Post by JEM on Jun 8, 2008 2:20:08 GMT
MY MEMORIES of life based on CO-OPERATION by John E Maddams
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Presented to the SAFFRON WALDEN JUBILEE CLUB June 2008
During the 1970’s in my 30’s I began to be interested in my surname and my identity
I knew a bit about my grandparents life but little else
I was feeling a bit inferior as a shop worker. I was working class as my Dad and Granddad had been.
Granddad had begun his working life looking after horses and cows as a servant in big houses in Kent and Hampshire and then became a coach driver, and worked most of his life at a dairy
My subsequent research has shown me that on his wife’s side there was
An aunt who managed a sweet shop in Hampshire,
An aunt and uncle who had a shop in Greenwich supplying the sailors and ships on the Thames
An aunt and uncle who had a Grocery shop here in Saffron Walden in Borough Lane
Then Granddad’s Mum was as daughter of a dairy farmer in Sussex who ran a dairy shop in Brighton and another uncle who had a grocery shop at Preston, a village then, and now a suburb of Brighton.
Then I discovered that my great great grandfather William was much respected business man in Biggleswade for 45 years where he owned a Grocery shop and was a wine merchant, candle chandler and an insurance agent, and had been trained at a Tea Warehouse in Whitechapel.
He had married a girl from a family that owned a grocery and drapery store at Shefford.
He had a younger brother who owned a Grocery shop at Huntingdon, and an elder brother who was a Draper at Odell
William’s eldest son married the daughter of a butcher, and another member of the family was an Ironmonger.
So I was a descendent of a Chamber of Trade, and even Mum had worked as a shop assistant for Walter Robson the local Quaker businessman, and one of her relatives sold fish and chips and Dad had chauffeured a local haberdashery entrepreneur .
So my family had been part of what Napoleon had scornfully described Britain as “a nation of shopkeepers” So I ceased to feel inferior and realised that shop keeping was in my genes.
Last time I told you how I came to work for the Co-op up to when I left the Newport branch in 1977.
I was told I had a challenge. The Castle Street Branch
The site had been a house converted into a small private grocery shop from about 1923 and the Co-op acquired it before the War but due to the shortages of building materials that continued well after the War they had not been able to exploit their opportunity until 1951 when they opened new store to take advantage of the new housing being built off Little Walden Road.
For years it had been one of Walden’s best branches where Alex Randle had begun as a manager, and then many years Reg Bassett had managed it , and David Davis had assisted and he went on to become an Area Manager.
For a long period after the High Street Shop became a self service store, getting up customers weekly orders had been done at Castle Street for the whole Walden district. This kept it making a good profit.
Then Credit was abolished and deliveries ceased and so Castle Street was reduced to only having passing trade, mainly when people had forgotten to buy something at the High Street shop. So business there slumped and it was making a loss, so Reg was moved to Pleasant Valley to work out his few months to retirement and I was given the poisoned chalice.
The building had a widening crack, down the North wall, through the warehouse and shop floor and up the front wall. When eventually it was demolished to build houses, when the roof was removed, the walls caved in.
I was put into trying one final time to arrest decline. I tried out introducing Self Service. This worked well at first until summer when the stacks of butter previously kept in a fridge, which were on a marble slab. melted.
Pushing stock from the High Street Store on a loaded unitainer like they use at Waitrose on 4 small wheels through the streets of Walden kept me fit.
One morning the Safe Key broke in two pieces and we could not get the broken part out of the lock nor twist it to open the Safe. So when the District Manager enquired where I found the money to resume trading I said “Well I used the Baptist Church Sunday collection which as Church Treasurer I was going to bank during my Lunch Break”.
Well we did not arrest the decline, our loss making doubled.
So the decision was taken to close down after 27 years trading
This caused a great fuss in the Sheds Lane and Little Walden Road area mainly from people who seldom ever entered the shop or only bought sweets there, and a demonstration was organised by one Vera Barlow.
