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National Co-operative Archive
The National Co-operative Archive, located in Holyoake House, Manchester, UK, is home to collections relating to the history of the co-operative movement, that provide an unrivaled resource for the understanding of the co-operative movement from its initial ideas of the nineteenth century to the present day. The archive includes manuscripts, rare books, periodicals, films, photographs and oral histories. The archive is run by the Co-operative Heritage Trust, who also operate the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. History The origins of the Archive date from 1903, when the Robert Owen correspondence collection was transferred to the Co-operative Union and it has been built up gradually over the last century. The Co-operative College is also located in the building – it was founded in 1919 and in 1946. It moved away from Manchester, because of the damage caused in its headquarters by bombing raids during the Second World War. It was relocated in Stanford Hall and two Archives started to b ...
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Holyoake House
Holyoake House is a building in the NOMA district of Manchester, England, which was completed in 1911. Designed by F.E.L. Harris, it was built for the Co-operative Union in memory of George Holyoake. It is located alongside other listed buildings such as the CIS Tower, Hanover Building and Redfern Building and is owned by Co-operatives UK. Background In 1906 the co-operative activist George Jacob Holyoake died and the Co-operative Movement decided to commemorate him by building a permanent headquarters for the Co-operative Union. The building was designed by architect F. E. L. Harris, who had also designed the nearby Hanover Building in the year of Holyoake's death. It was erected in 1911 on Hanover Street and named Holyoake House. A plaque was erected outside the building dedicating the building to Holyoake's memory. In addition to Co-operatives UK, Holyoake House is also home to the Co-operative College, the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL), Co-op News. and ...
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British Co-operative Movement
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand (best known for its supermarket and Funeralcare brands) which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy proj ...
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Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ...
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Co-operative Movement
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization. Beginnings The cooperative movement began in Europe in the 19th century, primarily in Britain and France. The industrial revolution and the increasing mechanisation of the economy transformed society and threatened the livelihoods of many workers. The concurrent labour and social movements and the issues they attempted to address describe the climate at the time. The first documented consumer cooperative was founded in 1769, in a barely furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire, when local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker's whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers' Society. In 1810, Re ...
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Rochdale Pioneers Museum
The Rochdale Pioneers Museum is housed in the building where the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society started trading on 21 December 1844. The museum is regarded as the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement. It is located in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. The museum includes a recreation of the original shop, containing its rudimentary furniture, scales, items that were sold at the store, etc. Moreover, the museum transmits the influence of the co-operative movement on issues such as women's rights, poverty, education, fair trade and social reform. The museum is owned by the Co-operative Heritage Trust and managed by the Co-operative College. History The building 31 Toad Lane was originally an 18th-century warehouse, on a busy road which then extended to the centre of the town. In 1844 the Co-operative Society rented the ground floor, the upper floors being used by the Methodist society. A counter was made with a plank on barrels, and the shop began. From 184 ...
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Robert Owen
Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, and sought a more collective approach to child rearing, including government control of education. He gained wealth in the early 1800s from a textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland. Having trained as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire he worked in London before relocating aged 18 to Manchester and textile manufacturing. In 1824, he moved to America and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his Utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other Owenite communities also failed, and in 1828 Owen returned to London, where he continued to champion the working class, lead in developing cooperatives and the trade union movement, and support c ...
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Co-operative Union
Co-operatives UK is a British co-operative federation described as "the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK". It was founded in 1870 as the Co-operative Central Board, changing its name to the Co-operative Union before finally becoming Co-operatives UK following its merger with the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 2001. Historically associated with the consumer co-operatives, the merger broadened its scope to include worker co-operatives and it now exists to support and promote the values of the entire co-operative movement throughout the UK. During its history, it has been responsible for the organisation of the Co-operative Congresses, the establishment of both Co-operative Commissions and the creation of the Co-operative College and the Co-operative Party.See references in relevant sections of article. The head office, Holyoake House in Manchester, is a Grade II listed building, and was built in 1911 in memory of th ...
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Co-operative College
Co-operative College is a British educational charity dedicated to the promotion of co-operative values, ideas and principles within co-operatives, communities and society. Origins and development The Co-operative College was established in 1919 by the Co-operative Union with ten overseas students based on the second floor of Holyoake House, Manchester, and in 1943 the College became a charitable trust. In 1945, Holyoake House was damaged by a blitz, and the Co-operative College was forced to relocate to Stanford Hall, where it spent almost fifty years. Along the years that the College spent in Stanford, it ran residential courses in social/economic subjects for adult learners and a wide range of retail and management courses for co-operative employees. In 1946, Dr Robert L. Marshall, OBE, MA, became the Principal and Chief Executive Officer. The College has since returned to its original home at Holyoake House, and Dr Cilla Ross is Principal and Chief Executive. Key areas of ...
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Stanford Hall, Nottinghamshire
Stanford Hall is a grade II* listed 18th-century English country house in Nottinghamshire, England, in Stanford on Soar just north of Loughborough. It is home to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC). History The manor of Stanford, complete with its stone manor house, was sold in 1661 by the Raynes family to a London alderman, Thomas Lewes (died c. 1702). He was succeeded by his grandson Francis Lewis (c. 1692 – 1744), who was an MP and High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 1713–14. The estate then passed to the fourth and last generation of Leweses, Charles Lewes, who died with no heir. After him it passed by marriage to the Dashwood baronets, Dashwood family, of whom the first to occupy the property was Charles Vere Dashwood. He commissioned William Anderson of Loughborough to rebuild the house in brick between 1771 and 1774. The house is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings, with a hipped slate roof topped with a painted balustrade, built in two sto ...
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Cooperative Movement
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization. Beginnings The cooperative movement began in Europe in the 19th century, primarily in Britain and France. The industrial revolution and the increasing mechanisation of the economy transformed society and threatened the livelihoods of many workers. The concurrent labour and social movements and the issues they attempted to address describe the climate at the time. The first documented consumer cooperative was founded in 1769, in a barely furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire, when local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker's whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers' Society. In 1810, R ...
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