Page 274 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S. —

richest and best land in the district, the farms are to be used to
supply societies with potatoes, peas, onions, grain, and other
produce of the kind. ... A fiu-ther purchase in 1913 of a farm
in the Whalley district of Lancashire for the purposes of cattle
breeding also calls for mention here.

In more than one of the general chapters of this history the
reader will have found some account of the joint tea department as
it was during the particular period described. The growth of the
C.W.S. tea trade in the early days of Joseph Woodm was not to be
separated from any general view of the then North of England
Co-operative Wholesale Society. At a later time the history of the
department twined itself with the narrative as it concerned the
London Branch. Too late in the day for such a division, we are
reaching a point when the story of the department could well be
told in a separate chapter.
Designs were prepared by Mr. Heyhurst, of the C.W.S. building
department, in October, 1891, for a big, new tea-blendmg and pacldng
warehouse, facing the London Branch frontage to Leman Street.
These plans provided for unobstructed floors from side to side of
the interior of the building, but the London County Council insisted
upon fireproof divisions, such as still make the branch interiors
the despair of the photographer. The now well-kno\^^l difficulty
of ancient lights also caused delays. But at last the elevations
of Leicestershire brick and Derbyshire stone—rose broad and tall
over Leman Street and Great Prescot Street. On Monday, March
22nd, 1897, the ceremony of openmg the warehouse took place.
Whoever compares the co-operative system with private trading
ought to consider these openings. Build they never so magnifi-
cently, the millionaire merchants and the officials of mammoth
companies must enter into their great possessions unattended by
admiring throngs. No big number of people is interested. There is
no affection at all, not even cupboard love. But the humblest
co-operative store, whether in Britain or in remote quarters of the
Continent, will open with flags flying and bands playmg, and
processions and speeches. At eight o'clock of the morning on this
early spring day, breakfast was ready at Leman Street for the
incoming delegates. Some two hours afterwards the chairman of
the Tea Committee declared the building open, and the 1,500
co-operators about him followed his lead inside. Later, there
arrived some twenty carriages and a hundred brakes, and even
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