Page 307 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Soap Works on the Ship Canal.
its inland terminus. In June, 1891, the Committee obtained power
from the delegates to buy ten acres of land on the northern bank
of the canal at Irlam, eight miles down from Manchester. This
area afterwards was increased to fifteen acres. The purchase
anticipated by nearly three years the completion of the canal,
and it was not until eighteen months after the latter event that
the new soap works was built and opened. On Wednesday, October
2nd, 1894, a special train from Manchester brought do\Mi 600
delegates for the formal opening, and a tour of the new property
quickly roused their enthusiasm. At the cost of £8,000 a " lay-by,"
or dock, from the canal had been built adjacent to the works, and
railway sidings gave a more intimate connection. The C.W.S.
factories, indeed, formed the terminus of a kind of branch from the
Cheshire Lines Committee's main road. The making of the canal
had necessitated a diverting and a building of the track to reach the
elevation of a high-level bridge, and the soap works now had the
benefit of the old Une from its junction with the new. In and out
of the buildings the equipment was nothing if not modern and
complete. The soap trade of co-operative societies which might be
supphed from Irlam was said to be 400 tons per week, and the
confidence of the Committee was shown by the fact of the new
manufactory having a capacity to produce three-quarters of this
total amount. In Mr. J. E. Green, the manager of the Durham
works, the Committee had an equal faith as being the right man
for Irlam also, and the task of enlisting the co-operative public in
the defence of its own interests by the merits of Irlam soap v/as now
left to his chief care.
Six months later the Durham establishment vras closed. The
Northern delegates demurred to a co-operative industry going out
of their district, and many inquiries and suggestions were made
concerning the use of the old buildings. Jam making in the North
just then was in some favour, and there was a desire that a future
manager of a future preserving works should be biu"dened with the
old premises at Durham. The reply was made, all too prematurety,
that the Committee already had decided upon placing a Northern
jam works at West Hartlepool. So the Durham property was sold.
Soap production thus was concentrated at Irlam. During the ten
years until the end of 1905 the average weight sent out increased
slowly from 72 to 265 tons weekly. Early in 1906 the rate of
progress had become trivial, and the Committee appealed for
co-operative support against the seductive coupon and bonus wrapper
R 241