The Great Oak Society (17 September 1976)

“Great oaks from little acorns grow” and a classic example are the Milton Keynes Co-operative Society.

They began with threepenny-bits saved by working men.  Today their turnover is reckoned in millions of pounds and they have just opened the first phase of a stores development in Bletchley whose cost, when completed next year, will also run into seven figures.

I am aware, of course, that the Milton Keynes society are not just a new name for the old Bletchley society and that the old Wolverton society are also incorporated. But Bletchley was much the major element, so I may be allowed that little bit of licence.

It was in 1880 to 1883 that some railwaymen at Bletchley station began talking with each other about the possible advantages of forming a co-operative society in the town.  Those were the days of self-help.  They saw the beginnings of the great building societies, the grouping of numberless small friendly societies into “unities” and so forth.  The co-operative movement had been started by the Rochdale Pioneers as far back as 1844.

The records of the Bletchley society begin with a meeting held on December 10, 1883, at which the first business transacted was “That minutes of the last meeting be rescinded.”  So there had been at least one previous meeting.  At any rate, the slate was apparently then wiped clean and the meeting went on to elect Thomas Simmonds, president, W Tustain secretary, D Baldwin treasurer, and G Snoxell, W. Bowler, T. Stevens, J Barker, G Lloyd, H Piper, J Facer, G Townsend and G Crane committee members.  Nearly all were railwaymen.

Next is was decided to issue 200 shares at 10s each, 5s to be paid on allotment and the remaining 5s not later than March 1, 1884.  And also to issue 200 transferable shares, 3d a week, or 3s 3d a quarter to be paid for them until paid up.

Only 11 days later the society sustained a blow when their president, Thomas Simmonds, was killed in a shunting accident at the station.

Two days later a meeting was held at which H Piper was made president, his committee place being taken by none other than J H (“Joe”) Fennell, whom I was to know well in the last five years before his death in 1950 at the age of 92.

An account was opened with Bassetts Bank (now Barclays), and tenancy of a shop in Park Street was arranged, registration was also arranged and rules adopted.  The society’s seal was to be a railway engine named “Unity.”

Thus, at the end of February, 1884, the first Co-op shop was opened, advertised by a flag flown from the window and a crier sent all around the town.

Business increased enough for the committee to decide to build their own premises in Albert Street, and Mr Fennell wrote out the cheque that bought the land, the secretary being on holiday at the time.

So in 1885, little more than a year after the society’s inception, they moved from the first little shop to new premises which included departments for groceries, butchery, bakery, drapery and outfitting, with a meeting hall above.

For a short time they also had a shop at the Fenny End (not on the present Victoria Road branch site), but then decided to concentrate on Albert Street.

From then on the society prospered and eventually came to have branches as far afield as Woburn Sands, Tingewick and Steeple Claydon.

In 1908 the “divi” on purchases was running as 1s 2d in the £ for members and 7d for non-members.

By 1919 membership totalled 1,269, staff 30, capital £17,867 and turnover £41,800.

In 1927 new central premises were built in Bletchley Road (Queensway) on former land nursery and in 1935 a connecting building was added.

By 1946 membership stood at 7,274, staff 250, capital £306,000 and turnover £302,000.

It was a far cry from the old threepenny-bit days.  Arriving then in a town of fewer than 10,000 men, women and children, I marvelled at the membership figure.  It was explained, of course by the number of members using branch shops in surrounding towns and villages.

In 1948 a disastrous fire all but destroyed the central premises.  The society responded not only by rebuilding and refurnishing them, but also by extending them at an obtuse angle to the bottom of Albert Street.  Eight years later, trade had trebled.

The hall continued to serve its purpose and I was last in it for the meeting after the inception of the new city at which the merger with the Wolverton society to form a Milton Keynes society was unanimously agreed.