[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Taggy

It would be interesting to know how many co-op businesses there were in this area, and indeed throughout Lanc/Yorks!...My Mum used to work on the Millinery Counter at the Co-Op on Abbey Street..the one that had the Stuffed Bear in it! I still recall collecting those little blue stamps!


Best Regards - Taggy

To start you off, there was the main one that occupied most of the top end of Warner St, with branches on Higher Antley St, Nuttall St, Co-op Joiners in Birtwistle St, there was also the Co-op down around the Barnes St area of Clayton.
Where the branches were in Church, haven't a clue.
The Co-op in Accrington was formed by the Accrington Weavers Assoc, at a meeting at the home of Mr Thomas Briggs in 1849, in a bid to beat the mill owners. Many mills had shops attached to their premises, and paid 1/2 the wages in their own tokens, which could only be spent in the mill shop, at their prices, even though the practice was outlawed by the government, it carried on for many years. Thats why workers Co-operatives were formed.
Look at some of the early census returns and you will come across entries, Mill owner & Grocer, employing xx men, xx women and xx boys & girls, some of those children were not 10 years old.
You won't find any entries listing these children as working in any mill, they will be shown as scholar, but that was only 1/2 time.

Retlaw.