The Sheffield Co-operative Society was a local

consumers' co-operative A consumer cooperative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such cooperatives operate within the market economy independently of the state, as a for ...

trading in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. The Society was founded as the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative and opened its first shop in 1868,

Meg Munn Margaret Patricia Munn (born 1959) served as a Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley from 2001 to 2015. After leaving Parliament, she has served in a variety of roles across the public sector, academia and international bodies. Before Parliament Mun ...

,
Our Movement faces a stark choice: either progress or stagnate
", ''co-operative News'', 1 June 2006 in the Carbrook suburb of Sheffield.

Castle House

The Co-op opened shops around the city, and set up its first branch in

Sheffield City Centre Sheffield City Centre (referred to locally as simply Town) is a district of the Sheffield, City of Sheffield and is covered partly by the City ward, Sheffield, City ward of the City of Sheffield. It includes the area that is within a radius of ...

in 1929, on the corner of Exchange Street and Waingate, on part of the former site of

Sheffield Castle Sheffield Castle was a castle in Sheffield, England, constructed at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don, possibly on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon long house, and dominating the early town. A motte and bailey castle had been ...

. In 1962, this moved to a new site named "Castle House", in tribute to the site of the old store. The Castle House department store was designed by G. S Hay of the

Co-operative Wholesale Society A cooperative wholesale society (CWS) is a form of cooperative federation (that is, a cooperative in which all the members are cooperatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. The theory, practice and history of th ...

and occupied a large site, with entrances on King Street, Angel Street and Castle Street. The store, which also housed the headquarters of the Brightside and Carbrook, featured a massive

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

facade with a zigzag canopy. Inside, the focus was on a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps wh ...

connecting all the floors, under a partially glazed dome and a sculpture of a bird. In 2009, the building was granted Grade II listed building status. In 2018, the National Videogame Museum opened on the ground floor.

Members

Eleanor Barton Eleanor Barton (''née'' Stockton; 13 July 1872 – 9 March 1960) was a British co-operative movement activist from Manchester. Early life and family Barton was born in Manchester, the daughter of William Stockton, a prison warden born from ...

, a prominent

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

activist, was for many years the secretary of the Brightside and Carbrook's Hillsborough branch, and later became a director of the organisation. Other prominent members included

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...

, who joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Players in the 1960s.

Mergers

In the 1980s, the Brightside and Carbrook Co-op planned to merge with the Sheffield and Ecclesall Co-operative to form the Sheffield Co-operative Society. It never happened, but the name change went through. By 2006, the Society had 35

grocery A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

shops, six travel stores, four

petrol station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

s, seven

funeral parlour A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary is a business that provides burial, entombment and cremation services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared visitation and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for t ...

s and three

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s. However, the group faced competition within Sheffield from both the

United Co-operatives United Co-operatives Limited, or simply ''United Co-op'', was a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, until its merger with the Co-operative Group in 2007. The society operated across Yorkshire, the North West and North Midland ...

and the

Co-operative Group The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses, including grocery retail and wholesale, leg ...

. In 2007, the Society voted to merge with the United Co-operatives, which itself merged with the Co-operative Group shortly afterwards. All three of the former Society's department stores, including Castle House, were closed in 2008.

References

External links

{{Defunct UK grocers Business services companies established in 1868 Retail companies established in 1868 Retail companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct companies based in Sheffield Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Former co-operatives of the United Kingdom Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom