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Co-Operative Building & Loan on Fort Avenue, in its original location today occupied by the Waffle House today (a post card image courtesy Sandra Weigand)
This image is part of the RetroWeb Visual History of Lynchburg, Virginia
Please do not remove the photo credit watermark from this image.
The rebuilt Co-op Society store at the Black Country Museum is to be found in the 1950s street on the Museum site. I believe that this store originally stood in Halesowen, but is typical of the hundreds of Co-op stores of the period that could be found throughout Britain from the 1930s into the 1960s.
My immediate impression of this store was that it wasn't quite as I recall, the Co-op we used to visit was a little different. The tiled floor, the wooden shelves around the shop and the lighting look right, but I remember a wooden counter that went around the perimeter of the shop. There were very few goods that could be hand-picked, instead the shop assistant got items from off the shelves behind the counter at the customer's request. Things like butter and cheese were cut from a block, weighed and wrapped in grease-proof paper. There were certainly some goods stocked on the counter, possibly 'on offer' or that were promotions; maybe oddities in baskets in the central area? It's so long ago and I was very young. My mother took a weaved over-arm basket to the shops and a small handheld leatherette bag, which couldn't hold a great deal, so visits to purchase goods and fresh produce were fairly regular.
Friday 18th April 2025.
Co-operative Funeral Care In Flood Drama
The Co-operative Funeral care van broke down this morning after attempting to drive through floodwaters in Paisley.
The van which is often used in taking the recently deceased from the mortuary to the chosen funeral home of the Co-operative Funeral care decided on taking on the floods in Paisleys Murray street whilst most other drivers turned around and diverted to other routes.
Whilst we could argue it being the drivers fault for going through the flood water it also clearly shows that areas that constantly flood in Paisley and Renfrewshire are never given the flood prevention measures they so badly and desperately require.
Tamworth Co-operative Society was formed in 1886 and remains independent. It operates this deprtment store as well as a supermarket and number of convenience stores. It is one of the few remaining truly independent co-ops in Britain.
The wheatsheaf, with the motto ‘labor and wait’, was the first registered trademark of the CWS.
The wheatsheaf is a powerful Co-operative symbol, evoking messages of unity in strength as one stalk of wheat can be easily broken but a whole sheaf has great strength. The American spelling of ‘labor’ is not a typo – it was intended as a statement of support for the anti-slavery North in the US Civil War.
When CWS was founded in 1863, the American Civil War was in progress, and several early CWS founders were active anti-slavery campaigners. Although the ‘cotton famine’ produced by the blockade of Southern ports caused problems for Manchester’s cotton industry, Britain backed the anti-slavery North and the CWS trade mark showed its founders’ support.