Bletchley and District Co-operative Society |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
link here
|
link here
|
link here
|
link here
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| On 10th December 1883 a meeting of l2 men at Bletchley Railway Station was to have a considerable impact on the town of Bletchley for the next l20 years. At this meeting, the first business transactions took place to form a local Co-operative Society. From one small shop, which first traded in1884, the Co-op expanded into a variety of small retail premises, initially in Park Street (then known as East Street) followed by a branch in High Street Fenny Stratford. The first newly built store was opened in Albert Street in 1886. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Expansion followed along Bletchley Road, until a large department store was built. This store was a dominant feature in Queensway (the road was re-named in 1966) and when, in January 2007, the store closed the doors of the department store for the last time, the full impact of life without the Co-op was realised. It must be noted here, however that the Co-op still serves the local population in refurbished stores in West Bletchley and Water Eaton. These web pages take just a brief look at the history of the Co-operative Society in Bletchley. |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
These pages have been researched and constructed by Monica Austin, Pauleen Webb and Herbert Booth with technical assistance from Leon Russell. Grateful thanks are due to all those who have provided the images used in this project.
|
||||||||||||||||||||