The St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society was a

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

in Scotland. Taking its name from

St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh The Parish Church of St Cuthbert is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in central Edinburgh. Probably founded in the 7th century, the church once covered an extensive parish around the Old Town of Edinburgh, burgh of Edinburgh. The church ...

, it opened its first shop in Ponton Street,

Fountainbridge Fountainbridge is a former industrial district in Edinburgh, Scotland, a short distance west of the Old Town. It is built around the street of the same name, which begins at the West Port and continues (as Dundee Street) towards Gorgie and Da ...

, Edinburgh in 1859. The society was part of the

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 ...

and followed the

Rochdale Principles The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operat ...

with the aim of providing decent food at affordable prices in a shop controlled by its customers as a co-operative. As early as 1913, St. Cuthbert's had bought the Cliftonhall Estate which was almost 970 acres in area. In 1918, four more farms were bought on the Newtonhall Estate and in 1919, 780 acres were purchased at Bonnington, all near

Ratho Ratho () is a village in the rural west part of the City of Edinburgh council area, Scotland. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,634 based on the 2010 definition of the locality. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian (historic), ...

at that time in

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

. By 1949 the Association owned over three thousand acres of land. St Cuthbert's expanded to become one of the largest societies in the

British co-operative movement The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started w ...

, employing some 3,000 at its peak. It had a bakery and a dairy in Fountainbridge. The dairy used horse-drawn delivery floats until 1985, and between 1944 and 1950 employed the future actor

Sean Connery Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to Portrayal of James Bond in film, portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in motion pic ...

as a milkman, earning him his nickname "the Edinburgh Milkman". St Cuthbert's had many shops throughout Edinburgh, including a department store in Bread Street which was built in three stages to designs by three architects: John McLachlan in 1892; Thomas P. Marwick in 1898 and 1914 and Thomas Waller Marwick in 1936. The 1930s section features a glass 'curtain wall', the first of its kind in Scotland, in contrast to the stone facades of its late 19th-/early 20th-century neighbours. The store closed in the early 1990s and buildings were converted for use as the Point Hotel and Conference Centre in 1999. In 1981 St Cuthbert's amalgamated with the Dalziel Society of Motherwell being renamed the Scottish Midland Co-operative Society, for short Scotmid.

External links

Scotmid History — Where it all BeganFrom the Co-op with love.. the days Sir Sean earned £1 a week
{{Authority control Retail companies established in 1859 Retail companies disestablished in 1981 1859 establishments in Scotland 1981 disestablishments in Scotland British companies established in 1859 British companies disestablished in 1981 1981 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Edinburgh Former co-operatives of the United Kingdom Defunct supermarkets of the United Kingdom Consumers' co-operatives of the United Kingdom Co-operatives in Scotland Sean Connery Fountainbridge