In celebration of the Co-op …… Beswick Co-operative Society ….. and its store in Longsight

Now, the Beswick Co-operative Society knew how to build shops.

This is their Longsight store, which was opened in 1912, with later alterations.  

It is according to Historic England “Red brick with liberal dressings of green and buff glazed terracotta, red tiled roof with geometrical patterned band and cockscomb ridge tiles. Rectangular plan. 

Edwardian Baroque style. 

Two storeys and attic, 11 bays; projected ground floor with dark green Ionic pilasters between the shops and a central recessed porch with dark green surround, light green Ionic columns and segmental open pediment”.*

There is more, but it gets quite technical and anyway Andy’s pictures say it all.

So I shall say that the society was registered “on 4 June 1892. Its central premises were at 30 Aston New Road, Manchester. Its first president was Arthur Cuss and its manager was a John Dobson. Its first branch was opened on 25 January 1894 at the corner of Mill Street and Carruthers Street in Ancoats, Manchester.

By 1905 its central premises were listed as Rowsley Street, Manchester and it had 5,700 members. It had branches in Manchester, Ancoats, Ardwick, Bradford, Openshaw and a bakery, warehouse and stables Beswick. It traded in grocery, drapery, hardware, shoes and boots, butchering, furnishing, tailoring, coal, flour, baking and dressmaking.

By 1951 the society had 36,047 members and had its central premises at Grey Mare Lane, Manchester. 

It had added branches in Burnage, Clayton, Denton, Didsbury, Gorton, Levenshulme, Longsight, Rusholme and Withington. 

It had expanded trade into millinery, jewellery, ironmongery and tobacco. It also produced dairy goods, offered shoe repairing services and had business in meat preparation.

The society became a part of the Co-operative Retail Services in 1959.

Sources: The Co-operative Union directories, and the published history by AE Worswick, "History of the Beswick Co-operative Society Limited from 1892-1907.

Many of the records of the society, can be viewed by previous arrangement, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm. Contact the Archivist at: National Co-operative Archive, Co-operative College, Holyoake House, Hanover Street, Manchester, M60 0AS,archive@co-op.ac.uk www.archive.coop”**

And that pretty much is that.

Other than to say in an age when supermarkets are pretty much just steel and glass boxes which could be anything from a warehouse to a modern railway station, the Longsight store is distinctive and is a celebration of the principle of co-operation which did much to improve the lives of working people in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Location; Longsight

Pictures; the Beswick Co-operative Society, Longsight, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* NORTH ROAD, Longsight 698-1/5/733 (East side), Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1271454

**Beswick Co-operative Society Jisc Archive Hub, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/f2e8292a-178b-3996-b98b-07fd82464939