Page 197 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Leeds to Birmingham.

Upon the institution of the last-named saleroom the C.W.S.
Committee stated they were prepared to open wherever it would pay
to do so, and on April 22nd, 1886, fifty delegates gathered for the
opening of a room at 2, Listergate, Nottingham. No stocks were to
be held, and the attendance was to be on Wednesdays only.
Nottingham, however, is not only near to Derby, Leicester, Lough-
borough, Lincoln, and Grantham, but it is the natural business
centre for the important mining valleys to the north-west. Hence
three changes followed, all in pursuit of larger and more convenient
quarters. At length the C.W.S. made its Nottingham home in Friar
Lane under the rather unusual roof of a one-time Congregational
church. Here, with 2,000 square feet of space at their disposal, the
different C.W.S. departments find a room for all displays. More
recently the need of furthering the sale in the Nottingham district
of furniture made by co-operators under trade union conditions
has led to the institution of a permanent showroom for C.W.S.
furniture in the town.
Birmingham, one would think, ought to possess commanding
co-operative stores, retail and wholesale. In coiurse of time this
may be so, and the birthplace of Holyoake fulfil the promise of her
past. For the convenience of a growing number of Birmingham,
South Staffordshire, and West Midland co-operators, the C.W.S.
opened a room in the Prudential Buildings, Corporation Street, on
May 5th, 1892. The sure and certain removal took the Society to
Pershore Street, three minutes from New Street Station, very soon
afterwards. Ten years after the arrival in the Midland capital a
much-extended building in Pershore Street was opened, on April
9th, 1902, with full provision for an extensive cycle purchasing and
forwarding depot included.
To this list of openings, almost a mere catalogue, that at
Blackburn must be added, which took place on May 16th, 1890.
North of Blackburn or Leeds, in the Newcastle district, the general
compactness of the co-operative area has made salerooms and
depots less necessary, and Newcastle-on-Tyne remains the one centre.
One of the most fascinating of tours would be through industrial
Britain. The riveters hammering in the yards of Jarrow and
Sunderland, the coal-hewers up from the shafts of Durham, the
puddlers whose figures are dark beside the white heats of Middles-
brough, the shunters in the lamplit night at York, the weavers and
spinners at loom and mule amongst the folds of the hills of the
Pennines, the mountain quarrymen of Wales, the fishermen aboard
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