In the early nineteenth century there was a rise in industrialisation and urban environments. The working-class poor, some believed, took a long time to realise the benefits of capitalism and remained poor. Groups of workers, such as the Luddites took part in burning, pillaging and rioting as a protest against their living conditions. "Better classes of the working people were opposed to these methods", wrote W. Simpson (secretary of the Society in 1911) in the Jubilee Souvenir: A Short History of the Cramlington and District Co-operative Society Limited 1861-1911, "which received at the hands of the military little mercy. they longed for peaceful reform - public meetings, parliamentary petitions and trade unionism."
Robert Owen had introduced profit sharing schemes at his textile mills in New Lanark as part of a Utopian vision which included improving his factory working conditions by promoting experimental socialistic communities. He was also to take a lead in developing and promoting co-operatives. He was an inspiration to the Rochdale Pioneers of 1844 whose co-operative became the prototype for societies in Great Britain.
By 1861 many collieries had sprung up in the parish of Cramlington, which had a population of 3,301 persons. "The miners, especially the more thinking section of West Cramlington, were chafing under their conditions, which were far from satisfactory. Their wages were low, the prices of provisions high and their homes were poor." Some of the West Cramlington men were inspired by the reading of a little book - Self Help: The History of Co-operation in Rochdale. The difficulties of establishing a business were immense, as was pointed out by friends of these would-be Cramlington pioneers. But they had "ardent spirits".
On the 5th January 1861 these would-be pioneers arranged a public meeting in the Blue Bell Inn (now the Blagdon Arms) towards the formation of a co-operative store. Most present did not understand the theory of co-ops but despite this subscriptions were raised to the tune of 5s 6d. Subsequent meetings were held. More members were enrolled until £23 had been raised. A provisional committee was formed consisting of:
- John Bennett, chair
- Joseph Bell, secretary
- William Nicholson, treasurer
- James Richardson
- Thomas Armstrong
- William Urwin
- John Auld
- Matthew Lowther
- John Johnson
- Christopher Gregory
- William Rutherford
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They rented a room in Cramlington village from Richard Fynes, a great advocate in the formation of the society. £7 was spent on fixtures and fittings.
Fynes was the leading figure in establishing the Co-operative Society. He was a pitman who as a very young man in 1843 joined a union. The men soon entrusted him to organise meetings. In 1844, during a bitter and long strike, he was the head of a household at Seaton Delaval Colliery having two working younger brothers than himself. He was evicted from his cottage along with the rest of the men. He was clearly seen as an agitator as he was not taken back to work until 16 weeks after the strike ended, and this was only because an older viewer named Mr Oliver persuaded his younger colleagues to allow him back. The coal owners had tried to break up the unions. Only three collieries in Northumberland had unions in the late 1840. Barrington, where Fynes next moved in search of employment, was one of the collieries without a union, but despite this Fynes was one of 30 men to be blacklisted by the coalowners. He moved to Scotland.
He returned to Northumberland in the 1850s where he found work at Seghill Colliery. Union activity was stamped on here by the bosses. Fynes tried to keep out of union activity but found when a wrong had to be righted he couldn't help himself. He would organise informal meetings in Backworth Back Lane. The manager, Mr Layock said, "He knew too much of politics for him" and dismissed Fynes, who went briefly to Benton pit before ending up at Cramlington by 1861. There was no unionism in the county by this time as the mineworkers had been "cowed". The coalowners were trying to re-introduce the yearly bond and a reduction in the rate of pay. Fynes was organising meetings, often obtaining the loan of a farmer's field for the purpose. He would try to do this anonymously, but his activities once again soon came to the attention of the bosses. The chairman of the Co-op Society speaking at a dinner held in Fynes' honour recalled the first days of the co-operative venture: "Their great difficulty was their inability to procure a place to carry on their operations. At length Mr Fynes got possession of some property and he at once went to them and said 'let us start now lads for I will find the place. If he had not found a place for them at that time he did not think there would be a Co-op in Cramlington to this day." Fynes was once again blacklisted, but went on to have an even more eventful life as a theatre owner, campaigner for the miners and author.
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On the 21st March 1861 two members of the committee were dispatched to Newcastle with a cart lent by a supportive farmer, Mr Bell, to buy provisions with the remainder of the money. There was much scepticism, especially from other shopkeepers who said that merchants would not deal with them. Others doubted whether the cart would return.
By 1861 the society had sixty-six members, capital of £564 and goods to the value of £400. They voted to take out insurance. Business was carried on when the miners had spare time from work. Usually this was two to three hours at night and all day Saturday. However, they needed to compete with other established traders so a manager, Mr H Crisp, was appointed. He was given executive power that was normally reserved for certain members of the committee - ie to buy freely in the best market.
In January 1862 the whole of Richard Fynes property was bought for £60. The society expanded by adding boots and shoes to the stock. A shop assistant and a boy were added to the payroll. This year and the following saw a steady flow of business.
At the end of 1863 a special meeting of members was held to consider branching out into butchering and drapery. Joseph Gray, the landlord of the Fox and Hounds Inn and a sympathiser with the Co-operative pioneers, was approached and was able to offer a kitchen, hearse house and a stable for the butcher business. The offer was accepted and a manager appointed. However, the sales from the drapery business were poor and butchering only made 7d in the pound profit. They were considered to be unsuccessful ventures.
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| Current view of former Fox and Hounds Inn and Fynes' Shop |
A cart for delivery had been purchased to save shoppers miles of dreary walking to the store. The society were supplying the surrounding colliery villages, sometimes miles away. This increased sales, which necessitated the purchase of a safe in June 1863 and the arrangement with Cramlington railway station for warehousing space. Once again, not all the progress was smooth as the minutes of meeting frequently report trouble buying from hostile merchants "who saw in the movement signs of the decline and fall of the of the old-established order of trading". This had been the norm since the earliest days of the society. Traders often combined to offer opposition to the society, or would only trade half heartedly. One merchant agreed to trade, but only on the condition he remained anonymous. By 1865 the difficulty of obtaining flour was such that in co-operation with a federation of other Co-op societies they opened their own mill at Crofton in Blyth.
Co-operative federations also considered diversifying into a wholesale society and in April-May 1872 George Fryer and Messrs Patterson attended conferences in Newcastle with the objective of establish a Co-operative bank. George Fryer later went on to be the secretary and then President of the society. He was said to have frequently walked the twenty mile distance from Cramlington to Newcastle and back to attend meetings and conferences on behalf of the society. In later life he was the first, and long-standing Chairman of the Cramlington Urban District Council, a JP and inaugurated a St John's Ambulance brigade in the town. He remained active in all of these activities until his death in 1924 at the age of 85.
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Cramlington and District Co-operative Society opened branches in Annitsford, Dudley and Sleekburn, Westmoor (1867), Shankhouse (1868), Burradon (1871), East Cramlington (1891), West Cramlington (1893) and later on at Seaton Burn.
A branch was also opened at Ashington in 1875 but discontent among members led them to ask to separate. This happened in 1878 largely unopposed by the committee as it was quite distant from Cramlington. Other societies were set up in emulation of the Cramlington pioneers, notably at Newsham in 1862.