Leyland & Farington Co - operative Society                                                                                       

By World War II, the Co - op had eight stores plus the warehouse and bakery on East Street and some 100 employees. By 1942, 37 of the men were serving in H.M. Forces. Apart from the stores, a big feature of the society was the door to door delivery service and not only grocery deliveries. Milk floats, butchers vans, fruit and vegetable carts and coal deliveries were all a part of the day to day work of the society and a part of the scene of every day life in Leyland and Farington.

The Society was taken over by the Preston Co - op in 1963, and soon after in 1968 the Preston Co - op became part of Greater Lancastria Co -operative Society. Perhaps in these days of supermarkets and car ownership, this may seem an outmoded form of trading, but the Co - operative Movement, which had its roots in Lancashire, had much to commend it.        

W.E Waring & Peter Houghton - Information supplied by Jack Frodsham and the Co-operative Library

THE LEYLAND & FARINGTON CO - OPERATIVE SOCIETY.

The Leyland & Farington Co - operative Society was at one time the largest provider of food and non-food requirements for the village and later town of Leyland and its close but clearly separate neighbour Farington. Following the establishing of the Society in 1875, the first quarterly balance sheet which was published on September 21st showed how the Society had already become successful.                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                         £            s          d                                          
Value of Goods sold to Members                                 977           8          4                                          

Dividend to Members, at 1/6 in the £                              33           3          0                                                         

Share Capital                                                                825         15          6                                         

Interest on Share Capital                                                 9           15         11                                                     

               Number of Members 123                                                                                         

 In 1904, the society had 1123 members, a share capital of £17,000 with twenty six employees on the distribution side and seventeen employees on the productive side.

With a years sales totaling £34,000, the society paid a Dividend of 3s 3d. In the years leading up to World War I, the Society continued to grow with the figures as follows:-                                             

Year        Members                             Share Capital         Sales                 Divi & Interest                                                                    

                                                              £     s   d               £     s   d            £      s   d    

1910                          1513                25517  5  4           40250  9  4        7117  12  7           

1911                          1592                27437  1  5          42415  3 10        7324  12  6           

1912                          1597                30128 13 4          45360 15 11       7880  15  3          

1913                          1706                32304 13 3          46267 15 11       8097    7 11      

1914                          1757                32033 17 4           48161   7  6       8344    1   0          

1915                          1842                33083  1 11          52026   7  8       8672   5    3                         

The subsequent history of the Society can be found in the individual stories of the  buildings that made up the organisation.  Just click on one of the buttons above    

Leyland Historical Society