The Early Co-Operative Society in Silkstone - Updated
The Early Co-Operative Movement in Silkstone
Until recently there was a Co-Op in Silkstone at the garage and the closest one to Silkstone now is in Dodworth which many will be familiar with. However, the roots of the Co-Operative movement in Silkstone go back 165 years to a single shop and a few pioneering individuals.
There is reference to a co-operative society in the village going back to the early 1860s. In June 1863 the Silkstone Pioneers Industrial Society (also referred to as the Silkstone Industrial Co-Operative Society and the Silkstone Pioneers Co-Operative Society) held its' 5th half-yearly meeting at The Fox and Hounds Inn. This would mean that the Co-operative movement began in Silkstone in 1861 which is the same year as it was established in Barnsley and would possibly have been one of the earliest in the district.
Notes added by AH 26/3/26 - a newspaper article recently discovered and dated 1st Aug 1902 gives a history of early friendship societies etc in Silkstone including The Silkstone Pioneers Industrial Society as follows:- "This society commenced in a small way, but after a few years did a large business. The rules were certified on 21st March 1861 and the initial capital was raised by £1 shares. The first shop was the house of Charles Firth, who acted as salesman, and Joseph Cooper was the first secretary. Owing to increased membership and larger sales, the business was removed to the new shop built by John Turner, and remained there until disposed of to the Barnsley British Co-Operative Society. John Harrison succeeded Charles Firth as salesman, and Joshua Barraclough** acted as the secretary. When the Barnsley British took over the concern in the early 1870s*, John Houldsworth was appointed manager."
*The reference that the BBCS took over the Pioneers Industrial Society in the early 1870s must be incorrect as this appears to have happened in 1880 / 1881 as noted below.
**A newspaper report from 1869 noted Luke Barraclough as secretary of the Silkstone Pioneers Industrial Society at that date. Luke would have been 35 years old when the Society was formed in 1861. He died suddenly in 1871 at the age of 45 while he was headmaster at Hoylandswaine school. Joshua Barraclough was Luke's older brother. He had also been headmaster at Hoylandswaine school before Luke and was at Cawthorne school when Luke died. Joshua Barraclough died over 20 years later in 1892 aged 69. His newspaper obituary noted that "through his instrumentality, the Silkstone and Cawthorne Co-operative Societies were effectually established, and for many years enjoyed uninterupted success while he continued as secretary". When Luke Barraclough died unexpectedly in 1871, his brother Joshua (along with another brother James) took on his headmaster duties at Hoylandswaine until a permanent replacement was found, therefore it is possible that Joshua Barraclough also took over as secretary of the Silkstone Pioneers Industrial Society when Luke died.
The first salesman, Charles Firth, came from a Silkstone mining family and having taken on the role of shopkeeper with the Society he subsequently managed to stay out of the mines, moving to Barnsley and taking on a general shop there before eventually becoming a stationer / newsagent. He died in 1882 aged 64 and was buried back at Silkstone.
Joseph Cooper, the first secretary, was only 26 when the Society was formed. Born in Cawthorne, he lived in Silkstone and worked as a colliery checkweighman in one of the local mines. He was still involved in 1869, though Luke Barraclough had taken over as secretary.
An 1864 report named James Wilson as the man occupying the chair at the annual meeting. James Wilson was a simple coal miner in his mid 40s, born and raised in Silkstone. He was a staunch Methodist and would sometimes speak at Methodist gatherings such as the one in Cawthorne in Apr 1862. In 1876 when the new Wesleyan Chapel was built in Silkstone, James Wilson was one of the main people involved in the ceremony to lay cornerstones and was one of those who gave a speech to the 300 or so people who attended. He lived with his wife and seven children at Pot Houses in Silkstone.
In July 1869 the annual Society meeting was held at the Fox and Hounds in Silkstone with upwards of seventy members being provided with a tea by Mr and Mrs Arrand. A newspaper report notes that Messrs John Balm and Joseph Cooper read interesting papers and the secretary of the society, Mr Luke Barraclough, spoke "very cheeringly of its' means".
In July 1870 the annual tea party of the Society was attended by 70 members. The treasurer was Mr Thomas Jubb and James Wilson was noted as a committee member. In his address Mr Wilson referred to "the infant state of the society, its' growth, the difficulties it had grappled with, the good it had done and the benefit it was conferring upon the village of Silkstone and neighbourhood." It was also noted that Mr and Mrs Harrison were the "esteemed shopkeepers". John Harrison and his wife, Hannah, had moved to the area from Lancashire (their son was born in Accrington in 1865). In the article written in 1902 recounting the early years of the Society it was noted that John Harrison succeeded Charles Firth as salesman. When John Harrison was preparing to leave the job in Dec 1875 an advert stated that he had been running the shop for six and a half years, therefore replaced Charles Firth in 1869.
