Page 293 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Dunston Flour Mill.
Quarterly Meeting of the C.W.S. the Newcastle district vote was 110
to twenty-nine. The South gave thirty-six votes for the Committee
at London, with thirty-three in favour of adjournment. The
Manchester district provided exactly 197 votes for each side.
Happily for the chairman he was relieved from the burden of
decision, for the total of the country gave a substantial majority in
favour of building the mill.
The Committee advertised for land, and soon were inspecting
sites up and down the Tyne. They chose the present site at Dunston
on the Durham side of the river, opposite the Elswick naval ship-
building yards, and on the outskirts of the borough of Gateshead.
The area bought was 6,942 square yards, there was a river frontage
of 464 feet, and the cost was £3,725. Arrangements were made with
the Tyne Commissioners for a jetty and with the railway company
for a siding. Questions of mineral and other rights connected with
the site then caused delays, until the delegates began to doubt the
value of the transaction; but these difficulties the Committee
successfully overcame. A further obstacle was the nature of the
ground. To provide a foundation it was necessary to sink seventy-
one iron cylinders through the gravel left by the stream, here twice
as wide as at the High Level Bridge. These cylinders afterwards were
filled with concrete. Oak trees were found during the excavations,
and the bones and antlers of deer, an old canoe, a bed of mussels,
and some hazel nuts were brought to light. One of these nuts after-
wards sprouted, producing a plant which, in 1891, was stated to be
doing well in the grounds of Lord Ravensworth, near Dunston.
The work of preparing the site was proceeding slowly when, early
in 1889, the need of the mill suddenly grew urgent. It became
known that a scheme was afoot for combining all the private flour
mills from the Humber to the Tweed. Under this trust "one and
a half million consumers," it was said, would have been " handed
over to a few London speculators." The alarm was sounded by Mr.
H. R. Bailey, and a special conference of the Northern Section of the
Co-operative Union was called. At this meeting the promoters of
the syndicate were said to have approached the large societies in the
North to the end of their becoming shareholders in the trust. The
Co-operative Union, therefore, was congratulated upon " calling the
co-operators of the North of England together before they should be
led into a trap like that." The delegates pledged support to the
existing co-operative flour mills and the C.W.S., while asking that no
time should be lost in bringing up the Dunston reinforcements.
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