"You must co-operate" : advert issued by the Hull Co-operative Society, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire : in the Official Handbook to the City of Hull, c1908
One of two adverts for the Hull Co-operative Society in the city's c1908 handbook and this gives clear reasons as to why membership of the Society was beneficial in many ways. It, of course, strongly echoes the ethos behind the foundation of the Rochdale Pioneers Co-operative Society, in the Lancashire town in 1844, and that is seen as the birth of the modern co-operative movement and particularly in regards to the member owned retail shop societies such as this in Hull. Most towns and localities had their own society - they had joint ownership in and of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester who provided many central services to individual societies.
The Hull Society was then based in Jarratt St and had a splendid head office store in the city centre that was wholly destroyed in the Hull Blitz during WW2. A new department store was constructed and opened in the early 1960s as part of the city's post-war reconstruction - no longer owned by the Society is survives and is noteworthy because of the "Three Ships" mosiac mural that has become a symbol of Hull. The advert, in many period typefaces, also shows a Corporation Telephone number - Hull being one of the few municipalities to own and operate its own phone service from 1904 (at the time in competition with the National TC that the PO would purchase) and the separate Kingston Communications still serves Hull.
"You must co-operate" : advert issued by the Hull Co-operative Society, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire : in the Official Handbook to the City of Hull, c1908
One of two adverts for the Hull Co-operative Society in the city's c1908 handbook and this gives clear reasons as to why membership of the Society was beneficial in many ways. It, of course, strongly echoes the ethos behind the foundation of the Rochdale Pioneers Co-operative Society, in the Lancashire town in 1844, and that is seen as the birth of the modern co-operative movement and particularly in regards to the member owned retail shop societies such as this in Hull. Most towns and localities had their own society - they had joint ownership in and of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Manchester who provided many central services to individual societies.
The Hull Society was then based in Jarratt St and had a splendid head office store in the city centre that was wholly destroyed in the Hull Blitz during WW2. A new department store was constructed and opened in the early 1960s as part of the city's post-war reconstruction - no longer owned by the Society is survives and is noteworthy because of the "Three Ships" mosiac mural that has become a symbol of Hull. The advert, in many period typefaces, also shows a Corporation Telephone number - Hull being one of the few municipalities to own and operate its own phone service from 1904 (at the time in competition with the National TC that the PO would purchase) and the separate Kingston Communications still serves Hull.