Chester Co-operative Society

The Co-op Group has its origins in the co-operative consumer societies started by the "Rochdale Pioneers". On 21 December 1844 the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society opened a store selling "pure food at fair prices and honest weights and measures". Historically, members' sales would be recorded in ledgers in society's stores and at the end of the collection period a proportional payment would be made to the member. As the societies grew, and the number of members increased, the method of using ledgers became cumbersome. As a solution, some societies, including Co-operative Retail Services, issued stamps to members for qualifying transactions. Members collected stamps on a savings card and, when the card was complete, would use it as payment for goods or deposit into their share account. Thomas Hughes, best known for his novel Tom Brown’s School Days, and later resident of Chester, was actively involved in the early movement but resigned in 1882 when he became a County Court judge at Chester.

There appears to have been co-operative association activity in Chester as early as 1830, when the "the Chester society commenced a shoemaking business", spending £20 on stock and providing "constant work for six members". At this time the footwear trade was becomming more concentrated in specialist towns like Stafford, Northampton, and Leicester, and mechanized factory production progressively eliminated hand-work, so shoemaking as domestic outwork had declined in Chester from a significant industry. A "Chester Cooperative Chronicle and Magazine for the Working Classes" was in existence in the same year. As recorded in the "Co-operative Miscellany":


 * "We have seen a little work entitled The Chester Co operative Chronicle and Magazine for the Working Classes price one penny. We are glad to see our Chester friends assisting in diffusing a knowledge of those principles they seem so well to understand and at the same time have given us a fair sample of their capability of putting into practice. We wish them every success and urge them to persevere."

These were interesting political times in Chester and elsewhere (see Charters). After the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which failed to extend the vote beyond those owning property, the political leaders of the working class made speeches claiming that there had been a great act of betrayal. This sense that the working class had been betrayed by the middle class was strengthened by the actions of the Whig governments of the 1830s. Notably, the hated new Poor Law Amendment was passed in 1834, depriving working people of outdoor relief and driving the poor into the Workhouse. It was the massive wave of opposition to this measure in the north of England in the late 1830s that gave Chartism the numbers that made it a mass movement. In 1839 the state of the country was unsettled and there was much talk of possible riots by the Chartists - and possibly even an attack on Chester Castle. The Castle was next to Chester Gaol, where Chartists were held (as in the Chartist song "Chester Gaol"). General Sir Charles Napier wrote to Chester as follows:


 * Major Bayly, August 10th.—I attach little credit to the threatened attack on Chester Castle, yet be prepared. You must urge the town magistrates to swear in special constables and arm the pensioners; the gentlemen of the city may arm themselves also. Be most careful of the castle and cautious how you weaken your garrison in case of danger. Colonel Wemyss has orders if armed insurgents move from Hyde towards Chester to have them pursued by as strong a body of cavalry as he can spare.

By April 1840 General Sir Charles James Napier was moved to Chester from Nottingham with a force of cavalty and troops to quell potential riots. By 1840 Chester's older and wider trade connexions had withered and it had been forced into a diminished role servicing the local region. During this period a possibly deeply corrupt City administation continued to benefit from the Owen Jones charity. Modest new industries had appeared in the leadworks, steam milling, and ironfounding (see Industrial Revolution), but the heavy reliance on providing services for the hinterland implied a dependence on its fortunes and the need for improved transport connexions. From 1840 the railways provided the means by which that could be achieved and the prosperity brought by the railways may have done much to avert any Chartist threat.

The Chester Co-operative Society was founded in 1884 and opened a grocery in Black Diamond Street (in an area of "Railway Housing") in 1884. It moved into the city centre in the 1890s, and by 1905 the Foregate Street premises had developed into a large department store. It's success depended in part on the Co-operative Wholesale Society (formed 1863) ownership of factories producing goods for member societies, and it managed to prosper despite the generally depressed economy period between 1873 and the 1890s.

Buildings



 * 73-75 Brook Street.
 * 78-94 Foregate Street was originally the Chester Co-operative Society department store, and built 1904-5, by Douglas and Minshull. As this was not in any of John Douglas's normal Vernacular Revival styles with many flourishes, the design "shocked" the City Council Improvement Committee ("CCIC"); the addition of the partial leaded glazing on the upper floor windows was the price paid for CCIC approval.
 * In 1927, a dairy was designed for a location in Brook Lane for Chester Co-operative Society Ltd by Douglas, Minshull & Muspratt (Douglas had died in 1911). The milk for the dairy was in part supplied by Ben Roberts. The dairy was "on the left just before the road started to climb on the approach the bridge".
 * New offices for Chester Co-operative Society were approved in Brook Lane in 1939.