Our group still continues to meet at the Into Newcastle Cafe which is not only a pleasant venue but the hot drinks and meals are very reasonably priced. Unfortunately I am a little bit behind with the blog as I can not attend the meetings at the moment due to treatment which I am having. The group still continues with discussions on local history with many projects being talked about. One of the things that we mention in the past was recording some of recollections of recent local history and I encourage you to submit your impressions and memories for all of our benefit.. To continue on our little journey here are some impressions and memories about the Co-op.
In Wallsend
Reflections by Jean and Ken Smith they describe the Wallsend Industrial Co-op
as one of the towns largest businesses. Originally (1862) converted from two
rooms into a shop in Carville Road. It
had a large window and a door big enough to allow a cask of sugar to be rolled
in. It continued to expand both sides of Carville road until it met Frank
Street and Warwick Street. On Warwick street there was an arch that led to the
stables; remembered by Joan Smart who recalls seeing horse and carts going in
and out. She also remembers that you could buy almost anything there, it had
quite a few departments, hardware, confectionery, a fruit shop, a dairy, a
Taylor, dressmaking, millinery and a cobblers. On the rear end of Warwick
Street it had its own slaughterhouse. Marion Coulson remembers after the second
world war a furniture and Jewellers was added. She also recalls her mother saying 'Don't forget to bring my
cheque back' , meaning the dividend record which took in account of your purchases and could be used
to redeem a quarterly share of the Society's profits.
An interesting
article on English co-operative society movement to improve education can be
found here
Wallsend's Co-operative School
Event date(s)
1 November 1871 to 6
August 1875
I remember the Co-op
at the Stamfordham road junction with
Springfield road and Silver Lonnen. The building which is still there was an
odd shaped octagonal like structure of two
floors. The ground floor reflected the
octagonal structure by enabling all of the various vendors, Butchers, bakers,
grocers, fish mongers etc to be in presented in a semicircle fashion. I seem to
remember sawdust being on the floor. Everyone had their own unique dividend
number and book. Many people now can even remember their number.
Ian remembers the
Co-op:
From a personal view, I remember that as a youngster we used to buy
stuff from the Co-op. As a result, I have a memory of our Co-op divi number
being 247777 which was the number you quoted whenever you bought things from
the Co-op. I also remember going upstairs in the Co-op in Newgate
Street, to have your Divi book updated. Because we had our milk delivered by
the Co-op dairies you used to buy plastic milk tokens from the coop that you
placed in a metal container
that was then
attached to your empty milk bottles.
Another piece of
social history that you do not see nowadays, is the use of shop produced
currency.
Specifically, I can
remember that there was a chain of shops in the North East that included such
shops as Parrish's in Byker, Joplings of Sunderland and Shepherds of
Gateshead. They produced their own currency that you could use in their stores.
I suspect it was an
early implementation of Hire Purchase as you could get cheques and coins from
the store and I was aware that some people would sell them at discounted
prices to convert them back into cash.
Iris also remembers
her local Co-op:
Haven’t many
memories of it other than it being perhaps a bit bigger than ordinary shops a
precursor to supermarkets perhaps. Ours was in Sandyford and died a bit when
the Hadrian came to Sandyford. Now there’s an old shop name eh?
Mam didn’t send me
messages because even before the brain damage my memory was crossed with
a colander anyway. She’d send me up the very steep hill from Jesmond
Vale, down by the Blue Bell (not so steep in a car, but try walking it) to buy
sugar and I’d come back with lucknow sauce, or a loaf of bread freshly baked
and with corner crusts nibbled off before I got home. (another clip along the
ear).
She sent me more
after she forgot my baby brother and left him in the spuds. Remember when
they were in a wooden sloped container, or at least the sides were cut that way
and heaped with veg. The spuds in this case and my 0bviously tired mam had laid
my very small baby brother in amongst them to pay for her groceries and pack
her bag which of course, we all had to queue for and then gone home leaving by
very tiny baby in the spuds. When she realised a good few minutes after getting
home and dashed back up the very steep bank (particularly when you had a bad
hip as mam had and walked with a limp) she was greeted by very straight faced,
baby consoling assistant who obviously didn’t know the depth of exhaustion
broken nights can bring. She claimed her son and red faced returned home. Too
mortified to go there much any more.
You used to buy the
sugar in blue bags didn’t you? And the butter in big chopped off bits from a
barrel which left the butter in a barrel shape. We all knew the divi
number. My mams being 26868 Bob knew half a dozen old byker grannies divi
numbers due to going messages. Probably in the hopes of a 2p tip. Lol. He
always was a good shopper. I remember mam used to go yearly to join
an enormous crush at the Co-op building next to St Andrews church, to get her
divi? It was a way of saving up really and women seemed to get much more than
the pittance Morrisons and these likes give you nowadays.
All I will say is
the staff were friendly and attentive unlike today’s where they finish their
chat about the night out with their fellow assistants, no matter how long the
queue waiting to be served and there appears to be a really poor set up in my
local Co-op, so bad that I never go there.
My mam was a hard
woman but she never made me do shopping other than out of necessity nor chores
around the home, saying she was used as a slave and wouldn’t make me be one,
though mind, I had to do my own washing by the time I was 14. Mam
couldn’t cook so I don’t think she was used as a slave that much. Dad who was
loyal to a fault would only raise an eyebrow my way when she did the
“poor me” thing.
She was the last of
11 children and always said “I wasn’t wanted”… well Aye! Not a lot of folk are
thrilled with child no.11 I imagine. Perhaps she was requested to help her mum
out a bit.
I wish I could think
of something re Co-op, sadly, nothing. I think mam only went if stuck for
food, considering the local greengrocers cheaper and better. No
unnecessary plastic wrapping though, everything loose into your net bag which
stretched to hold everything. I often wonder why they have not come back
into fashion because they were light and held a copious amount. I mean it could
be work for foreign nations making net bags couldn’t it and they can be
scrunched into your pocket and take less room that the hession affairs we now
use or the nylon ones. The nylon ones fold small but don’t stretch to hold
anything like the net bags. I remember you got a little bus ticket
affair divi ticket. No idea whether these were to be saved to prove your
dividend, have you? Can you remember YOUR mams divi no?
