ken
Trainee
Posts: 46
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Post by ken on Mar 19, 2011 4:42:46 GMT -5
An essential part of the miner's family life used to be the co-operatve stores. There were two in our village of Easington, the Sherburn Hill and Ryhope-and-Silksworth. Our family used the Sherburn Hill one. The big attraction of the co-ops was the dividend. All your purchases except cigarettes gave a dividend or rebate once a year. When that day came all the housewives could be seen streaming to the store on dividend day to buy some long anticipated goods for the family. The miners used to call it RACE DAY!!!
I think a dividend of about 1s 6p in the pound would be given. The store was quite big. It had food, clothing, footwear, and a chemists department. The CWS had their own factories.
Once a week A man came to each house of the members and took orders to be delivered a few days later. Your order was delivered by horse and cart using a huge draught horse. It needed a big horse as the cart was big and the terrain fairly steep. Kids used to ask their mothers for crusts to feed the horse while the driver was delivering to the houses.
On a visit home a few years ago I went into the store again but it was just a shadow of its former self. Just groceries and alcohol. Each member had an ID number. Woe betide any kid who forgot it when buying something. I can still remember ours even after not using it for 50 years. Perhaps members have some memories of the stores? Ken
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Post by Sam from Kent on Mar 19, 2011 13:54:16 GMT -5
Yes I remember the membership numbers, and as you say, woe betide any child who forgot their mothers number. My mothers number was 13963, and my grandmothers was 5505. Now, as a shop steward for USDAW, I find that the co-op is the most anti-union!!!
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Post by andyexplorer on Mar 19, 2011 17:45:06 GMT -5
Remember it well spend a pound and get free cinema tickets for the saturday matinee or some times free tickets for the Belle-View speedway and i also remember back then you had subsidised foods which were your basic diet ! milk, bread ,cheese, bacon, eggs, butter and i think the other one was spuds ? All of which will kill you now if you eat them ! my mums number was 12773
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Post by pitsparky on Mar 24, 2011 7:03:41 GMT -5
Hi, my Grandfather and Uncle were both Grocers at the coop and they used to talk to each other using code, ie members coop numbers ( check Numbers)
My Grandad would say " I see 858 is expecting twins " and my uncle used to say " never! when".
It used to drive my grandmother Nuts with frustration because she couldn't find out who was expecting, because she didn't know the code. ha ha.
Malcolm
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