Illustrations of the first Co-Op shop on Church Green, Keighley, by Thomas Heaps, drawn in 1910 from memory, and of the second Co-Op store on New Bridge Street, that operated from March 1862 to 1896. The shop in which the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society began its business life was one of a block of three in Church Green between the Commercial Inn and the Devonshire Hotel. The shop was run by John Farrar Pickles, Benjamin Morrell and Joseph Moorhouse (Society Treasurer). Customers had to ascend two or three steps on entering the shop. The shop was originally occupied by Mr Cockshott, who remained as landlord of the site. The shop opened in October/November 1860. The original shop closed in March 1862 when Cockshott wanted to change the details of the rent, and the shop relocated to premises on New Bridge Street.
Illustrations taken from ‘Half a Century of Co-operation in Keighley – 1860-1910’ by Joseph Rhodes (Fellow of the Institute of Journalists and of the British Esperanto Association). Published by the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. and printed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society Limited, Hamilton Road, Longsight, Manchester in 1911. Copies of the book are held in the History Society’s physical archive. The contemporary photograph of Church Street was taken by Tim Neal in 2019.