We closed at mid-day on a Saturday and the Head of Food Division came over from Cambridge to finalise arrangements with me for stocktaking, listing and transferring the stock the following week to the High street Store. His name was Jim Henderson, a very good fair guy and a great friend. He was nearly 7 feet high so he could see all the dust the rest of us missed.
Vera having got wind of his coming organised a final noisy demonstration of local disgust and caught him by surprise and he was mobbed. I had to unlock the front door quickly to rescue him. He remarked that " had that lot all supported us we would not have needed to close".
Jim asked me “ Right John what are you going to do now? There is a vacancy for a Warehouse Manager at our new Beehive Store at Dunmow and you can have it if you like”.
I had no car and the bus service is erratic so I replied “I will go and manage the High Street Saffron Walden’s new warehouse”
“But” says he “There isn’t a vacancy”. But within a week there was. So then in 1979 I commenced 16 years service there beginning as Warehouse Manager and Deputy Store Manager. And ending up as Twilight Team supervisor, working through the night in 1994-95 the last year before we closed.
At the General Election in 1979 that elected Margaret Thatcher to office the plan had been that had Labour won again, many millions of pounds of European funding was poised to be invested in the British Co-op movement to expand it. Had this been done the Co-op would probably be still here.
The Conservatives won that election, the deal fell to pieces and one of the beneficiaries of that was a relatively small Company called TESCO who went on to take advantage of that money
My opportunity to move to High Street came because the man who should have become Warehouse Manager was sacked for shop lifting.
When I moved from Castle Street Co-op to the Central store in the High street I was faced with an empty warehouse and having to order weekly stock for the new enlarged shop about 10 times more than at Newport, and I had to start from scratch and create an ordering system, a stock book and lay out the warehouse in line with the order of the stock book. it had too to be a system to which we could easily add new lines as we expanded.
I went from shops with a staff of 2 or 3 women, to one with a mixed staff of over 50. I had a Desk at the top of the lift shaft now an electric powered hydraulic thing with a curious v shaped metal stick to slide into a hole in the wall, if the lift broke down that would release the doors and allow us to rescue stock or staff
I was allowed an assistant, and while there I trained several young men to be warehouse managers who have since moved on to be managers for other companies, including Steve Ashman from Sawston. Barry Jackson from Chesterford, James Rowlandson one of our student Saturday staff members
When Barry had been doing it a couple of years he was competent enough to go and be a relief store manager and he was assigned to Thaxted, 12 miles from where he lived, he had a car but had no idea where Thaxted was. So we had to teach the youngsters geography as well.
I had been brought up from the age of 5 in the Baptist Sunday School and in my teens I had rebelled against family, society and God, but then God had convinced me that I had better take better notice of him and at 15 I became a Christian and a member of the Baptist Church
At one stage in my time as a manager I had to go on a management course where we were trained as training instructors. We had to prepare and present a speech Afterwards the tutor said “You were very good, I fancy you have done this before.
Well I had debated at Grammar School. and been a lay preacher for 16 years, a Sunday school teacher and a Youth leader so something had stuck.
So I got involved in more staff training and I used to be responsible for students from County High School doing work experience for City and Guilds Courses
One of them joined us and began a relationship with one of the girls. Her mother was rather strict as to who her daughter could go with and when, so he continued to spend quite a lot of the time with his laddish mates
The day came when they decided to marry, It only lasted a week. He thought it was OK to be out each night with his mates providing the little wife was at home to prepare his meals.
Like Waitrose and Tesco today we employed a lot of student labour from the age of 15 and that included some very fine young men and women, and others.
One 17 yearold male, after only a few weeks with us, had sex with a girl assistant, and they both enjoyed it so much, that they took off one night in his car to make a new life for themselves on the Norfolk Coast, to the shock of both sets of parents and the staff.
That was when I encountered my first Homosexual acquaintances. One was very protective of his gender and critical of the rest of us and did not stay long. “I was” he said “ the first Christian believer he had come across, a curious specimen of humanity apparently”.
The other one, Steve, stayed some years and moved on to manage Co-op stores in Cambridge and at one stage Harts Stationery shop. He was a great comedian, and drew wonderful cartoons of all the staff which we displayed in the staff room and which even got into the Company magazine.
