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
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