A free, illustrated talk at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford will explore the co-operative movement’s use of film, from film of the Blackpool Emporium and a 1938 Stanley Holloway monologue to a short animation about the Rochdale Pioneers produced last year.

The talk will be given by Gillian Lonergan, Head of Heritage Resources at the Co-operative College, at 2pm at the Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford M5 4WX, on Wednesday 25 July as part of the Library’s ‘Invisible Histories’ series.

All welcome, refreshments available.

For more information visit www.wcml.org.uk/events/invisible-histories–summer-talks-at-the-library.

Victorian weavers and factory workers greeted students from 12 Rochdale primary schools as they arrived and the brass band from the Co-operative Academy of Manchester got the ‘Meet the Pioneers’ day, which was organised by the Co-operative College, The Co-operative Group and Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, off to a swing

Paul Flowers, Chair, Co-operative Financial Services, set the scene for students in his opening address, describing “a time that was a long, long, long time ago, but not that long ago”. He said: “Times were tough in the 1800s. A lot of children your ages were forced to work in mills.”

In 1844, 28 ordinary working men, mainly weavers working in the town’s textiles trade, got together to take a stand against the poor working conditions and unfair trading that was leaving consumers with substandard food products. These ‘Rochdale Pioneers’ set up their own co-operative grocery store in Toad Lane, Rochdale selling unadulterated food for a fair price and rewarded customers for their business with dividend.

Flowers explained why the Pioneers decided to set up a co-operative and what it meant: He said: ‘They called it a co-operative because every person who shopped there could become a member of the co-operative. They had an equal share and every member was the same. At the end of the year, the members of the co-operative had a share in the profits.”

With 2012 designated the International Year of Co-operatives, and Rochdale declared World Co-operative Capital, he reiterated the significance of the Rochdale Pioneers: “The history you have got in this town is important the whole world over. The idea that ordinary folk could take on the people who wanted to screw them into the ground, and take control of their own affairs, spread all over the country and then over the world.”

Flowers also stated the importance of co-operation today. He said: “Co-operation is very much an active thing going on today. It means not being told by lots of other people what we should buy and what we should do.”

Actors from the Shed Theatre Company and Touchstones Rochdale brought the tale of the Rochdale Pioneers to life and gave youngsters a taste of Victorian life – including the stern discipline of the nineteenth century classroom! Students found it hard to visualise how hard life would have been in the 1840s. Leah from St Patrick’s RC Primary School said: “Kids our age and younger were working – I can’t imagine it!”

Other activities included setting up a replica of the Pioneers’ Toad Lane store, taking part in a Pioneers’ treasure hunt, felt-making, banner making, co-operative drawing and visiting the site of the Pioneers’ original shop, now a museum which is reopening this summer after a major refurbishment. The story of co-operation did not stop with the Rochdale Pioneers, and students also took part in activities on Fairtrade, reflecting the co-operative movement’s ongoing support for Fairtrade and ethical trading conditions.

Students pushed a wheelbarrow around the great hall, cheered on by their classmates, in a relay covering the 12 miles between Manchester and Rochdale – the distance the Pioneers had to transport their goods by wheelbarrow from the market in Manchester to Rochdale to be sold in their Toad Lane shop.

In the grand finale to the day, the wheelbarrow finally ‘arrived at the shop’ to three cheers for the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society as students dramatised the Pioneers’ story with a performance and taught everyone the tune to a song about the Pioneers! Musician Will Mace, who worked with students throughout the day, said the co-operative movement inspired by the Pioneers had “become so much bigger than they ever anticipated”!

Students said finding out about the Rochdale Pioneers made them proud to be from Rochdale. Emma from St Patrick’s said: “I didn’t know how the co-op was actually started so it was good to learn what it was at the start. I thought it was just a shop and when I went to the Co-op I thought it was just another supermarket but now I know there’s loads to it. When I found out how brave they were it made me really proud.”

Leah from St Patrick’s added: “Knowing they did all this for fairer trade made me feel proud. I didn’t really care about the co-op before but I do now. I didn’t know why they called the shop ‘co-op’ and I thought they just made it up but now I know it was for a reason.”

Julie Thorpe, Head of School and Youth Programmes at the Co-operative College, said: “One thing I’ve learned today is all of us have got a lot to learn from those people back in 1844. We’ve got a few problems to solve still in the world and we can learn from working in co-operatives to improve our communities.”