I used to hang my jacket on a nail behind my desk, and one day a lorry driver came up looking for the manager, so I nipped across the flat roof using a catwalk to the offices to get Rookie, and by the time we got back the man and his lorry and my wallet had disappeared leaving me £40 lighter which I wrote it off as a donation to the needy
After being there a few years we had a new Area Manager, a very young man. Mark, who was seeking fast track promotion.
He had a curious idea of working flat out every day 7 days a week for 6 months and then having 6 months holiday touring the world. Right now he may be stuck long forgotten on some desert island.
In those days we still opened basically 9am - 6pm.
The Board of Directors wished to visit the store, so he cajoled all the staff to come in the evening before from 6pm - 10pm to clean up the entire store and fill up all the fixtures and displays.
It looked pristine. They were all very impressed and he got most of the credit. To maintain this level of quality control it was decided to do night fills 6 - 10 twice a week. this ended up as 6 nights a week and Sunday afternoon as commercial greed increased
So as to not increase the manager's workload an assistant Manager was appointed so part of my job got shaved off and my annual salary cut by £500 a year. Needless to say it also fell to me to train him as he was a right rookie. He did not stay long, I got the status back but not the money.
What I learned as a Co-op manager was that co-operation is something that should spill over into other areas of life although we were actually taught to concentrate on our jobs to make as much profit as possible and encourage our wives to get on with the good works in the community.
Not having a wife explains why I ignored the advice.
So in 1980 being part of a larger team, I had bit more free time and so I became an Officer assisting the newly formed 1st Saffron Walden Boys Brigade which continued for the next 27 years but that’s another story.
But during the 1980’s the Town Council organised a series of Annual 10 Mile Runs around beginning and ending at the Common on a Sunday in June.
For several years I led and trained a Boys Brigade team to participate and had to take part myself. Then I had use of the managers new office overlooking the store and I had a half hour tea break about 8pm when having got everyone working i stripped down to just a pair of shorts and trainers and ran round the park training.
About this time the CWS Rep called weekly and he was also president of the Colchester Society. He introduced me to a black and gold Co-op tie that he and his society managers wore, I bought one and introduced it to our management staff until eventually the Cambridge Society took up the idea for all their male managers. Years later they replaced it with a light blue version.
We were regularly inspected by Area Managers. After a time they knew every nook and cranny and there were times when we needed to obscure things from their attention. Especially if we had over ordered or ordered lines we should not be stocking. The secret hiding place
The Warehouse had been constructed with a flat roof but along 3 sides a false A - shaped roof was added over a corridor above the ceiling to make it look from outside or above as though it was a barn, as the planners wanted Walden to retain it’s old worldly rural character. Through this corridor in winter, hot air could be circulated to warm the warehouse.
Only the warehouse staff actually knew of this hiding place and as far as I recall only 3 staff had ever traversed it’s length.
It was accessible by two trap doors accessible from the top of stock shelves, and later using a long ladder.
That is where The Ghost lived.
There wasn’t actually a ghost but some of the staff invented him and warned all new staff about him, “Never be in the warehouse on your own at night” Towards the end of the business I was often in the warehouse on my own in the early hours of the morning and auto suggestion caused cold shivers to run up and down my back so that I sang to keep my spirits up..
About this time in 1983 I became Chairman and Treasurer of the Residents Committee of Four Acres Sheltered Housing Community and that too is another ongoing story .
After CRS took over I was working officially 2.30pm - 10.00pm preparing stock lists and getting up stock onto unitainers for the evening fillers to pack into the fixtures
I was also expected to order stock, by a hand held computerised ordering machine to come in next day from the Regional Warehouse, and daily twice a day take the temperature of 50 refrigerators, and if any were too high to clear them to a back up supply, and that could happen if I was there on my own and could take a long time.
From 10pm when the rest of the staff left, I as supervisor was often left working on my own until 2am or longer including taking out loads of cardboard and putting it in a recycling skip in the then locked Car Park.
Every night when I left I had to follow a locking up procedure similar to the Tower of London, and in a set order for which I had two large bunches of keys and a check list.
One day when I went to start the procedure I found I had left one bunch at home. I could not phone anyone as it was 2am.
I could not even phone anyone to explain to Mum why I was not home when she woke up. I had to spend the rest of the night on a bed of packing cases in the warehouse until the duty Manager arrived at 6am to open up for the office cleaners.
That bed was very hard and I only got about 1 hour asleep as I was constantly woken up by passing traffic.
At one stage I served both as Deputy Store Manager and Trade Union representative. Some found that too difficult to accept as I appeared to be working for both sides but that is what co-operating is about. Working Together.
In 1989 I was dined by the Directors at a Cambridge University college and awarded a certificate for 25 years service and a large wad of Co-op tokens. A few years later CRS under their different scheme feted me again and gave me their overdue 20 years award with some more Co-op tokens .
In 1991 I started an overseas Co-operative Project of Tree Planting.
It was a bit disconcerting to see on TV last Sunday evening that in Russia millions of trees over a 100 years old are being ripped up, releasing from the soil large quantities of lethal methane gas, and destroying a forest source of oxygen and that absorbs large quantities of the carbon dioxide we humans produce..
So for the sake of the planet we need to plant billions more trees in other places.
My contribution so far of 6000 looks rather small in comparison. But if we all got into the habit of planting tress we could make a useful contribution.[ now in 2015 that has risen to 7613 trees]
I have funded 3 woods in Uganda, a coffee plantation in South America, an olive grove in Israel, fruit trees in various parts of Africa, and palms to help hold back soil erosion south of the Sahara desert and a couple of groves of trees native to England, in Hampshire and in Bedfordshire.
In 1992 I started another Co-operative project to help people,. particularly students, in Ghana, which was supposed to last 2 years, but is still going on, and has spread to Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo,. Uganda,Zambia and Nigeria.
As Cambridge Co-op came close to bankruptcy it was taken over by Co-op Retail Services Ltd and so in 1993 we bade farewell to Manager Colin Rooke who had come from Birmingham Co-op in 1978.
He began working as a trumpet player in his Dad’s band. When he first joined the Co-op he was told “It’s a job for life, people always have to eat”. He was at one stage the first Employees Director on the Cambridge Board and represented the Staff Pension Scheme on it.
When I first worked with him, when he went on holiday I deputised and he always worked in a muddle, so I tidied up his office for him, all friendly like.
He was not amused and filed a complaint so I had to go to Cambridge for an interview with our boss. He said
“John, I know he works in a dreadful chaotic muddle, but he achieves results. I understand that you meant well and probably found his method difficult to work with, but in future just leave him in his muddle and don’t tidy it up”. Poor Rookie couldn’t find a thing and had to put it all back in a mess before he could resume his work.
Since then I have learnt his method and do most of my voluntary work from my office at home in complete chaos.
Perhaps it’s normal, since local, county and national government appear to work on a similar basis.
CRS demoted Colin to the smaller Sawston store and then eventually found a reason to sack him. Before the final refit, our store only survived about another 18 months and had another 7 managers in that time all young and inexperienced who depended on me and Margaret Simpkin as deputy managers to find out what do.
One even carpeted me for a disciplinary hearing, and I had to basically tell him how to do it. I called in the Trade Union and we went above him. His case collapsed and he got moved somewhere else.
Another nominated me to train as a First Aider and I went to a 4 day course at Cambridge Red Cross. I enjoyed it and it was very interesting I had a very successful interview with a GP but failed all over a supposed broken arm. I put it in a nice sling but anchored it to the wrong shoulder. Still next day a staff member came to me with a severely cut thumb which I dressed and wrapped it in a very long bandage and told her to go next morning to her doctor. He remarked that it was somewhat over bandaged. You can’t please everyone.
One young manager who was very bright and enthusiastic had been sacked from another company by a very strict taskmaster of an Area Manager. But the Area Manager too was sacked and joined the Co-op. He soon made himself unfriendly to everyone and sacked the young mean again.
Then having acted unwisely himself he found that he had almost no friends and was made redundant, and in his last 2 weeks tried very hard to be humane, reasonable and kind but it was too late. He left to take over as an Area manager for a chain of low priced Discount Convenience Stores, He had not been doing that long when the Co-op bought them out and promptly sacked him. Poetic justice.
What had once been a business based on principles of fair play had become a dog eat dog jungle.
Some years earlier when the local Council agreed to having a store built on the site of the old pig market they first offered the site to the Cambridge Co-op but having just taken over Bedford with all it’s debt, they did not have the money so Waitrose came in instead.
To begin with Waitrose hit us badly but we had the larger of all the other food stores, and while they gradually all died out we carried on but the arrival of Tesco was another matter.
After I left the Co-op, I did a RSA Course in Computing and my first computer was an old1985 model with thick 3 inch disks much of which were unusable. It was given to me by a supporter of the local Labour Party and I discovered amongst the disks a set from a committee set up within the local Labour Party to investigate and discuss whether the proposed Tesco would be good for Walden
The local Labour Party thought it would be, and that it would have no effect on the Co-op whatever; but they did not consult Co-op management, staff or customers, and had they done so they would have discovered the truth.
The first week that Tesco opened, our sales dropped by £35,000, our customer base melted away and we only ever managed to get one third of that back The Co-op that had weathered the opening of Waitrose was crippled by the opening of Tesco.
So I believe the Local Labour party made a big mistake which they have suffered from ever since, but we cannot hold back change and let’s face it the cash strapped Co-op could not then here have organised a store as large as Tesco.
But it might have recovered if it’s Senior Managers had listened to the local members and customers.
In a last attempt to rescue the store, they gave it a refit in 1994 and put us in fancy clothes. They brought a Malaysian manager in his 20’s from the South Coast to set up the new discount store and he stayed for a few weeks and I found him very pleasant. Had he stayed on we would have made progress. Another young man from Sudbury was offered the job but his parents ill health prevented him coming at that time.
So they took a young man from being a green grocery section head and put him in charge of a super market without any training, They downgraded Margaret and me and put a 19 yearold, in as Assistant Manager, and they closed the exit door that led to the Car Park which customers had been using for years and forced everyone, many with loaded trollies to walk down Park Lane to go into the car park where cars were constantly coming and going
The complaints poured in. we had to get printed customers complaint books and they were soon filling up but Howard picked up each book replacing it with a new one and then dropped it in his waste paper basket and later into the skip in the yard, hundreds and hundreds of complaints never reached Senior management
As customers left in droves and sales fell, staff hours had to be continually cut and as I was in charge of staff rotas it pained me greatly to have to reduce the hours of work of some very good dedicated young workers who needed all the money they could get. Unfortunately I had little choice and finished up working a lot of unpaid overtime.
Eventually Margaret and I tipped off a former Director who knew the national head of Food Division who lived at Arkesden, He investigated and sacked Howard. He had the closed exit reopened and brought in the young man from Sudbury to oversee the closure of the store.
He actually began to turn the store round and as word of closure became public knowledge customers poured back many of them Co-op members who had let themselves down and shopped in other towns in other stores, but it was too late.
So in May 1995 we closed the doors for the last time, most of the staff had gone, just a small team of us stayed on a week to do stock taking, pack everything up and send it to Leo Stores around the UK, and demolish the interior
The following Saturday we had a Staff Reunion and Farewell Party at the Temereire and we said we would have a staff reunion a year later and it was down to me to organise it at the Eight Bells. Six turned up, me and 5 ladies.
AFTER THAT I was unemployed for 16 months before I began 3 new careers one after the other but that is another story I might tell about one day.
Some years before the Food store closed, the smaller shops having closed, the Home Household Store next to the Post Office closed too but remained Co-op Property, It was divided into an arcade of small shops. Eventually that closed and ALLDAYS STORES took over the lease and Post Office Counters was moved into it.
