Page 324 - 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.

The little change, apart from gro%vth, has contmued to the present
day, making it a light task to record the short, simple, and, in regard
to its social and co-operative spirit, certauily cheerful annals of the
tobacco factory.

The objection to the selling of the Durham works, and the desire
for a district factory in an industrj'' where the relatively hght cost
of carriage makes centralisation preferable, showed the co-operators
of the North as being keen upon locaHsing C.W.S. production.
This feehng becoming known outside co-operative circles had effect
upon at least one firm engaged in trade wdth Northern societies.
In 1895, upon this ground, Messrs, Thomas Furness and Company,
of West Hartlepool, offered their lard refinery and egg-pickhng
plant to the C.W.S. The offer was announced in December as
agreed to, subject to the sanction of the delegates. The factory
(buUt in 1883), stores, tanks, railway sidings, &c., were to be
purchased for £17,500, the ground, open and built upon, totalling
5,800 square yards, all freehold. Thus the present West Hartlepool
Lard Refinery came to the C.W.S. The egg department was
discontinued in 1904, and the business has since remained one of lard
refining only. It has yielded fluctuating profits, affected by changing
American mfluences upon pigs as a commodity. The supphes in
1912 reached the value of £127,460, with profits of £4,595.
At Hartlepool it \\'as rather vainly hoped to create a variety
of industries— jam maldng, sweet boiling, and so on. But a step
towards a general productive centre in the county of Durham
on the model of the Scottish Wholesale Society's group at Shield-
hall, Glasgow, was taken in 1898. Towards the end of 1896 a
drug and drysaltery business had been commenced at the C.W.S.
Newcastle premises, and steadily had developed under the energetic
attentions of Mr. R. A. Wallis. For this, and for other productive
activities which the Newcastle Branch was cultivating, separate
factories away from the citj'' quickly became necessary. After a year
and a half of negotiation A\ith the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who,
if hard bargainers, had the business merit of nammg their conditions
and sticking to them, the then almost separate Newcastle Committee,
with the approval of the General Committee at Manchester,
agreed to the Commissioners' terms. Since the latter body would
sell land outright only for rehgious uses, the C.W.S. Newcastle
directors decided to lease 3| acres of ground at Pelaw for 999
years at an annual charge of 2d. per square yard. Many delegates
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