Strike Rochdale from the record books. The Co-op began in Scotland
Amateur historians uncover record of weavers who were discount store pioneers
Its famous four-letter logo and revolutionary system of profit-sharing - the "divi" - made the Co-op a high street institution, and generations of schoolchildren have been taught that it began in a humble store on Toad Lane in Rochdale.
Now two amateur historians claim the history books are wrong: the cooperative movement was born nearly 240 years ago in a barely-furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire, when local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker's whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount. It is here, according to a document they unearthed, that the world's first co-op was founded, 230 miles north of the accepted home of the Co-op.
Fenwick's pre-eminence has been overlooked, locals say, in favour of the English town where the Rochdale Pioneers opened their store 83 years later.
The metropolitan borough in north-west England has long boasted of its association with the 28 mill workers who opened their store in 1844, devising the "principles" which became the model for cooperatives worldwide.
A sign on the railway bridge above the A664 leading into the town from the M62 states: "Rochdale: birthplace of cooperation", while the council's website describes the town as the "home of the worldwide cooperative movement".
Yet it seems that movement actually began on March 14 1761, when a group of self-employed weavers gathered secretly in the village of Fenwick, a straggling line of cottages, small shops and old coaching hotels near Kilmarnock which has changed little.
Written in a firm, precise hand, the yellowing document the 15 men signed bound members to be "honest and faithfull to one another ... and to make good & sufficient work and exact neither higher nor lower prices than are accustomed".
It was a revolutionary move. Fenwick survived on tweed and muslin weaving, shoemaking and farming; its tradesmen dependent on patronage by the local elite.
"Cooperation has been around since the year dot, but making it official was different," said John McFadzean, who researched the weavers' history with fellow amateur historian John Smith. "Getting the very much lower working class to fend for themselves, and having the ability to set up the infrastructure to run a documented cooperative was quite a feat ... no one has anything like it predating this."
'Being in need'
Records show the society quickly began lending money to needy members and their families - making it, argue both men, the first recorded credit union. Original records, now in the National Library of Scotland, record short-term loans of 10 and 12 shillings to members, at a flat rate of 5%. One accounts sheet from 1764 records: "Given to Margaret Mitchel at Finnick being in need ... 1s."
The weavers' society began by buying and sharing materials and looms, but in 1769 branched out into food and "victuals", first buying a sack of oatmeal wholesale to sell in smaller quantities at cut price. Savings were divided among the members - a measure Mr Smith insists was a prototype "divi" or dividend.
Those innovations spawned other initiatives; a cooperative subscription library was founded in 1808, and an "emigration society" to help villagers make new lives in the New World. In the early 1800s, the villagers established what became known as the "Fenwick parliament", open meetings to debate local affairs held at Strike Rochdale from the record books. The Co-op began in Scotland | Business | The Guardian:
