The Ipswich Industrial Co-operative Society (IICS) was a co-operative society established in Ipswich, Suffolk on 3 March 1868. [1] Although it merged with the Norwich Co-operative Society, formed in 1858, the ongoing organisation retained the registration details of the IICS. This was also retained when the subsequent Ipswich and Norwich Co-operative Society merged with the Colchester and East Essex Co-operative Society 2005 to form the East of England Co-operative Society (EECS). Thus the EECS celebrated its 150 birthday in 2018. [2]
Attempts had been previously made to found a co-operative society in Ipswich in the 1840s and again in 1858, which lasted for five years before collapsing. However, in 1867 George Hines organised a meeting in the music hall of the Falcon Inn, Ipswich where D. P. Foxwell, gave a lecture on co-operation. Hines and Joseph Goody also spoke and by the end of the meeting about 20 people expressed their interest in forming a co-operative society. Following this Hines organised a public meeting on 5 November in Pearce's Rooms, Princes Street aimed particularly at workingmen. About 100 attended and after a number of speeches it was resolved to establish a co-operative with a provisional committee consisting of Hines and Goody and six others, with a further 27 members enrolled. [3]
East Anglia is a geographical area in the East of England. The area included has varied but the legally defined NUTS statistical unit comprises the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a tribe whose name originated in Anglia, in what is now northern Germany.
Ipswich is a large port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about 10 miles (16 km) away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line railway and the A12 road, and is 67 miles (108 km) north-east of London, 45 miles (72 km) east-southeast of Cambridge, and 40 miles (64 km) south of Norwich. Ipswich is surrounded by two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); Suffolk Coast and Heaths and Dedham Vale.
Heart Ipswich was a radio station that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two Independent radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England.
Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail and wholesale; e-pharmacy; insurance services; legal services and funeral care.
The East Suffolk line is an un-electrified 49-mile secondary railway line running between Ipswich and Lowestoft in Suffolk, England. The traffic along the route consists of passenger services operated by Greater Anglia, while nuclear flask trains for the Sizewell nuclear power stations are operated by Direct Rail Services.
Ipswich railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. It is 68 miles 59 chains (110.6 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and, on the main line, it is situated between Manningtree to the south and Needham Market to the north.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers, such as food co-ops. However, there are many types of consumers' cooperatives, operating in areas such as health care, insurance, housing, utilities and personal finance.
Wooldale Co-operative Society was a small consumer co-operative based in the West Yorkshire village of Wooldale. The Society operated three convenience stores in the Holme Valley villages of New Mill, Thongsbridge and Wooldale. It was founded as the Wooldale Industrial and Equitable Co-operative Society in 1886, changing its name in 1989.
The East of England Co-operative Society is the fourth largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom after The Co-operative Group, The Midcounties Co-operative and Central England Co-operative. It is a registered society with its headquarters in Wherstead, near Ipswich and trading in the eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. The Society is the area's largest independent retailer.
The Suffolk Building Society is a UK building society based in Ipswich, Suffolk. It is a member of the Building Societies Association. It was formed in June 1975 by the merger of the Ipswich & District Building Society and the Ipswich & Suffolk Building Society.
Highburton Industrial and Provident Society Limited, or Highburton Co-op, was a small consumer co-operative based in the West Yorkshire village of Highburton, five miles southeast of Huddersfield. The Society was founded in 1857, buying the building from the church, and operating a single store on Towngate in the village. The Society claimed to being the world's oldest operating independent single retail co-operative outlet. In 2006, the Society held talks with the nearby Wooldale Co-op with a view to merging the two Societies' operations but these talks ended without a merger going ahead.
Ilkeston Co-operative Society was a consumer co-operative society based in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England.
Vergo Retail Ltd was a department store business based in Liverpool, England, founded in 2007. Vergo Retail ran 20 shops, consisting of nine department stores, including Lewis's of Liverpool, Robbs of Hexham, Joplings of Sunderland and Derrys of Plymouth and four others in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk; four Homemaker stores in Devon, four home and fashion stores in Essex and Suffolk; two home stores in Essex; and a jewellery store in Colchester. The company entered administration in 2010.
Lothian, Borders & Angus Co-operative Society Limited , founded in 1839 in the Scottish Borders, was the oldest independent consumer co-operative in Scotland until it merged with The Co-operative Group in December 2008. It operated over 50 food stores in the south and east, as well as some other retail businesses, and funeral services. At the time of the merger, Lothian Co-op was owned by 65,000 consumer members on a one member one vote basis.
Claydon railway station was a station in Claydon, Suffolk. It closed to passengers in 1963. The goods facility for Blue Circle Cement, British Steel Piling and Kings Scrapyard was still staffed in the late 1970s with the staff working from the former up side station buildings.
The Heart of England Co-operative Society is an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. Based in Coventry, the Society trades in the English counties of West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
Central England Co-operative is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and democratically controlled by its members who can stand for election to the board and who also share in the society's profits. A proportion of the profits of the business are also invested in local community groups through its community dividend grants programme and its more than 60 member classes.
Eastern Savings and Loans Credit Union Limited is a not-for-profit member-owned financial co-operative, based in Ipswich and operating through 25 local payment and information points in the East Anglian counties of Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. The credit union has 6,500 members.
The Suffolk Guild of Ringers for the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is a society and charity supporting the bell ringers and rings of bells in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich who practice the art of change ringing. The Guild was established in 1923 at Ipswich and covers over 200 rings of bells in the county of Suffolk in the area that falls within the diocese boundary.