Page 88 - 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 CAV.S. —

to Manchester to buy a corn mill in Gateshead which had been offered
to the branch, " the societies contributing to the purchase at a levy
of so much per member." A number of such appeals were made
subsequently, but, apart from other considerations, the governing
body of the Wholesale was hampered by the claims of the various
co-operative corn mills already existing in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
The Newcastle Committee made inquiries about building sites,
notably in Granger Street West, but were unable to induce Man-
chester to buy. Premises were taken, therefore, in Pudding Chare;
and the beginning of May, 1872. foimd the Newcastle Branch and its
three employees housed in a two-storey building in this narrow lane.
" " The word
Chares are fairly common in Newcastle. is first
cousin to the " char " of " charwoman," and only shghtly further
removed from the " chores " sometimes grimly famiUar to the
Canadian immigrant. The common root is the old English cerr, a
turn. This particular turn curves from the Bigg Market to the city
end of Westgate Road. The smaU v\'arehouse which the C.W.S.
occupied has given way to an extension of the Newcastle Chronicle
building. Pudding Chare, as seen in the old engraving v,-e reproduce,
is viewed before this alteration, but the standpoint just excludes the
old C.W.S. warehouse by cutting off the building in the foreground
on the left. The odd name, " Pudding." has interested local
antiquaries, led b}^ ]\Ir. Heslop; but v.iien the records are traced
back to a certain Matilda Puddyng, who, in the time of Henry III.,
held property of the king hereabouts, twelve feet by six, at a cost of
twopence a year, the general reader ceases to be further interested.
The Pudding Chare warehouse, after all, merely served as a
stop-gap. With a trade that in the first complete year overtopped
£150,000. the Committee continually were alert for larger premises.
Through Dr. Rutherford—Congregationalist minister, medical man,
educationalist, and philanthropist, whose ill fate it was to
become the managing director of the Ouseburn Engme Works
land was acquired in the city, with a view to building. This was
the Strawberry House and Estate. But some triangular misunder-
standing between Newcastle, Manchester, and Dr. Rutherford
underlay the transaction; and, while the doctor was thanked by
special resolution, the house and estate eventually were re-sold. A
more permanent result followed the attending of a sale of property
situated in Waterloo Street, held in February, 1873. No purchase
was then made, but the delegates' visit produced a further oifer of
two plots of land in Waterloo and Thornton Streets, "Ahich together
no