author logo, Florence Cole
Florence Cole as a child

The Co-op shop in early 1900s Edmonton, north London

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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, 1910

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, early 1900s

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

 

  

  

 

 

   

  

 This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.

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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.