VINCENT FINN writes:

THE Co-operative movement was founded by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1859. It was basically a socialist based organisation.

Members formed community groups initially, until recently they were called societies, and opened shops in their neighbourhoods.

Co-op groups were formed in all cities, especially in the North, and initially the shops sold groceries. Societies were named for their area - Bradford and District Co-operative Society was one - others were called Co-operative Industrial Societies.

In Bradford they were named for their neighbourhoods; Great Horton Co-operative Society and Clayton Co-operative Society, are two examples. Co-op shops were built on a certain pattern. They usually had the date they were built cast into a headstone at the crown of the building. Even today, on former Co-op shops you can see the dated stone in the upper areas of the fronts.

The founding idea was that they were owned and run by and for members. To be a member you paid an initial ‘joining’ fee. When my parents joined the Co-op the fee was £1 and the membership fee was for a lifetime.

When you joined you were assigned a membership number. My family’s number was (33-647) - 33 was the number of ‘our shop’, on Gilpin Street, Bradford Moor, and 647 was our membership number.

The basic idea was that all the members would share in any profits that were earned by their local society. When you bought anything you were given a receipt; a small check stub, and a copy was kept at the store. Each quarter the profits for each local society were published, and you were given a proportion of the profits based on how much you’d spent in that quarter. At the end of each quarter the ‘dividends’ to be paid out by your society were advertised with a poster in the shop window. It might show this quarter dividend is 6d (sixpence in the pound) or 1/2d or whatever the posted dividend was to be. In this example, for each pound you’d spent in that quarter you earned 6d (sixpence), or whatever the posted ‘divi’ was to be.

When I was growing up it was my job to go to the Co-op. My mother would write down in a small order book what she wanted me to get and I went to the Co-op, which had a long counter. I gave the man behind it the order book and he went to the shelves to get the items. At the end of the counter was a desk, not unlike something from Dickens, he entered what you’d bought into a ledger, and give you a check for the purchase. It was the custom to ‘settle’ the bill on Friday night, since just about everybody got paid on Friday. Sometimes people carried a balance forward then cleared it when the ‘divi’ was paid.

As the Co-op movement grew there was a shop in just about every neighbourhood. There was a lot of competition in the grocery business. When I was growing up there were several chains in Bradford, including John S Driver, Maypole, Jesse Stevenson, Dewhirsts. Most Co-ops served all your shopping needs. In rationing years this was handy since you could register ration books at the Co-op and not travel to different shops.

Eventually all local societies merged into Bradford Co-operative Society. The Co-op for the most part manufactured their own products, from shoe polish to bakery goods. They had a wholesale greengrocery market in Hammerton Street, a laundry in Ushaw Street, off Wakefield Road, and a coal yard and eventually a wholesale distribution warehouse at Dudley Hill.

The main anchor store and head office was at the Emporium on Sunbridge Road and Godwin Street, where you could buy groceries, clothing, furniture, bedding, all in one building. In the 1960s my parents rented a black and white TV from the Co-op.

In the 60s the Co-op expanded into Co-op insurance, bank, funeral service came on the scene, in some of the newer shops chemist counters opened. The emporium had an extensive travel department. A relatively new trademark was coined in the 1980s - ‘Sunwin’ products. I think this name came from the Emporium in town which had been renamed Sunwin House. After the Bradford City Fire when the new stadium was rebuilt, the Co-operative group sponsored the Sunwin Stand.

The 1990s saw a whole set of mergers. All the Co-ops in Yorkshire became Yorkshire Co-op. Eventually the Yorkshire Co-op Group was merged with the Lancashire group under a new banner, with headquarters I think in Staffordshire.

The Co-operative movement became very active in politics and was represented at Labour Party conference. I believe the modern Labour Party was born from a conference in Bradford organised by Co-operative societies.

A couple of small items your readers might recall: Up to the 1950s shops delivered customers’ orders. Each shop had a bicycle, order were placed in the basket, and the shop boy, usually the most recent one hired, did the delivery.

Before rationing ended most commodities were stored in shops in bulk. Our Co-op had a huge block of butter, maybe 20lbs. and the person filling your order would cut a piece off with a wire cutter. That was when butter was available. It was the same with cheese and other items sold by weight. We were allowed margarine as part of fat rations, it was in half lb pieces and wrapped in paper with a Ministry of Food label. Sugar was kept in a barrel and placed in a blue bag. All items were weighed on scales.

The days of dividends and membership links are gone, and the Co-op movement has been restructured.

How many readers remember their local co-op shop? Did any of them work for the Co-op? What was their Co-op ‘number’? Can anyone identify a local Co-op that has been repurposed? What markings identify it as a former Co-op? Over to you...

Email emma.clayton@nqyne.co.uk