She told students: “I hope you’ve all learned how you can make your schools more co-operative places.”

The Meet the Pioneers day was visited by the BBC Radion Manchester show Beswick at Breakfast. Listen again at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00rbc2b (feature appears ten minutes before the end).

Travel through co-operative history with the Rochdale Pioneers Museum’s fantastic new website, which includes a timeline of co-operation, memories, resources, details of upcoming events, collections, an online shop and much more.

The website, which was designed by Salford-based Carbon Creative (who also designed the Co-operative College site), gives the background of the Museum as well as a sneak preview of what visitors can expect when the Museum reopens this summer following a major, Heritage Lottery-funded refurbishment.

Visit at www.rochdalepioneersmuseum.coop.

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Activities will be led by staff from the Co-operative College in Manchester and Outreach Officers from the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, which is due to reopen in summer following a major refurbishment. The day is being hosted by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and supported by The Co-operative Group.

The Rochdale Pioneers were 28 ordinary working men, mainly weavers working in the town’s textiles trade, who got together in 1844 to improve their lives by setting up a co-operative grocery store. Their shop, on Toad Lane in Rochdale, is now widely regarded as the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement, which today has over 1 billion members in more than 100 different countries. 2012 is the United Nations’ first International Year of Co-operatives and, with Rochdale designated World Capital of Co-operatives, what better time to look again at the story of the 28 ordinary working people who started it all, and who continue to inspire co-operatives to form across the globe.

Actors from the Shed Theatre Company and Touchstones Rochdale will bring the tale of the Pioneers to life and give students a taste of Victorian life – including the stern discipline of the nineteenth century classroom! Students will also take part in a range of interactive games and activities, from felt-making, singing and drama to banner making and co-operative drawing. In the most energetic part of the day, students will push a wheelbarrow around Rochdale Town Hall in a relay covering 12.4 miles – the distance the Pioneers had to transport their goods by wheelbarrow from the market in Manchester to Rochdale to be sold in their Toad Lane shop!

Short animation The Story of the Rochdale Pioneers, created by Lancashire-based Huckleberry Films, will be shown along with other co-operative films, and the filmmakers will be on hand to show students how to make co-operative films of their own.

Other activities include setting up a replica of the Pioneers’ Toad Lane store, taking part in a Pioneers’ treasure hunt and visiting the site of the Pioneers’ original shop.

The activity day follows the launch in Rochdale of a new teaching pack, produced by the Co-operative College, called Meet the Pioneers. The resource introduces the men behind the famous story and explores what they were like as individuals. All different types of people, of all different ages, with different interests, occupations and personalities, came together to form the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society, from James Smithies the joke teller to William Cooper the avid letter writer. The resource draws on material held in the National Co-operative Archive in Manchester and contextualises the story of the Rochdale Pioneers with background information about life in the nineteenth century, from housing and living conditions to education, food and political movements.

The story of co-operation did not stop with the Rochdale Pioneers, and students will take part in activities on Fairtrade, reflecting the co-operative movement’s ongoing support for Fairtrade and ethical trading conditions.

Julie Thorpe, Head of School and Youth Programmes at the Co-operative College, said: “We are really excited about meeting all the young people from across Rochdale. We will be taking them back in time to explore what life was like in the town in the nineteenth century. But we hope they will go away inspired with a vision of how co-operatives can improve people’s lives today and in the future.”

Paul Flowers, Chair of the Co-operative Banking Group, who will open the day, said: “I am delighted to be involved in the launch of this event and especially to be meeting all the young people who will be gathering together on the day. It is really important that the co-operative movement as a whole helps young people to be fully aware of what co-operatives have done and could do in the future of our society and therefore I am delighted to be involved on the day.”

Students from eight schools across the borough had their faces painted and buzzed around St Mary in the Baum Church – just across the road from the Toad Lane Museum – dressed as bees. The young bee-fects learned how to behave like bees by co-operating with students from other schools to solve puzzles and complete activities such as bee-themed word searches and giant jigsaws. Honey-tasting went down a treat, and students were also shown blueberries, apples, lettuce, onions and broccoli to demonstrate the types of food that rely in some way on bees for their production.

