Leicester's Co-operative Commonwealth – Vol 1

During the 1890s, there was a steady growth in co-operatively run factories in Leicester. Nearly all were formed on the initiative of the workers themselves with the assistance of other co-operatives and trade unions. These producer co-ops represented a significant experiment in industrial democracy and by the early 20th century, Leicester had more co-partnership factories than any other town in Britain. As a result the town became the national centre of the Producer Co-operative movement.

The co-partnership model did not amount to straightforward workers' ownership, but rather a stakeholder model of governance. All members or shareholders had just one vote, no matter how much share capital they held. Members could be either those employed by the society, individual members not so employed or other co-operative societies. No member had any right to employment, though in practice societies tried to employ as many members as was commercially possible. The members elected a management committee which had more oversight than was normal for a company Board of Directors. This committee also appointed the General Manager. Net profits were devoted first to a 5% dividend on shares, followed by a further division between workers, customers, shareholders, educational and other funds. In the early years, some of the co-ops resisted mechanisation and defended craft skills, but in the end mechanisation was embraced out of necessity.

Although co-partnership in Leicester was strongest within the boot and shoe trade, there was also a spread of enterprises across other local trades. Initially they all relied on being able to sell goods to co-op retail societies around Britain. This ready market enabled their growth and expansion, but it also became the cause of their eventual downfall. In the inter war period, retail societies began to loosen their ties with productive societies as they pursued more commercial goals. Post war, the demand goods from the producer co-ops declined as the co-op’s share of the retail market was squeezed by the supermarkets. By finding new markets for their products, two local enterprises, the Carriage Builders and Equity Shoes, were able buck this trend and survive into the 21^st  century.

Amos Mann was also one of the founders of the Society and became the second president holding office for more than twenty years. He also became president of the Leicester Co-operative Society and was  among the pioneers of the Anchor Tenants Ltd.

Anchor provided stable, well-paid employment, under trade union conditions for a substantial workforce over a forty year period which was no mean economic achievement. In the 1920s it made the 'famous' Clef brand of ladies shoes and Fultred brand for children. All workers were required to have a £1 share and had to allow their interests and profits to remain with the co-op until they had a share capital of £100. However, Equity had twice the membership of Anchor and consequently generated more capital, making it a stronger business organization. Anchor shoes went in voluntary liquidation in November 1935. The substantially altered factory is now occupied by the Jame Mosque.

^{Sources: Amos Mann, Democracy in Industry, The story of twenty-one years work of the Leicester Anchor Boot and Shoe Productive Society Limited (1914), 1898, Board of Trade: Report on Workmen's Co-operative Societies, 1901 & updated in 1910 Peter Ackers: Experiments in Industrial Democracy: An Historical Assessment of the Leicestershire Boot and Shoe Co-operative Co-partnership Movement, Labor History 2016.}

In 1902, Henry Vivian gave a lecture to workers at the Anchor Shoe Co-operative on 'Co-operation and Housing of the People.' As a result 45 workers began to subscribe towards their own co-operative housing venture. These workers were all keen allotment gardeners and wanted houses with a garden attached.

In 1907, the Anchor tenants purchased a 48 acre holding at Humberstone from Captain Burns Hartopp for £48,000. The sloping site was in entirely rural surroundings just east of Humberstone village. Through bulk buying and using direct labour, costs were kept to a minimum and by October 1908 the first pair of cottages on Keyham Lane had been completed at a cost of £450. They were let for 6s 3d per week. By 1910, forty-nine houses were occupied and with fruit trees bought collectively, the gardens began to take on a well-cultivated appearance. By 1912, all tenants were required to be shareholders in the Society and had to contribute to share capital until they held £50 - a sum nearly equal to the entire annual earnings of an unskilled labourer.

The initial layout of Humberstone Garden Suburb was undertaken by Raymond Unwin. His low density development featured houses built around the perimeter of large blocks of land. Instead of being used for courtyard dwellings or workshops, the back land was to be filled with gardens and communal facilities like the tennis-courts. Unwin emphasised that it was important to locate these within the block rather than on the expensive road frontage.

Unwin wanted to eliminate the parlour in favour of a single large living-room in his designs. This was not acceptable to the Anchor Tenants, who employed a local man, George Hern, as their architect to provide them with plans for parlour houses. As the building of the suburb progressed, they also made alterations to Unwin's original layout. Instead of Unwin's original romantic vision of a village green surrounded by terraced blocks of houses, they chose semi-detached houses and large gardens, built to a slightly lower density. Using a team of 12 assistants, Hern designed and built to the individual requirements of each tenant and no two houses were alike. The Garden Suburb provided the first local examples of rectangular semi-detached working class housing. The Anchor tenants were the first working people in Leicester to have a bathroom in a semi-detached house. In contrast to Leicester's slums, they had a water supply in the kitchen and a lavatory all to themselves. This was despite the land initially having no nearby sewage or storm drains.

The biggest problem the tenants faced was in raising the necessary capital. Things were made somewhat easier in 1910 when they received a loan from the Public Works Loans Board. By 1915, the garden suburb comprised 96 houses with a population of 350. In addition, a block comprising three shops, a meeting-room and offices had been built as well as tennis courts and a room for community use. Anchor Tenants was managed by a committee elected by the members. There was also an elected Estate Council which was responsible for a range of educational and social activity including a medical society, concerts, dances, whist drives, and lectures.

The scheme at Humberstone was a success and demonstrated that the new methods of design and layout were a practicality. Nevertheless, it had taken years of hard work to build comparatively few houses. The Humberstone Garden Suburb is unique, not just because it predates both Letchworth & Hampstead, or because its original structure is still intact, but because it is the only garden suburb ever to be built by the members of a workers co-operative. It is still a co-operative.

Sources: Leicester Pioneer, 10th October 1908, Leicester Co-op Congress Souvenir, 1915., M D Forrester: An Examination of the Origins and Sources of Humberstone Garden Suburb, Leicester, (1907-1914), Anchor Tenants

The Blackfriars Press Limited was formed as a subsidiary on the National Labour Press in Manchester in 1914 to undertake work for the Independent Labour Party (ILP).. It moved to Leicester in 1918 with Walter W. Borrett as manager. Annie Maxton (the sister of James Maxton) and Emrys Hughes were both one time members of the management committee. It was a successful and privately run company. The business was registered as a friendly society in the early 1980s when the ILP gave the business to its employees to trade as a co-operative. Lack of finance and bad debts caused the company to close in 1984.

Excelsior began December 1906 and was the last pre-war shoe manufacturing society to be established. It was formed out of frustration with the Sileby employers who refused to recognise the union (NUBSO). Until then the union had 'failed to make any impression upon the Sileby workers, the manufacturers of that district being bitterly opposed to organised labour.' Not surprisingly, all the workers joined the local branch of NUBSO.

Members contributed £10 each in share capital to rent a two-storey factory and start production. Although they lacked business experience, Excelsior made good headway and at the end of the first year turnover was £2,593, yielding a £70 profit. Over the next two years, trade doubled to £7,640 in 1909. By then the existing premises were too small and a new factory was built at a cost of £1,159, with money borrowed from the Leicester Co-operative Society. Production commenced in December 1910 with 39 workers, when turnover was £9,582, and by 1914 this had risen to £22,190, with a profit of £918.

In 1918, the factory was found to be too small and a further site was acquired. A single storey modern brick building was opened in January 1925 near the railway station. As a late starter, this co-operative seems to have avoided the early adverse trading of other co-partnership producers and in its first twenty years increased its turnover from £2,500 to £70,000.  Its trademark was the "Excellon" Brand.

^{Sources : Howes, C. (ed), Leicester: Its Civic, Industrial, Institutional and Social Life, (1927). David Holmes: Development Of The Boot And Shoe Industry In Leicester During The Nineteenth Century, Board of Trade op.cit., Sileby Village.co.uk}

The society was formed in 1892 by a group of shoemakers assisted by 'several prominent members of the local distributive society'. A new Station Road Factory was built in 1895 and two years later power machinery was introduced and the working week cut to 52½ hours. There were 50 employees in 1898 and the society made £184 profit. In 1901 the local consumer and productive societies merged and by 1913 had 247 members and employed 90 workers. For the half-year of June 1914, turnover had reached £10,240 creating a profit of £531.

Sources: Howles  op cit; Leicester Co-operative Congress, Ackers op.cit, Leicester, Halstead, The Story of a village industrial democracy; Wilshire, Glenfield, 15. Board of Trade op. cit.

This Society was started in 1889 by ten men following a nine weeks’ strike of finishers in the boot and shoe trade. Having raised £200 capital, the society was begun: “with the intention of employing themselves and others, and also to further the interests of trade unionism.” It was registered in 1890 but in September 1891 it suffered from a disastrous fire. The building on New Street was gutted and although the building and stock was insured, no work could be done until the business was relocated. The press report of the fire mentions a Co-operative Hosiery society in the adjoining building.  A recovery was made and the society was able to report in 1894 that:

We have found it difficult and hard uphill work to establish a trade, but by perseverance and giving good value for money, by using nothing but the best material, we have succeeded in opening accounts with 150 societies. Our capital has not, however, increased sufficiently with our trade, and we are, therefore, much inconvenienced by not having sufficient capital to work with. We however confidently hope that societies will help us in this matter. 

Folkestone Co-Operative Society was one of the societies that did invest and the society was able to move of of its old New street workshop. In 1895, the Society received planning permission for a new factory which  was built on John Street. It was described as light, roomy and convenient. No further evidence of activity can be found and it can be assumed that the society went out of business during the late 1890s.

Sources: Leicester Chronicle 3rd October 1891, Leicester Daily Post, 19th September 1895, Historical Sketches of Our Productive Societies, Leicester 1894

This society started out with a workforce of 12, but failed to make a profit. Amos Mann was the president of this society, but his special knowledge and his experience from Anchor did not stop the basket makers’ society from going under. This co-operative closed its doors in 1910 and the stock-in-trade was bought by a Lancashire firm.

^{Sources: Board of Trade op.cit.}

In 1898, the society was building 11 houses in Western Road Extension, plus 19 houses in Oakley and Humberstone Roads, two houses in St Dunstan’s Road and four houses in Stuart Street. It is likely that some of the latter were for Equity. The society also acted as a speculative builder offering some houses for sale. In 1898, they had their office at 5, Paton Street, Narborough Road and advertised as builders and shop, office and warehouse fitters. There were 40 employees and 55 shareholders in 1898 and made  £316 profit.

^{Sources: Leicester Chronicle 29th April 1893, 13th January 1907, Leicester Mercury 22nd November 1898. National Labour Party Conference Souvenir, Leicester 1911. Henry Demarest Lloyd: Labor Copartnership, (sic) 1898, Co-operation in Leicester, 1898.}

This unusual co-operative enterprise was founded in 1903. It was a bold venture and the only society of its kind in the co-operative market. It began trading from premises on Thornton Lane and as the business expanded it moved to Highcross Street and later East Bond Street. It had a workforce of 16 in 1909.

In 1913, the Carriage Builders moved to purpose built premises on Marlow Road with offices, workshop and wood mill with a blacksmiths shop at the rear. For many years the society was governed on democratic lines with the profits being divided between capital, custom and worker. By the 1930s, it had an established reputation for building: bakers’ vans (on pneumatic tyres), travelling butchers' and grocers’ shops, drapery and hardware vans, and all kinds of vehicles for co-op dairies. These could be built on to any make of chassis.

In 1971, the Society began its association with the Leicestershire Co-operative Society and continued to convert vehicles for many purposes including mobile libraries, welfare vehicles and mobile 'walk in' post office vans. It is probably at this stage that it ceased to be a co-partnership. In 1995, Leicester Carriage Builders became part Midlands Co-operative Society through the merger of the former Leicester and Central Midlands Societies. In 2002, Leicester Carriage builders became a private incorporated company run by the Central England Co-operative Society. In January 2016 the Society closed Leicester Carriage Builders down as “part of a wide ranging review of its business portfolio.” Subsequently the Society provided some support and assistance to enable Steve Stones (a former senior manager) to establish Multi Vehicle Technology Ltd as a totally independent and unrelated successor to Leicester Carriage Builders.

The First Co-operative 1867-1875

The first Leicester Co-operative Hosiery Manufacturing Society began in 1867 with no more than 60 members and operated from premises in Friday Street where T.P. Bailey a leader of the framework knitters lived. The society became known as ‘Mr Bailey’s Society.’ However, it suffered from under investment and in 1873, it was described having departed from its first principles when, instead of manufacturing hosiery, it was buying and selling boots and drapery having taken over a retail shop. Its largest turnover was £573 in 1874. In 1875, the Leicester and Leicestershire Framework Knitters' Union bought out the failing co-operative. The union members were not unanimous about running a workshop and the venture did not prosper.

The Second Co-operative 1876 - 1903

George Newell was the secretary of the Leicester and Leicestershire Framework Knitters' Union and an enthusiast for co-operative production. In 1876, a second hosiery manufacturing co-operative was started and Newell was appointed its general manager. This second co-operative began using hand frames, then in 1882, it expanded and moved factory premises where powered machinery was introduced.

The men and women were all shareholders and received none of the profits in cash until £10 has been accumulated for the purchase of his stock. Of the nine directors, two had to work at the factory. There was a room set aside for education which could hold 400 people for lectures, concerts and meetings. In 1897 1½% of profits was given to education and 5% to an old age pension fund and in 1899, 224 people were employed in the factory with a profit of £6,188. The success of this venture was to prove the inspiration for other local producer co-ops.

Newell developed a close affinity with the national co-op pioneer Edward Greening and the Christian socialist E.V. Neale. Newell was a deacon at the Oxford Street Chapel and he saw co-operative production as a means of applying Christian principles to industrial life.  He eventually became the spokesman for the Producers' Co-operative federation and was a Liberal Town Councillor from 1899-1901.

^{Sources: Board of Trade report 1901, Blandford, T. & Newell, G., Leicester Co-operative Hosiery Manufacturing Society (1898), Benjamin Jones: Co-operative Production, (1894) H.D. Lloyd op.cit.}

Leicester Co-operative Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Society or ‘Equity Shoes’ was the longest lasting co-partnership factory in Leicester. It traded from 1887 until 2009. It was founded in 1886 as the result of a strike at the C.W.S. factory. Following the dispute, the strike committee decided to set up their own factory, manage it themselves and share in the profits. Sam Woolley called the founding meeting held at St Margaret’s Coffee House in Church Gate on 17^th September 1886. That meeting was attended by 70 or 80 people from the CWS factory, but including several front other places (for the affair had leaked nut), and several others not associated with the boot trade at all. The proposal to start a factory on co-operative lines was agreed to enthusiastically, 60 shares were taken up in the room. The shares were £1 each. Both he and his father J.H. Woolley became committee members. Woolley is listed as attending the meeting of the Labour Association held in Leicester in March 1886, where Henry Rowley extolled the virtues of co-operative production.

The CWS manager John Butcher was sympathetic and allowed subscriptions to be collected, the Boot & Shoe Union bought shares and the Leicester Co-operative Society provided a free meeting place. Machines for the plant were bought cheaply from other manufacturers having been valued by an engineer on the committee.  The co-operative started business in small factory in Friar’s Causeway close to the canal with £420 in capital that was contributed by the workers, their trade union and a few sympathisers. The wages paid were the same as those paid in the C.W.S. factory. 

At first, Equity could only employ four workers out of its 220 members and had to compete with the larger and better equipped C.W.S. factory. Initially, jobs that the C.W.S. did by machine, Equity workers had to do by hand, but progress was rapid. At this time Equity only made ladies shoes. They feared that by making both men's and women's shoes with the crude equipment available would have led to a decline in quality. They also refused to manufacture cheap shoes which realized only a small profit per pair and instead sort to produce higher quality goods which realised a better profit.

In 1889, the factory then moved to larger premises in Bede Street, Braunstone Gate consisting of two three-storey warehouses with a total size of 15,000 square feet of room and this had an education room on the top floor. This factory had an engine and machinery, though it was still lacking the mechanisation found in the CWS factory William Henry Becks was the manager and in 1891 there were 130 employees on the premises and 40 working in their homes. The factory now produced both ladies’ and men’s shoes. The Bede Street factory building is still in existence.

Extract from a letter received from G. J. Holyoake, on April 8th, 1894: —

“I wish I had a photo of the man who made my Shoes. They are graceful; they are perfect; light, soft, and fit to a hair. When I am Pope the ‘Eagle Brand ’ shall be Boot Makers to the Vatican.”

At this time Equity resisted the temptation to sell outside the co-operative movement and declined offers from shops. The Huddersfield Co-operative Society took its co-operative loyalty even further when it adopted a policy of only buying from the CWS and not co-partnerships like Equity. In 1890, Equity retaliated by deciding to open a shop in Huddersfield. However the shop had to be closed after other co-operative societies threatened to boycott Equity.  At this time goods were sold under trade-mark of 'Eagle', but in 1894 the co-partnership took the name of 'Equity' because it was found that ‘Eagle’ had been registered to another company.

Equity, like the other productive societies, installed machinery when it could afford to do so, but was careful that it should not cause workers to be made redundant. During 1893 there was considerable discussion about new machinery and whether it came at the expense of jobs. By a vote of 68 to 45 votes it was agreed to purchase new machinery, but at a pace which allowed waiting members to get work. The policy was use machinery to increase output rather than save labour.

In 1894, Equity built a new four storey factory on Western Road complete with a spacious ‘Educational Institute’ on the top floor. This hall seated 250 people and newspapers, games, a piano (of co-operative make), and a library were available to the workforce. This education work was funded by 5% of the factory’s profits.  The factory was well lit and had ‘lofty’ rooms - special attention was given to ventilation. Running up through the outer walls were twenty brick shafts with openings on every floor. A huge fan driven by a gas engine sent fresh air, warmed in winter, so that the ‘healthiest conditions prevailed.’ The architect was D. Jarvis and the factory was built in 1894 and occupied at Christmas that year. It was designed so it could be expanded.  There were 296 employees and 555 shareholders in 1898 making £1,632 profit, ten years later there 245.

In 1897, the American journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd reported that Equity gave special attention to building homes for its members. Several building societies have been formed within the membership of the shoemaking factory. One worker told him: "Why should not we be our own landlords and have houses of our own to suit ourselves?" By that time Equity had built about sixty houses with 35 houses being built in Equity Road. These were conventional Victorian palisaded villas, rather than the Garden Suburb semi-detached houses that the Anchor Tenants built later. According to Lloyd, the first houses were built by a private contractor; but the most recent were by Leicester Co-operative Builders. They were described as having four bedrooms, bathroom, parlour, dining-room, kitchen and scullery. There were marble mantels, attractive woodwork and gas fixtures.

These houses were nearly all sold to employees or members of the Equity society. The average cost of the houses was $2000. (£400). A buyer paid $350 (£70) or $400 (£80) down, and then paid from $2.50 (10/-) a week upward until the balance was liquidated.   The weekly payment coupled with the upfront payment would have made these houses very expensive for most boot and shoe workers and may explain why some were advertised on the open market.

The Equity workers were a close knit community - even in the 1980s they were described as a family. According to Edward Greening in 1923:

“….there was no necessity for Equity workers to loiter listlessly about the streets or haunt the doors of public houses…Every Saturday night the (education) room is filled to overflowing with young people enjoying the pleasures of dancing under conditions of decorum, safety and temperance.”

There were also whist drives, Christmas parties, a cricket club and a library. There was also a provident fund support funeral expenses, sickness and pensions.

Equity ladies shoes c1923

In 1940, Equity opened a branch factory in Grace Road and was busy advertising for staff. This branch factory was eventually closed in 1964 when its operation was moved to a newly built extension to the Western Road factory. This housed the insole and packing department.

Eventually, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Equity went into liquidation. The factory was closed on 20th January 2009 and 98 workers were made redundant. That year Wendy Freer made a film about Equity Shoes. The factory building has now been converted to residential use and is now on Leicester City Council’s Heritage Asset Register.

This 28 minute film was made in 2009 by Wendy Freer on behalf of Leicester Industrial History Society. It combines scenes shot in the factory whilst it was still in production with footage from soon after its closure. The film follows the factory's shoe production process from cutting the leather to packing the finished shoes. (Creative Commons Licence, University of Leicester Special Collections)

Sources: Leicester Daily Post 15th September 1887, Leicester Chronicle, 2nd November 1889, 5th July 1890, 20th April 1895, Historical Sketches of Our Productive Societies, (Leicester 1894(, Henry Demarest Lloyd: Labor Copartnership, (1898), E.O. Greening, A Pioneer Partnership (1923), J.H. Plumb, A History of Leicester Co-operative Boot and Shoe Society, (1936) Board of Trade, op.cit.

This society was registered in 1903 at 69, Beaumanor Road, Leicester and is mentioned in passing in a couple of press reports in 1905. No other information has been found and it looks as if this was a short-lived venture

The other societies in Leicester gave them what work they could, and their first work of importance was to help move the engine and machinery of the Equity Boot and Shoe Society to its new factory in Western Road. Initially they had to deal with some Co-op Society’s wanting to go for the cheapest price, which encouraged ‘sweating’ and ‘boy labour.’ They worked for societies throughout the midlands.  There were 11 employees and 12 shareholders in 1898 making £178 profit. The manager of the Co-operative Engineers was John Hey and were originally at 18 Newarke Street, then at Graham Street.

In 1904 the Engineers exhibited at the Labour Co-partnership exhibition at the Crystal Palace. They showed a model of their latest patent: – a double arm kneader for bakeries. It is not known how long the enterprise lasted but it is not listed in the Board of Trade Report for 1910. 

Sources: Leicester Chronicle 10th September 1898, 25th February 1899, Co-operation in Leicester, 1898, Northampton Mercury 26th August 1904, 1268 - Catalogue of Leicester Co-operative Engineers Ltd, Graham Street, Humberstone Road, Leicester ROLLR

Most of Leicester’s Co-operative undertakings came from the initiative of the workers themselves. This was not the case with Leicester Co-operative Printers which was founded in 1892 as a joint initiative between local trades unions and consumer co-operatives. It was the latter who supplied the bulk of starting capital and orders in the early stages. In 1893, the business started in a small way in Vauxhall Street with. W. S. Wallin as manager. From letterpress printing, the society expanded into bookbinding.

The managing committee is chosen partly from the workmen, and its members get, besides their pay and their share of the profits, an allowance of ten per cent as compensation-an arrangement which is usual throughout the cooperative world. A member of a managing committee in a co-operative concern like this gets, first, his wages if an employee; second, his share of forty per cent of the profits, according to his wages; third, an extra payment as member of the committee, which, if there are, as here, nine members, would be one-ninth of ten per cent; fourth, his dividend on whatever share capital he may have in; fifth, his interest on whatever loan capital he may have deposited; sixth, his share of the benefits of the provident and educational fund; and, last but not least, his general benefit as a co-operator.

In 1899, 13 cottages were bought in Churchgate and in 1901 a purpose built plant was erected at 99 Church Gate. The building, designed by  Thomas Hind, included a room specifically designed for education and social uses.

In 1901 the business included letter printing, lithographic printing, bookbinding, packing, a stereotyping foundry and a composing room.In 1909 the adjoining premises, 101 Church Gate was taken over by the Society and a new department of box making was introduced. By 1913, over 30,000 boxes were being made every week on premises on Belgrave Gate and was this department was moved to larger premises in Briton Street. In the same year, negotiations were undertaken to acquire more land on Church Gate to further expand the premises.

The Co-op printers established a branch in Kettering where the works was set up to meet the needs of the Co-operative Societies in Northamptonshire. It also opened a London branch in Gough Street. In 1932, the organisation comprised of four factories employing over 200 workers. The society was managed by a board elected by shareholders and employees  and, in 1927, it was able to offer a forty-six hour week in all the departments as well as a fortnight's holiday with pay is to all employees with five years' service.

In March 1934, a severe fire gutted the four story premises on Churchgate causing £16,000 worth of damage. The box making factory now on Short Street was largely unaffected and printing business moved to Briton Street whilst the Churchgate factory was rebuilt on larger premises. In the 1950s society changed its name to ‘Leicester Printers – the Churchgate Press,’ probably as a way of winning work outside the co-operative movement. In 1959, the firm defied the Federation of Master printers when it introduced a 40 hour week for its workers.

In 1987, with 50 workers and a turnover of over £1 million a year, Leicester Printers was a relatively large concern by printing industry standards. However the business was in difficulty and Lithosphere (another printing co-op) made an abortive attempt to take it over. It was an attractive proposition since Leicester Printers had a substantial customer base and had recently bought modern equipment. Although both co-ops agreed that redundancies would follow if they merged, they could not reach agreement on how to impose them. Consequently the deal did not go through and Leicester Printers passed into private hands and the co-operative society was deregistered. In 1990, the Churchgate site received planning permission for a night club in 1990 and is currently the ‘Creation’ club.

_{^{Sources: Leicester Evening Mail 23rd July 1932  7th & 8th March 1934, 9th June 1959, Leicester Co-operative Printing Society, 21 Years of Co-partnership Printing, (1913), Howes, C. (ed), Leicester: Its Civic, Industrial, Institutional and Social Life, Leicester (1927), National Co-operative Archive, Keith Jefferis, The performance of worker co-operatives in a capitalist economy: British co-operatives in printing, clothing and wholefoods, 1975-1985, PhD thesis (1989) H.D. Lloyd op.cit.}}

First Society - The Co-operative Manufacturing Society of Leicester

The society was registered on 5^th June 1872 . The object of this manufacturing society was to produce elastic webs for the footwear trade. It had 90 members. Among the shareholders were John Butcher of the CWS and Isaac Abbott of the Elastic Web Weavers’ Union. The Society issued a circular which said the co-operation would place workers:

beyond the adverse influence of misdirected capital, which has hitherto given the lion's share of comfort to its owners and that of poverty and its concomitant evils to the wealth producing classes. By the development of self-employment associations we shall be erecting a platform upon which capital and labour will fraternise and become one. That which under present arrangements is our inveterate foe and bitter enemy, will under this higher form of association become our truest friend and warmest supporter.

It lacked capital and only started to make a profit in 1876 when the CWS took their webs and acted as their agent. It had 112 shareholders, including the Leicester Co-operative Society in 1876 and had premises in Brown Street in 1877. However further losses caused it to be wound up in 1879.

Second Society - Leicester Elastic Web Manufacturing Society

The society was registered on 5^th June 1878. This society only had 9 members to begin with and in 1880 had a leased a floor in premises in Upper Brown Street. During the 1880s it moved to Slate Street Mills and by 1891 it had 50 employees. The demand for elastic web declined when the elastic-sided boot went out of fashion and this might explain why this co-operative was not mentioned in the 1898 book on co-operation in Leicester. It went into voluntary liquidation in 1908.

_{^{Sources: Leicester Daily Post 8th May 1875, 9th September 1908, Leicester Chronicle 3rd June 1876}}

This was a consortium of trade union branches and political organisations formed to relaunch the local newspaper the Leicester Pioneer in 1901. Although the Pioneer appeared weekly until 1929, the co-op went out of existence in 1903. It was registered at the Leicester Co-operative Printing Press' address 99, Churchgate. The manager was Arthur H. Reynolds who later became Ramsey MacDonald’s agent.

^{Sources: LEM Friday 13 October 1950, Board of Trade op.cit., Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, Record Office}

A rule book printed in 1896 by the Leicester Co-operative Printers survives in the Record Office. Little more about this enterprise is known, except that it went out of existence on 1903 and is not listed in 1901 Board of Trade report on Co-operatives. Its demise was probably caused by the end of the Leicester’s housebuilding boom after 1900.

Sources: ROLLR, DE9128/114 Rule Book of the Leicester West End Builders' Society Ltd 1896

The Morning Star Sundries Society started out in 1903 at 121, Highcross Street. It manufactured ‘grocers’ sundries’. (self raising flour, custard powder, baking powder, egg powder, pickles, bird seed) Edward Bent & J.Williams were among its founders and were its general manager and secretary respectively from start to finish. Williams was a member of the Leicester Co-op Board of management and Bent and had previously been a wholesale grocer for Baines & Whitmore in Halford Street. In 1908 moved to a factory on Landsdowne Road, Aylestone, indicating that the business was doing well. By 1915, Morning Star had the Liberal Councillor for Spinney Hill John Johnson as its chairman. He was also a retired factory manager.

However in May 1919, Councillor Johnson formally opened the jam and pulping factory at Park farm Winchcombe. At that time there were 80 people in the combined workforce in Leicester and Gloucestershire. Edward Bent and his wife moved to Winchcome and Mr Bent became the manager of the Morning Star Poultry Orchards.  More land was bought and in 1920 , its assets included Park Farm, Winchcombe, Park Farm plantations, Toddington glass houses, Park Farm factory, farm, and Greet Manor estate. This amounted to about 500 acres.

The precise reasons why the venture failed are not known. Making jam was commercially viable since there was jam production in the area both before and after Morning Star. This suggests that Mr Bent, who had successfully managed the Aylestone factory, may not have had the skills to run a diverse agricultural enterprise. In 1923-1924 the Society sold its poultry farm and other assets and the Co-operative went into liquidation. The Morning Star co-op had joined its Owenite and Chartist predecessors as a failed rural co-operative. The Landsdowne Road factory appears to have survived.

Birmingham Daily Gazette 22nd April 1919, Gloucester Echo 2nd June 1923, 22nd April 1924, Edward Owen Greening, A Democratic Partnership, 1921

This enterprise was a branch of the Warwickshire Society which was formed in 1888. In 1934 it was announced that Alcester Needlemakers' Society had taken over a factory in Leicester and intended to employ several hundred workers The society was to supply Co-operative stores with braces, belts, suspenders and so forth, and was to undertake the manufacture of women and children's dresses and overalls. The goods were to be marketed under "Anela" brand. Adverts were place for workers and £13,013 worth of sales were reported in 1934. No other records have survived except that Alcester Needlemakers’ Society was formally dissolved in 1943, though records of the enterprise in Alcester continue to 1968.

^{Sources: Leicester Evening Mail, 31st May 1934, London Gazette 24th December 1943}

It had a factory at 44½ Causeway Lane and was probably formed around 1926 or 1927. It went into liquidation in May 1930 owing £983.

^{Sources: Howes op. cit, Leicester Evening Mail 21st  & 29th May 1930}

In 1895 it was renamed the Sperope Boot Manufacturing Company and moved to Kirkby Road, Barwell. The name was derived from the Latin meaning Expect and Hope. There were 48 employees in 1898 making Ladies and Girls Shoes and Boys Boots and Shoes. It had £43,017 worth of sales in 1934.

In 1949 it was part of a Co-op group with Leicester Self-Help Co-operative Shoe Manufacturers, Leicester, Sperope Boot Manufacturers, Ltd., Barwell, and the Glenfleid Progress Boot Society. They bought out the Leicester boot and shoe firm, G. and I. Lansberry. of Mount Road. Sperope went into liquidation in 1965 and the premises were taken over by George Ward (Barwell). It was later used by Primark the price marking and label company.

^{Sources: Leicester Evening Mail 30 August 1949, Howe op.cit., Board of Trade op.cit.}

This society came into being as a result of the vigorous campaign by T.F. Richards and Martin Curley who were seen in the 1890s as the militants within the boot and shoe union. In 1892, they toured union branches arguing for an ‘Industrial Co-operative Scheme.’ The aim was to win support for using branch and central union funds to establish co-operative enterprises. This was considered highly improper by the union’s general secretary William Inskip

Despite this opposition, they had some success when the St Crispin Society was registered on the 17th April. 1893. The enterprise was designed to (a) offset season fluctuations by self-employment (b) absorb members thrown out of work by the introduction of machinery (c) to enable workers to receive the full value of their labour.

The business of the society was managed by a committee of twelve with T.F. Richards as treasurer and had an address in Willow Street. The capital for carrying on the business was lent by the National of Boot and Shoe Operatives. Branches No. 1 and 2. No. 1 Branch lent £1,500. £1,000 in June 1893 and in February 1894. The Society ran a small shop to sell it goods and there were proposals that the union should back similar shops. This was rejected when H.H. Wooley, a member of the St Crispin’s committee, reported that the shop was a failure. He also complained that had been difficult to retain subscribing members of the society.

W.H. Becks, previously of Equity, was the second secretary of the society and was appointed in October 1894.  Despite his previous experience, he was unable to make the society a success and a provisional liquidator was appointed on the 14th of May 1895. The failure of the society was attributed to insufficient turnover to pay expenses and bad debts. It was succeeded by the Self-Help Society.

^{Sources: Leicester Chronicle 28th January 1893, 22nd June 1895, Leicester Journal 25th May 1894, Leicester Daily Post 21st May 1894, The Clarion 29th September 1894,.Benjamin Jones: Co-operative Production, (1894), Alan Fox: A History of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, 1874-1957, (1958)}

The Wigston Hosiers was formed in 1897 and started trading in 1899. It bought six Griswold machines on the advice of George Newell, of the Leicester Hosiery Society and initially six people were employed to work them. The first premises were in the workshops in the yard at Bull’s Head Street. The business flourished and in 1905 the co-operative bought a plot of land in Paddock Street Wigston and built a factory. By 1910, this factory was too small and new factory was built in 1913. In those days the factory looked out over gardens and orchards stretching down to the houses in the old part of the village.

In 1914, the factory specialised in men’s half hose, shirts, pants and combinations, children’s socks and ladies’ cashmere hose and silk lingerie. All the workers at the factory were in the union working 49 hours per week and were being paid the Leicester rate, even though Wigston was considered to be a country district. 

^{Sources: Leicester Evening Mail 15th September 1936, Wigston Hosiers Souvenir, 1949, E.O Greening, A Democratic Partnership, 1921. Leicester Co-operative Record, March 1914}

In 1934, the CPF made a film called "The Elevation of Labour," which shows several co-operative factories including sequences filmed in Leicester and Leicestershire. Unfortunately not all are readily identifiable. (Wigston Hosiers may well be included).

At the beginning of 1935, the C.P.F. had forty-two trading societies in membership, ranging from small local societies in the printing trades, with annual sales of a few thousand pounds, to huge clothing trade units like Ideal Clothiers and Kettering Clothing Manufacturing, with annual output well over the half-million pounds mark. Its office was at the Alliance Chambers, Horsefair Street, Leicester

The Federation was still in existence in 1968, but was overtaken by the establishment in 1971 of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement as the central organisation of a new generation of workers' co-operatives.

^{Sources: Leicester Evening Mail, 12 November 1934 (The film is in the British Pathe archive), Board of Trade op cit. 1901, Co-operative Co-partnership Propaganda Committee: Co-operative Co-partnership (c1935)}