In 1843, a group of working men gathered in Rochdale to discuss how to ease the cost of living for their families, and the Co-op was born.
Most people in Victorian England acknowledged that the condition of the working man was shocking. But how should it be improved? Some looked to Government for help, but others believed that working men of good heart should turn their backs on the powerful and help each other. As Miss Isa Nicholson of the Preston branch tells us here, that vision led to the first Co-operative Wholesale Store.