Matthew Rowbotham, who is in his third year of keeping bees, was on hand to talk to students about beekeeping and the type of apparatus used. He said: “As a beekeeper I’m amazed at how well bees co-operate. For such small animals, they seem to do so much. That’s such a good lesson for humanity, and business.”

The Rochdale Pioneers Museum is based in the building where the Rochdale Pioneers set up the first successful co-operative shop in 1844, laying the foundations for the modern-day co-operative movement. Father Mark Haworth, vicar at St Mary’s described co-operatives as “putting together a plan for how business and people could work together for mutual benefit”.

The Museum will be reopening during 2012 International Year of Co-operatives, and Father Mark explained to students: “This is a very special year for Rochdale because this is where it all began, a worldwide movement. People will be coming to Rochdale throughout the year.” Eve Broadhurst, Arts Development Officer for the ROCHDALE Project, reminded students: “The town you all live in is such a special town.”

Students watched short animation The Story of the Rochdale Pioneers, which tells the story of how 28 Rochdale men got together to improve the lives of working people. One student, from Brimrod Primary School, enjoyed finding out more about the links between his town and co-operatives. He said: “I buy a lot from the Co-op – I think it’s good. They started from food and now they’re up to travel, funerals and pharmacies. You can’t go anywhere without seeing a co-op.”

Eve also explained the link between bees and co-operatives, and reminded students of the co-operative values and principles. She said: “Bees live in co-operative colonies and have been giving us honey for thousands of years. Bees are responsible for themselves and are co-operators.”

The afternoon was part of an ongoing bee-themed project which aims to make Rochdale a bee-friendly town. Each school received its own Bee-Have pack containing games, workshops, information and bee-friendly wildflower seeds provided by the Co-operative for planting in a plot back at school.

Any Rochdale schools that produce bee-themed work are invited to send it to the Rochdale Pioneers Museum for display when it reopens this summer.

For more information about the Bee-Have project contact outreach@co-op.ac.uk.

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Simon, who is based in the National Co-operative Archive at the Co-operative College in Manchester, said: “Even though I had tired eyes by the end of each day, the year has flown by. Every day has been different. I didn’t know much at first but I got a real sense of Owen.”

Robert Owen was a pioneering factory owner who introduced reforms such as shorter working days and workplace democracy. The correspondence collection shows that he was contacted by campaigners for the ten hour working day (although Owen wanted to go further and advocated an 8 hour working day). Owen set up a model community in New Lanark, Scotland and attempted to establish a co-operative community called New Harmony in the United States. Correspondents include other people setting up communities and people trying to sell Owen land. Owen also believed in the importance of education both for workers and children, and set up infant schools to help working mothers. The letters in the Robert Owen Correspondence Collection cover topics such as infant education, and refer to the early co-operative movement. Many are highly deferential – Simon says “I was confused because lots of letters were written to ‘dear father’, but he was seen as the father of certain social movements”. Some letters discuss the link between religion and socialism. Others contain invitations to meetings as, says Simon, “Owen had a really big pull”.

Inventors wrote to tell Owen about their ideas and plans, including one who sent a drawing of a contraption called a ‘life preserver’ he wanted Owen to back financially. Simon admits: “It looks like it was drawn by a child about two years ago – you would never, ever believe it was drawn 200 years ago.”

Only about 200 of the letters were sent by Owen, and these are primarily drafts or copies. Simon said: “At first I thought he was just a scruffy writer because there were lots of crossings out!” Owen wrote to dignitaries and sent petitions to government for schemes he wanted heard in parliament. Some of the correspondence indicated that Prince Albert was interested in what Owen said, but one letter warned that Owen’s petition would be heard during an afternoon session and the Lords drifted off in the afternoon so he shouldn’t expect much of a response! Simon noticed: “People got a bit sick of him sending petitions.” He added: “One thing I have learned above all is that some things never change. So many letters relate to topics which are relevant today.”

Simon became intrigued by many of the people who wrote to Owen. He explains: “It is quite surprising who the letters are from. So many people I came across lived varied lives and went around the world. They were fascinating individuals.” One correspondent was a vegetarian at a time when such a diet was almost unheard of. Simon was also surprised by the amount of letters that came from rural areas as well as big industrial centres such as Manchester and Birmingham.