Then CRS bought out ALLDAYS and all their other stores were sold or became Co-op Discount Stores, except here, where COST CUTTERS chain stores took over the lease. The freehold remaining with the Co-op. Nationwide the Co-op is thriving opening new supermarkets and new convenience stores and have taken over 50 chemist shops including Moss’s in Hill street.[ 2015 addition. Since the the Co-op Banks and other sections of the Group have suffered from scandals and heavy losses, but they are pulling round these difficulties]
So Saffron Walden District Co-op is not quite dead, and while any former staff remain or any former customers, the spirit of it lives on, because the principles of co-operation carries on in all the things we all do with other people.
The Co-op at Walden began because Christian people in the labouring movement got together and pooled their resources to establish a system of trading that would give their customer members the opportunity of a democratic say in what should be done and to provide good quality goods at fair prices, and provide the workers with fair wages.
They also organised Saving Clubs, education schemes, a Women’s Guild. Staff and customer outings and locally they cared for us from the cradle to the grave with 8 grocery shops, a Butchery, a Bakery, homes to rent, a Funeral Service, Coal delivery, 3 Mobile shops visiting the villages,. A cafe, and a Co-op Hall, At the central store opened in 1935 they had a big clock outside as few people wore watches.
One bit of equipment still gets an airing most years at local events, is the length of coloured cotton bunting bought for the 1953 Coronation.
I learnt long ago that as humans in the sight of God and as part of the Universe he has created, we do not always make the wisest of decisions and as a result we are all flawed characters.
We cannot correct this ourselves nor work or earn our way into God’s favour
Nor do we need to do so because He has done for us all that is necessary
by sending Jesus Christ into the world to show us how to live, and love who by sacrificing his own life provided for us our forgiveness and reconciled us with God.
At the Co-op I sometimes heard, and have heard people since say that when they die they are not good enough to go to Heaven but they’ll be joining lots of their friends for a big party in Hell.
If we think that we are mistaken We have got the wrong address, the party is booked for Heaven. On the basis of our individual goodness none of us are going to be at that party and Hell is going to be so congested we’ll never find a location for one.
However none of us need ever go to Hell, because God through his Spirit makes us good enough to be accepted in Heaven for Jesus Christ said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to God the Father except through me,”
It is Jesus Christ himself who alone makes us good and impels us to do good to other people.
In the course of my work I met many Christians. They were faithful in their care for other members of the staff. Several died in service and I was able to be of encouragement to their families or organise collections for wreathes or charities.
One young Christian aged about 16 arrived on work experience. Being young, newly converted, and anxious to share of what Jesus Christ had done for him he went about urging other staff to confess their sins and surrender their lives to Jesus. Needless to say some did not take kindly to being reminded that they were sinners, and reacted against him but he took it all in good part and was a breath of clean air in the place..
One of our staff, a Roman Catholic, was dying of cancer but she continued working as long as possible always showing concern for fellow workers, which made a big impression.
Other people have said “I am not religious” or “I have no time or interest in religion.” Well Jesus had little time for religion either and spent most of his time looking out for the needs of other people or reconciling them with his Father.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to my Father except through me”
Because Jesus Christ rose triumphant from death and intercedes for us in Heaven, the power of the Spirit of God is available to all of us, by trusting him.
It is Jesus Christ himself who alone makes us good and impels us to do good to other people.
Other people sometimes said “I am to old to change my ways”
well my Dad was 61 when he became a Christian and I know someone who gave in to God aged 80.
He had never been to church since the day he was taken to be Christened but at 80 he responded to an invitation to attend. He said that since that visit the Bible has become his bedtime book. A Bible given to him by his grandmother that he had never before read.
Because Jesus Christ rose triumphant from death and intercedes for us in Heaven, the power of the Spirit of God is released and available to all of us, by trusting him.
Jesus Christ taught that at the end of the world, He as our judge will divide humanity into two groups. Not according to class, religion or politics, but according to how much we cared for other people.
Those that ignored the needs of other people He called GOATS. Those who did what they could to help other people he called SHEEP and told us he is our SHEPHERD and HEAVEN is our FOLD or home.
