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CWS stood for Cooperative Wholesale Society, and its shop was generally known as the Co-op.
The Co-op making a horse-drawn delivery, Edmonton, 1910.
The Co-op would issue cheques which were little perforated squares listing the amount you spent at any given visit to the shop. Customers had a co-op number – ours was 102154. Every quarter of the year the Co-op gave its customers what was called a dividend, which was a certain amount back for every pound spent. Dividend was given on everything that the shop sold, including deliveries of milk and bread. My mother also bought her shoes there under the brand name of 'Wheat sheaf'. Dividend was a good incentive to shop at the Co-op.
Co-op delivery bicycle. Photographed in the Museum of Nottingham Life
If you have an old photo which illustrates the way of life that my mother describes, I would very much appreciate a copy. Pat Cryer
These are recollections of the local Co-op, seen through the eyes of a child from a working class family around the time of the 1911 census in Edmonton, north London (then Middlesex). They were written in the 1980s by my mother, Florence Edith Clarke (born Cole), and are here as a tribute to her memory and to shed light on the history of the early years of the 20th century.