21 Bridge Street Swindon. AKA a branch of Swindon Co-operative Provident Society from 1927 onwards.
I’ve featured the building you see here because it’s a fine building in a somewhat less parlous state than many. And it’s part of Swindon’s Co-op story. Something I feel I shouldn’t let this series pass by without mention.
It’s a story that’s less than ideal in its complexity. It’s rather a bad acid trip trying to unravel it. One reason for that being that Swindon managed to have not one but THREE Co-operative societies. They were:
- The Swindon Co-operative Provident Society – founded in 1850 with a small bread shop.
- 1861/62 saw the formation of the New Swindon Industrial Co-operative Society – a breakaway from The Swindon Co-operative Provident Society.
- Come 1880, a third group, the Kingshill Co-operative, opened in Radnor Street.
So what I’m going to do is offer a few facts, gleaned from a brief history of the Swindon Co-operative Provident Society Ltd, as it concerns our building, to give you an idea. In that document there’s a poor quality photograph of it in its former glory. And I’ll get to that in a bit.
As anyone that was a schoolchild in the 1950s and 1960s, worth their salt, ought to be able to tell you, the Co-operative movement began in Rochdale, Lancashire in 1844. There and then, a group of twenty-eight men, set about selling food at honest prices. And to share the profits through a dividend – known as the divi.
I remember well walking up the road to the ‘corp’, as we called it, to buy milk tokens – different colours for different types of milk. These we’d put on the doorstep, one token per pint required, and the ‘corp’ milkman would collect them and leave the requisite bottles of milk. And the tokens would return to the branch for reuse. Recycling before it had been invented. And I remember mum’s divi book too …anyway …
The building now
As the image shows the bottom half of the building is in a mess – but the upper floors do appear to be occupied.
As you can see the bottom half of this building most recently served as a drinking establishment. But it must have had more uses than that. Was there a branch of the much-loved-much-missed Norman’s furnishings in this building? If anyone can clarify anything I’d be grateful.
Not only but also
Now 21 Bridge Street might around the corner, onto Fleet Street (see above) behind the Public Benefit Boot Company premises on the corner itself – and a modern building replacing what you see in the local studies pic below.
The Local Studies Flickr site has the image below described thus: 1934: East Street Co-op on Fleet Street, Swindon. Is this another entrance to ‘our’ building? Or is it another branch altogether? That it’s referred to as East Street Co-op rather suggests that. As does it not being the same style as our building. There again that might mean nothing at all. Answers on a postcard please!
The New Swindon Co-operative Provident Society – 1850 to 1951
It began with a box of bloaters … I think …
In the latter part of 1850, a group of Swindon men resolved to follow the Rochdale pioneers and buy goods from wholesalers and merchants. They started with a box of bloaters/herrings and followed that with grocery and flour.
From 1853 to 1862 the society’s fortunes varied. Business first took place at 4 High Street – by the the corner of Oxford Street. The society then rented a bakery in Church Place. At length Dr Swinhoe had a house built on the site – what we now know as Park House.
They then decided to buy land to erect a bakery. On Oct 21st 1862 the society bought a plot of land at East Place for £51 and moved the registered office to it.
But the grocery part of the business it seems, wasn’t as successful as the bakery side of the enterprise. As a result, the committee took the decision to drop the grocery and concentrate on the bakery. Unfortunately some of the membership were unhappy with this decision and formed a breakaway society. Thus the New Swindon Industrial Co-operative Society came into being.
On January 27 1951 the Swindon Co-operative Provident society (offices on Henry Street) ceased to exist as a separate entity. It became part of the New Swindon Industrial Society – known locally as the East St Society or the East Street Co-Op. And the name lived on until 2005.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
So there you have the barest of bones of Swindon’s Co-op story. Here’s an interesting thing though. If you go to Bridge Street and study this building you can see ghosts of the legend: New Swindon Co-operative Society Ltd (see images below).
AND if your eyes are sharp enough, the lettering of an earlier incarnation appears. I can’t make it out but it’s possible it’s the one on the image in this history brochure:
