Bugs Destroy Co-op Store

By Harold Cunliffe

Above: Destruction at the West End Co-op

Our first image captures a group of people from the village of Rhodes, located near Heaton Park, Manchester, inspecting the destruction caused to their local West End Co-operative store by an explosion in 1909.

Luckily there was no loss of life due to the store being closed so work could be carried out in an attempt to eradicate a pest. We discover the store had been infested with a type of weevil for a few months prior to the destructive explosion. This would have been of a more serious nature should the premises had been open for business. A report stated that the Co-operative store had been closed for three months due to an infestation of wheat weevils which it is thought were imported with the wheat which had been stored. A number of attempts had been made to eradicate the pests, but the only treatment recommended by the Board of Agriculture was bisulphide of carbon. This treatment had reduced the numbers significantly and the committee decided to give the premises one final treatment before they opened the store for business. All the doors and windows were sealed and half a hundredweight of bisulphide of carbon was placed inside the shop. Hopefully the treatment would work and the store could, once again open for business. No concerns were made regarding this treatment following no incidents occurring with the previous three treatments. It was a few hours later, 7.30 pm that the sleepy village was woken by a huge explosion, which was so powerful it lifted the roof of the store, which then landed on the brick structure destroying the supporting walls. Debris was thrown in all directions, some striking the front of the houses opposite. Members of the public who were making their way to the town of Middleton turned around and headed back to the village of Rhodes upon witnessing the horse drawn fire engine travelling at speed towards the incident. One of the injured persons was Mr Pearson who was a carter for the nearby Schwabe’s Printing works. He was passing at the time of the explosion and suffered cuts to his face, hands and cuts were made to his clothing from the flying glass. His horse also became a victim by being injured by the glass; a piece had stuck the shoulder of the animal which made a wound. Opposite the destroyed premises a woman was in conversation at her front door with a male caller, then following the explosion he was blown against the woman with great force which saw both of them lying in the lobby of the house, both covered with fragments of glass which also littered the lobby and stairs. Whenever there is an incident, there are those people who have to put a touch of humour to the situation, it was related, “The Co-op should be congratulated on

having at length found an effective method of finally getting rid of the pest.” An investigation followed but no cause could be found, but it was stated that weevils when at work give off a certain gas, which could have caused the explosion. Consuming all that wheat I bet they did! In another feature we related how the huge chimney at the Rhodes Print Works became a tourist attraction, even bringing famous people to the village to inspect the tallest factory chimney most people had ever seen. As the news spread relating to the explosion and destruction of the Coop store, many visitors arrived from neighbouring towns, but many were disappointed, the spectacle was not to be witnessed for any period of time, the committee quickly had the site cleared in preparation for the construction of a new building.

Elected Representatives

Many front line Local Government officers come into contact with councillors and mayors during the running of their departments. I for one knew many of the towns elected representatives. Normally their time of being employed by the local authority would see the candidate being elected as a councillor, then maybe being selected to serve as mayor; many councillors upon being asked were not keen and refused. Once a willing candidate was put forward the process of electing a mayor would see an illuminated scroll being made and placed outside the council chamber, then as the aldermen and councillors were to enter the chamber they could sign the bottom section of the document if they supported the candidate in becoming a Mayor of the Borough, if they did not agree then they abstained from adding their signature. I own some of these scrolls, which are works of art, thus saving them from being destroyed, each one is of a different design. A retired nurse and competent genealogists, Mrs Doreen El-Ahwany, who was a family friend and daughter to a former Alderman (the late Alderman Frank & Mrs Sansom) documented the mayors of this town. Since the death of Doreen El-Ahwany I have continued to archive mayoral information. I find that many of the elected mayors in days gone by were struggling financially during their time in office. This was possibly before councillors were awarded expenses for their services. At a place known as Middleton Junction one councillor was financially challenged when he had to have a telephone installed mainly for council business, which the neighbours would use. I was informed by the former mayor’s daughter that they could not afford cups. Nearby was the Co-op Preserve Works where jam was sold in pottery jars made by the Denby factory in Derby, which the family used to drink out of. In Rhodes Councillor Thomas Johnson Hilton became Mayor of Middleton, 1936-37. While I had little information on this mayor, we did have a few images in our archive, which additional information was gained via the newspapers and ephemera of that period. It was during my time contributing a nostalgia column for the local newspaper that a reader who lived at Todmorden made contact. It transpired that he was about to move to Derby, and in clearing out his loft had found a box of items which once belonged to T.J.Hilton. Having read what I produce he thought that they would be of interest, plus not want to discard these items, wondered if I would be interested in taking them off his hands. Covering the courier charges the box arrived a few days later. After making an examination of the contents I was delighted that this box of ephemera and photographs were not lost. Collating the material I managed to produce a feature in the local newspaper, which went out online. A few days following its release an email arrived from a vicar,

Above: A Mayors Illuminated address

who had a parish in Cornwall, he knew the Hilton family and had items which once belonged to the former mayor. So even more items arrived by post.

Retail Therapy

Councillor Hilton was invited to London to attend the Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, after which he started to make scrap books of newspaper cuttings recording the Royal Family. The books however were not commercially bought albums, he had used magazines which were given away free of charge. One magazine was issued by the Rhodes Co-operative store. This magazine from 1937 I was interested to read, but frustratingly only little snapshots could be seen from around the newspaper clippings. But, not to be out done, a number of hours were spent soaking off the newspaper clippings with water and cotton buds. It looked like flour and water had been used to stick the newsprint in to the magazine. With all the cuttings removed an interesting magazine from the period shows what CWS goods, the style and prices were available to read which were once available at this store.

Own Brand

I could be wrong in making this comment, but I have a feeling that the Co-operative movement was one of the first to produce their ‘own brand’ goods. With the current financial situation it is stated that more and more shoppers are now choosing the shops own brand goods. The Co-operative Society built their own factories to produce the goods sold in their shops, Radcliffe made the furniture, and Middleton was home to Jam, Marmalade, Christmas puddings, Pickles and sweets. A Corn Mill existed at Marshall Street, Leeds. Listed on a 1909 invoice are twenty six varieties of flour. Hungarian, Rough Meal, Indian corn and Hen wheat are to name a few. Next to the bottom of the list is a product listed as “Dust,” one wonders where this product originated.

Above: Corn Mill invoice listing the types of flour

Reminiscences of a Parks Foreman

Being in charge of the day to day running of the Grounds Maintenance section of a Lancashire town was for me, enjoyable. There was never a day when I did not enjoy going to work. The position was that of Parks and Recreation foreman. This covered anything to do with the ground on a horticultural basis, and also recreational events such as the annual Christmas festivities. Also including the provision of a thirty five foot illuminated Christmas tree for the centre of town. One year however upon inspecting the tree I noticed that the main trunk had developed a split, which could make the tree fail in high winds, so a replacement, was ordered. Within an hour the old tree had had its lighting removed and chain saws were at work cutting up the faulty tree. I did not foresee what would happen next. A member of the public had informed the local newspaper who sent a reporter, who wanted to know why we had “Cancelled Christmas by chopping the tree down.” This reporter started his interview on the wrong foot so I informed him that I was busy and would comment later, “but it would not be a Happy Christmas if this tree was to fall on a member of the public.” It was when the Guardian newspaper was published that more interest was shown regarding our tree chopping exercise, the BBC in Manchester was the first to want an interview. This I was happy to do because by the time they attended a new Christmas tree had been delivered from Carlisle and was standing quite magnificent, complete with its lighting. It was amusing in a way how the shop keepers in the centre of town took an interest. When the vehicle drove through the pedestrian controlled area, each shopkeeper cheered as they saw the tree cruise by their window in itshorizontal position. 

Below: Pages from the 1937 CWS magazine

Being in charge of thirty odd gardeners and greenkeepers entailed spending hours out of the office. But for anyone wanting to make contact a Parks and Cemeteries secretary at the Town Hall would take messages, even though she was mainly engaged on the cemeteries side of the department would provide contact details. There were times when these messages would cause some amusement. My section was responsible for the maintenance of the vast overspill area known as the Langley Estate, no doubt named after Cardinal Langley. When the estate was built each garden was divided by rows of privets. Naturally in a damp Lancashire climate they would put on growth during summertime. A message was left in my tray one day in late summer which read, “Harold, an elderly gentleman called in the office this morning, he lives at 148, *******, and would like his ‘private’s’ cutting because when he goes through his garden gate he gets wet.” I replied that he should see his doctor. A gardener soon sorted the privet problem. Another dear old lady lived in a bungalow, one of a row specifically designed for people of a certain age. In her message she wrote, “Dear Mr Parks Foreman. My bungalow is very cold in winter and I was wondering if you could plant some trees around it which would protect it from the cold wind. It’s awfully cold here, the gas fire is not working and the cat is not well either.” Maybe we should plant some Fir trees. No doubt that the secretary was busy at the time she wrote the messages which contained slight errors. I suppose it is a responsible position to hold in recording the deaths accurately in the register in which a traditional ink pen had to be used. Normally I would open the office at 8.30 am each morning with the secretary arriving around 9.00 am. Then from an early hour the telephone would spring into action with undertakers wanting to book times for burials and cremations. Then one day while having a break, enjoying a cup of tea I glanced through the list of deaths in the register. It was interesting to me that I had known some of the deceased people from my days as an insurance agent. Next I looked at the date of birth and date of death to work out their age at death, and found that in the register, at this period, many had died within a month of their birthday, either, before or after. Now I am always at ease once February is out. It was early May when a message arrived on my desk which stated that a man in the village of Rhodes had a water problem and was out of his mind with worry and wondered if I would call and have a look. Upon arriving at the house which was constructed along with others on a hillside that I immediately observed water running from under his garage door? Next the owner of the house arrived and commented that this was the problem. He and his family had moved into the house the year previous and all was well, then out of the blue water began to pour out of his garage foundations, emanating from a gap where the concrete joins the brickwork. The house owner was out of his mind with worry and did not know what to do to correct this problem. He had contacted everyone he could think of, but no solution was found. The last resort was calling the Parks Dept. hoping that we could do something to rectify this mystery stream of water which it was thought to be an underground spring. The water authority had been involved but stated that they had consulted their maps and no mains water was to be found in that area prior to this avenue being constructed. Hundreds of gallons of water had poured out of house owners garage causing problems. In winter the water would freeze which would make the roads a hazard, resulting with residents being unable to park their vehicles outside their homes. I did feel sorry for the chap, especially since his house was being anti-social and the neighbours had now stopped speaking to him. Next I informed him that I was going into the next street and would be back in five minutes. As I arrived back at his home I was met with a man with a huge smile, “What on earth did you do?” I replied, “I turned the water off.” “What!” he said. “After all these months of worry and loss of sleep you stopped it by turning a valve?” Yes that was what happened. It was a coincidence that around ten years prior, then operating a type of JCB, I had excavated a trench down that hillside, where his house now stood, to provide the nearby allotments with mains water. I remember it well because once I started excavating with the digger; I had to carry on excavating down the hillside. It was very steep and the machine would not reverse, so I had to carry on excavating until the job was completed, in which I missed my lunch. It was obvious that the old water main was never listed upon any map, and became damaged during the house building. It was gratifying to know that this man along with his family have a solution to their problem. He said that he was informed the water could be a natural spring which had taken a different route, and that he may have to have half his house demolished if the water problem continued, but the problem was, who would cover the cost? Demolition was the only action available to investigate and enable a field drain to be laid to take away the spring water.

300 Letters by Return

Each day before opening the office I would call at the mail room and collect the day’s mail. One day however we had more than our fair share of mail. It was April and the annual rent demands were sent out to those who stored their caravans on the council’s caravan storage facility, our local office administered this storage. The invoices were sent out along with a stamped self-addressed envelope, this way we found that many payments arrived by return of post. But on this day it looked like everyone had paid up overnight. Then inspecting the envelopes I recognised the sender by the way they were typed who had typed them, it transpired that an error had been made in our office. The invoices had been posted in the return envelope. We did not have computers at this point so a couple of hours was spent typing out a few hundred replacement envelopes.

The Big Problem

Recently we covered the chimney which was associated with the extensive Rhodes factory, the Schwabe works, which was taken over by the Calico Printers Association. The headquarters of this company was at Oxford Street, Manchester. This is where the deals were made with their customers. It was when a regular customers visited their office that the staff would do their very best to make them comfortable. When Mr Yussef El Gammal Pesha visited the C.P.A. 

