pageant.

Related Posts :
Queen For The Season
Longford Park

Longford Park

In an earlier post about the Co-op Rose Queen there was a reference to "a magnificent landau" that the M&S Co-op used in the summer months. As can be seen in the photograph it was a very large impressive carriage. The picture says it was taken in Longford Park, Stretford in 1949. It actually looks like The Quadrant just outside the Firswood entrance to the park. Just look at the crowds lining the road. The young lass must have felt like royalty.

This leads on to Longford Park celebrating its centenary this year. A section of the park is in Chorlton and it has always been enjoyed by all nearby residents. The hall - sadly demolished after neglect by Trafford Council, and grounds used to be the residence of John (1801-1888) and Enriqueta Rylands (1843-1908). Very rich, multi-millionaire rich, he made his money in the cotton industry. The Longford estate of 62 acres was purchased by Stretford Urban District Council in 1911. It was opened by Harry Nuttall MP on Saturday 11th May 1912 with speeches, brass band, maypole dance and other entertainments.


There are some celebrations this year to the very day in May, and I've noticed Chris Makepeace the noted historian of Manchester is giving a talk.

Centenary celebrations : Friends of Longford Park
Related Post : Queen for the season

Queen for the season

Writing about a Rose Queen or in this case something similar a Co-operative Queen was not predicted. But it is surprising what turns up in the email inbox. A low-fi scan of a document called "Memories (are made of these)" from a fellow local historian Bernard Leach. He knows I like anything co-op related. A week or so later I spotted a well researched new exhibit at the People's History Museum featuring a dress and trimmings from a Co-operative Queen from the 1920's. So good was the dress that it was saved, re-styled and used as the wedding dress. Re-vamping clothes was a normal practice - as in the novels of Elizabeth Gaskell (1851) for example dramatised for Tv.

You immediately get its cultural significance. Now back to the document, it has a clear handwritten page from someone, Miss M. Dale who was such a local co-operative queen in 1937.

Youth Section

The British Federation of Co-operative Youth was a organisation for persons aged 15-24. It's long been defunct. Back in the 1940's and early 1950's there was a branch at Hardy Lane. There were at least two others in south Manchester at Didsbury and Wythenshawe. A notable local co-operator Walter Frost - later a Labour Councillor, and a Director of M&S Co-op started his co-operative career as a leader of these organisations.

It was never a major British youth movement with a large membership. It's timeline looks briefly like this :
1922 various local co-operative youth groups in existence across Britain were termed 'Comrades' Circles'. There was such a group at Barlow Moor around 1934.

1924 - the British Federation of Co-operative Youth (BFCY) was founded by young members as a national body with the purpose of organising and co-ordinating Circle activity.

1937 - Membership figures are available. Comrades' Circles possessed 8,000 members. Britain's largest youth organisations, the Boy Scouts had 448,396, the Girl Guides 581,000, and the Boys' Brigade 111,442, the Woodcraft Folk had 5,000.

1941 British Federation of Young Co-operators (BFYC) formed when the BFCY was wound up by the Co-operative Union.

Further reading :
Pleasure, Politics and Co-operative Youth: the interwar Co-operative Comrades' Circles
by Selina Todd in Journal of Co-operative Studies, September 1999, No.32.2