The early co-operative societies faced stern opposition from the regular long standing shopkeepers as they rewarded their customers with dividends and savings on essential items, particularly food, that the traditional shops didn't usually offer. They felt that the co-ops gained an unfair advantage and that they would lose customers and profits as a result . However the co-ops were popular in communities such as mining areas where families struggled to make ends meet and every penny counted. In 1863 it was reported that members of the Silkstone Society would receive a dividend of 1s 6d for every pound spent, meaning that some members had saved upto £3 12s over the previous six months (almost 3s per week). This was significant as the average weekly wage for a miner in the early 1860s was just 16s 9d.
A report on various societies in the Barnsley area in 1875 noted that the Silkstone Pioneers had 116 members - a similar society in Cawthorne had 140 members and the Barnsley British Co-Operative Society (BBCS) had 3,524 members at that time.
On 18th Dec 1875 an advert appeared in the Barnsley Chronicle for the position of manager of the Co-Op Stores, Silkstone as John Harrison and his wife prepared to leave their role after six and a half years running the shop.
John Harrison was replaced by John Higson in Jan 1876. John Harrison and his family remained in Silkstone until at least 1879, but by 1881 he had taken on the role of innkeeper at The Old Elephant & Castle Inn in Knaresborough. A remarkable incident had happened in May 1876 when John Higson accused John Harrison of assault - in his evidence Higson said that "they had previously been strangers to each other but since Higson had taken over the shop, Harrison had repeatedly shown malice to him". The case went to court in Barnsley and after each had blamed the other, the case was dismissed with the magistrate ruling that the parties were to pay costs between them.
John Higson had moved to Silkstone from Clayton West. He had been a grocer there for around 15 years following in his father's footsteps when his father died in 1861. The electoral registers record him at Silkstone with "house and shop" upto 1881. By the time of the census that year he had moved to Barnsley and he continued to work as a grocer in Barnsley until he died in 1900 at the age of 56. His eldest son Peter worked for the BBCS in stores at Hemingfield and Mapplewell so it is possible that John Higson was also employed by the them.
As the BBCS continued to grow it expanded into the surrounding villages and in 1880 opened its' first branch in Silkstone. Many of the early independent co-operative societies were being absorbed by the bigger organisations, and an announcement was made in the press on 17th Feb 1881 that the Silkstone Pioneer Industrial Society Limited had been dissolved. This coincides with information in the History of the Barnsley British Co-Operative Society, published in 1902, that a was opened in Silkstone in 1880. It is quite probable that the BBCS took over the same shop as that previously run by the Pioneers until 1899 when a brand new store was built in the village.
The original organisation which had been set up in 1861 used the house of the first salesman, Charles Firth, as the first shop. According to the article written in 1902, owing to increased membership and larger sales, the Society was moved to a new shop built by John Turner. This was possibly sometime in the early 1870s. John Turner's occupation in the 1861 census return is given as joiner.
The new Barnsley British Co-Operative Society Store at Silkstone
The cornerstone on the old Co-Operative stores opposite the entrance to Towngate is inscribed "This stone was laid by Mr D Eddlestone July 31st 1899". A small paragraph in a newspaper dated 5th Aug reads "The corner-stone of the new branch of the co-operative store at Silkstone was laid on Monday by Mr D Eddlestone, a director of the society. A successful tea and meeting followed".
This photograph of the BBCS Branch at Silkstone appeared in the 1902 book - William Goodall standing in the shop doorway
William Goodall was born in Darfield on 8th April 1869 so was in his early 30s when he moved to Silkstone with his wife and young family to take on the new shop. Before moving to Silkstone he had been a grocer's assistant living on Snape Hill in Darfield.
The family lived in the house attached to the new shop which at the time was known as Sunny View (being opposite Sunnybank Farm). William instantly took to his new life in Silkstone playing for the bowls team at the Bonny Bunch O' Roses, and being elected a vice-president and committee member of the village cricket club at a meeting held on 21st January 1901. He had been a cricketer with Darfield CC and Darfield All Saints before moving to Silkstone. He regularly chaired cricket club meetings and in 1903 he provided two ducks to the cricket club prize draw.
However he didn't stay in Silkstone for very long. The family left the village in 1905 - his eldest child Percy is shown as leaving the school on 27th July and at a cricket meeting on 25th July it was recorded that the club "presented Mr Goodall with his testimonial, who thanked every one of his friends in the heartiest fashion".
Their short stay in Silkstone, however, was filled with enormous tragedy as William and his wife Florence tragically lost three of their five young children. Five years old Frances Hilda died on 19th Feb 1902 and less than a month later on 16th Mar another daughter Florence Maude, aged just 2 years old, also died. Two years later a baby, George Henry, died aged just four weeks old.
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