Owen himself was well-travelled and visited Switzerland, America and Mexico among other places. Simon says: “Normal people wrote to Owen asking how they could go about emigrating to America and what to do when they got there.”

Simon continued: “Many letters were almost like a legal document, with a big preamble – you could quite often ignore the first two paragraphs, and sometimes even the first page, before the writer got round to saying what they wanted to say. It was almost like people wanted to prove they knew how to write.”

Simon was excited to discover how the Robert Owen Correspondence Collection came together during the year he spent working on the project, as previously this had been a bit of a mystery. In 1853, Owen decided to write his autobiography and wanted to get all his letters in one place as record of the achievements of his life. This proved costly as they had to be sent from New York, New Orleans and New Harmony, and others had gone missing, so his friends volunteered to help.  Simon explained: “Owen never seemed to live in once place – he stayed at people’s houses or in hotels. These letters seemed to follow him around. Lots have five or six addresses on them which are crossed out.”

Owen lived in Sevenoaks in Kent towards the end of his life, when he was more or less blind and deaf. James Rigby, a close friend, acted as his agent, confidante and assistant, and Simon describes Rigby as Owen’s “eyes and ears for his last few years”. Simon said: “He wrote updates to Owen every Sunday night, and talked about things like the problems and cost of sending post to America.”

In 1900/1901 writer George Jacob Holyoake spent two years searching for Robert Owen’s letters, which were eventually found in a trunk, and going through them. They were given to the Co-operative Union in 1903 and eventually found their way to the National Co-operative Archive. Simon describes the letters as having layers of notes which have been added over the years.

The letters have all now been cleaned and placed in pockets. Simon said: “The letters are in surprisingly good condition. They should be here for another 100 years.”

Simon thinks the Robert Owen Correspondence Collection will be of interest not just to academics and researchers looking at aspects of co-operative history, but local historians.

The Collection is now listed on the Archives Hub at http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb1499roc.

The free workshop will take place at St Mary’s Church on Oldham Road from 2-3.30pm on Monday 23 April.

Participants will also be able to play bee games and sample honey. The workshop will also use story time to tell the tale of the town’s famous Rochdale Pioneers, as the Pioneers Museum on Toad Lane gets ready to reopen following a major refurbishment.

Attendees will receive their own Bee-have pack including bee-friendly wildflower seeds provided by the Co-operative for planting in a plot back at school, games, workshops and information.

The workshop is now fully booked, but if you would be interested in getting involved email outreach@co-op.ac.uk.

Rochdale is competing against several hundred other towns and, if successful, will be one of twelve towns awarded a share of a £1 million pot to revive the country’s town centres. The winner will also be supported with expert retail advice.

Rochdale’s plan centres on a proposed project called The Hive – referencing the co-operative symbol of the beehive, with its connotations of industry and working together – which will feature eight portable, interactive learning pods, public art and an outdoor auditorium with a stage and seating area for community use. Each pod will be themed around food and drink, art, music, technology, environment and entertainment. The stage would feature entertainment to appeal to young and old, from music, singing, dancing and poetry to live art classes.

The Rochdale Pioneers, 28 ordinary working men, set up what is regarded as the first successful co-operative society on Toad Lane in 1844. Rochdale Pioneers Museum, housed in the building where the Pioneers set up their first grocery shop, attracts visitors from around the world and Rochdale was named ‘World Capital of Co-operation’ by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in 2011.

Watch a video made as part of Rochdale’s bid at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CmZF11M7gU.

The Museum is currently closed for refurbishment as part of a Heritage Lottery Grant, and will reopen to the public later this spring, to coincide with 2012 International Year of Co-operatives.

Photos taken during the visits show the Museum’s new information displays, which tell the extraordinary story of how the 28 working men who became known as the Rochdale Pioneers got together to start a co-operative grocery to meet their common needs. The Museum is based in the building where the Pioneers first opened their shop at 8pm on 21 December, 1844, and has attracted visitors from all over the world. In 2011, Rochdale was named ‘World capital of co-operatives’, acknowledging its importance to the heritage of the co-operative movement.

The restoration work at Toad Lane, which is being directed by Manchester-based co-operative architects’ practice Loop Systems, includes a new mezzanine level which will be used as an education space. A new access tower has also been created, housing a staircase and lift, to make the Museum fully accessible and ensure the Pioneers’ story can be kept alive for generations to come.

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