The Sheffield Co-operative Society was a local

consumer co-operative A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...

trading in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Society was founded as the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative and opened its first shop in 1868, Meg Munn,
Our Movement faces a stark choice: either progress or stagnate
", ''co-operative News'', 1 June 2006 in the Carbrook suburb of Sheffield.Richard Marsden,
Shoppers stunned by Co-op closure
, ''

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', 11 January 2008

Castle House

The Co-op opened shops around the city, and set up its first branch in

Sheffield City Centre Sheffield City Centre (referred to locally as simply Town) is a district of the Sheffield, City of Sheffield and is covered partly by the City ward, Sheffield, City ward of the City of Sheffield. It includes the area that is within a radius of ...

in 1929, on the corner of Exchange Street and Waingate, on part of the former site of

Sheffield Castle Sheffield Castle was a castle in Sheffield, England, constructed at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don, possibly on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon long house, and dominating the early town. A motte and bailey castle had been ...

. In 1962, this moved to a new site named "Castle House", in tribute to the site of the old store. The Castle House department store was designed by G. S Hay of the

Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...

and occupied a large site, with entrances on King Street, Angel Street and Castle Street. The store, which also housed the headquarters of the Brightside and Carbrook, featured a massive

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

facade with a zigzag canopy. Inside, the focus was on a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

connecting all the floors, under a partially glazed dome and a sculpture of a bird. In 2009 the building was granted Grade II listed building status. In 2018 the

National Videogame Museum National Videogame Museum may refer to: * National Videogame Museum (United States) The National Videogame Museum is a video game museum about the history of video games and the video game industry, located in Frisco, Texas. Opened in 2016, ...

opened on the ground floor.

Members

Eleanor Barton Eleanor Barton (''née'' Stockton; 13 July 1872 – 9 March 1960) was a British co-operative movement activist from Manchester. Early life and family Barton was born in Manchester, the daughter of William Stockton, a prison warden born from ...

, a prominent

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 bega ...

activist, was for many years the secretary of the Brightside and Carbrook's Hillsborough branch, and later became a director of the organisation. Other prominent members included

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin w ...

, who joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Players in the 1960s.

Mergers

In the 1980s, the Brightside and Carbrook Co-op planned to merged with the Sheffield and Ecclesall Co-operative to form the Sheffield Co-operative Society. It never happened, but the name change went through. By 2006, the Society had 35

grocery A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, an ...

shops, six travel stores, four

petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

s, seven

funeral parlour A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral. Service ...

s and three

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

s. However, the group faced competition within Sheffield from both the

United Co-operatives United Co-operatives Limited, or simply ''United Co-op'', is a now defunct regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, until its merger with the Co-operative Group in 2007. The society operated across Yorkshire, the North West and Nor ...

and the

Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-op ...

. In 2007, the Society voted to merge with the United Co-operatives, which itself merged with the Co-operative Group shortly afterwards.Co-op and United in merger talks
, Food Yorkshire All three of the former Society's department stores, including Castle House, were closed in 2008.

References

{{Defunct UK grocers Business services companies established in 1868 Retail companies established in 1868 Retail companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct companies based in Sheffield Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Former co-operatives of the United Kingdom Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Consumers' cooperatives in the United States