Above: Mr Pesha. A valued customer.

in the 1900’s he would place orders with the company for thousands of pounds. Naturally Mr Pasha was treated like a VIP. But the problem the management encountered was that their client was of rather large proportions. We discover that upon his visit to this area the firms that Mr Pasha visited had a chair custom made to accommodate his stature. In the past they sustained a number of breakages, it was noted that many chairs would not survive his weight, which was estimated to be 35 stone. Our image shows one of the chairs which once belonged to the Calico Printers Association in Manchester. No doubt the cost of providing this bespoke chair was insignificant compared with the orders he placed with the company which kept the factory workers busy for months at a time. A news item describes an accident which took place outside the Oxford Street offices. Having exited the building Mr Pasha hailed a cab, but in those days it was a cab constructed of wood and drawn by a horse. As he entered the cab the floor did not support his weight and both his legs went through the wooden floor and rested on the road below. The sound of the crumbling timber caused the horse to trot off along the busy street, being congested was what saved Mr Pasha from injury, because he had to run along the road inside the cab until a policeman came to the rescue and brought the cab to a standstill. The vision of a cartoon character comes to mind, that of Fred Flintstone in his vehicle.

Below: Custom made chair. Communication

For those people who contribute columns in a newspaper or magazine, you will find an element of the readership who gain great pleasure of finding an error. We are all human and this can happen from time to time. As we age our memory can play tricks. Whenever possible I use a primary source of information, which is the most accurate. When messages become passed from person to person the message content can change. A well-known example originated from the war and was once used in training courses. A message was sent from the front line by word of mouth, it started with, “Send reinforcements we are going to advance,” but by the time it was received at H.Q. it related, “Send three shillings and four pence, we are going to a dance!” During the late 1970’s I was attending a course to gain qualifications to enhance my understanding on the practice of Local Government. Around twelve employees attended the course from different government departments, an Inspector with Greater Manchester Transport and a foreman involved in refuse collection were two of the course members. One day as we arrived we were met with a tutor who verbally passed on a message, which had to be related to the next course member who arrived, and so on. Part of the content of the message which was related contained this comment, “Twenty seven red rolled beds which had to be sent to Mr Nevins section.” The employee from the transport section said that they never sent rolled beds so it must be red buses, send 27 buses. Next the message was passed on to the 64 year old Cleansing operative, who related that they must mean bins, “Twenty-seven red bins.” When the recording was played back the original message was nothing like the original. The student of advancing years had restricted hearing, and was a real character. He sat opposite and we communicated using signs. But what was amusing was that at the start of each lecture he would increase the reception on both hearing aids to a reasonable level, and then if he did not find the subject of interest he would turn them off. I think during the Local Government finance lectures he sat for a few days in silence, looking quite content in his own world.

It was February 2014 when a letter was published in the Middleton Guardian from Mr Les Lord who lived in Doncaster. “Harold keeps me up to date.” Mr Lord wrote that as an old Middletonian now living in Doncaster his son in law had bought him a computer which he used each week to read the Bygone days column. Sadly I had to pull the plug on my column being put out online due to those who copy the images to upload to Facebook, I think they do it mainly because of the ‘likes’ and appreciative comments the members post. Many of the old photographs used in my column were loaned by readers of the newspaper and it caused them distress upon spotting their personal images being shared around members on Facebook. Les wrote, “The Guardian, which does not now include Harold’s contribution, but he never fails, every week, to email me a copy of his Bygone Days, which, together with his fantastic collection of photographs provide me with many hours of enjoyment.” He concluded by commenting that during Heritage weekend he visited Middleton with his family, and, “We had the great pleasure of meeting Harold.” So did I, Les presented me a copy of his book. He and I soon became good friends. It was always a pleasure each week when he telephoned. Les was a man in his 90’s and had a fantastic memory. Over the decade prior to his death he made a number of donations to my archive, and related so many memories of days gone by too. Apart from his war service Les was employed in the cotton industry, and then during one of his telephone conversations he related how the mill he was working