Nor are we ever too old to help our neighbours and do good to other people. I see that regularly amongst my neighbours and friend at Four Acres
Ethel Hatfield was 76 and desired to serve her Lord Jesus whom she greatly loved and admired. She asked her pastor if she could help in the Sunday School He said “No you are too old.” A bit miffed she went back to her gardening.
One day Ethel was approached by a Chinese student who was admiring her roses. She invited him in for a cup of tea. They chatted and she told him of Jesus and his love for us and what he meant to her. Next day he called again with another Chinese student. That was the start of many conversations over tea with students and at her funeral 70 Chinese believers attended. They had been won to Jesus by a woman thought to be too old to do any good.
We never know what a day may bring. 10 yearold Maria her mother having recently died, looked after her father who was a miner. One evening having made up his sandwiches before he went on the night shift, she put in the box too, a Gospel booklet entitled THE WAY OF SALVATION, thinking it might comfort him in his loss. That night the mine tunnel caved in and he and his mates were trapped.
When rescuers finally tunnelled through they found him and his mates sitting in a circle with the booklet on her Dad’s lap with this message to Maria written in pencil. “ My dear, by the time you read this I will be with your mother. I read your little book. I read it several times to the others. Our hope is fading for this life...but not for the next. We did as the book told us. We prayed asking Jesus into our lives. I love you very much and one day we will all be together in heaven.
One of the by-products of co-operation is doing good together.
And that is a lot more than shopping in a Co-op shop. It is a foundation stone for living. Thank you.
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Presented to the SAFFRON WALDEN JUBILEE CLUB June 2008
During the 1970’s in my 30’s I began to be interested in my surname and my identity
I knew a bit about my grandparents life but little else
I was feeling a bit inferior as a shop worker. I was working class as my Dad and Granddad had been.
Granddad had begun his working life looking after horses and cows as a servant in big houses in Kent and Hampshire and then became a coach driver, and worked most of his life at a dairy
My subsequent research has shown me that on his wife’s side there was
An aunt who managed a sweet shop in Hampshire,
An aunt and uncle who had a shop in Greenwich supplying the sailors and ships on the Thames
An aunt and uncle who had a Grocery shop here in Saffron Walden in Borough Lane
Then Granddad’s Mum was as daughter of a dairy farmer in Sussex who ran a dairy shop in Brighton and another uncle who had a grocery shop at Preston, a village then, and now a suburb of Brighton.
Then I discovered that my great great grandfather William was much respected business man in Biggleswade for 45 years where he owned a Grocery shop and was a wine merchant, candle chandler and an insurance agent, and had been trained at a Tea Warehouse in Whitechapel.
He had married a girl from a family that owned a grocery and drapery store at Shefford.
He had a younger brother who owned a Grocery shop at Huntingdon, and an elder brother who was a Draper at Odell
William’s eldest son married the daughter of a butcher, and another member of the family was an Ironmonger.
So I was a descendent of a Chamber of Trade, and even Mum had worked as a shop assistant for Walter Robson the local Quaker businessman, and one of her relatives sold fish and chips and Dad had chauffeured a local haberdashery entrepreneur .
So my family had been part of what Napoleon had scornfully described Britain as “a nation of shopkeepers” So I ceased to feel inferior and realised that shop keeping was in my genes.
Last time I told you how I came to work for the Co-op up to when I left the Newport branch in 1977.
I was told I had a challenge. The Castle Street Branch
The site had been a house converted into a small private grocery shop from about 1923 and the Co-op acquired it before the War but due to the shortages of building materials that continued well after the War they had not been able to exploit their opportunity until 1951 when they opened new store to take advantage of the new housing being built off Little Walden Road.
For years it had been one of Walden’s best branches where Alex Randle had begun as a manager, and then many years Reg Bassett had managed it , and David Davis had assisted and he went on to become an Area Manager.
For a long period after the High Street Shop became a self service store, getting up customers weekly orders had been done at Castle Street for the whole Walden district. This kept it making a good profit.
Then Credit was abolished and deliveries ceased and so Castle Street was reduced to only having passing trade, mainly when people had forgotten to buy something at the High Street shop. So business there slumped and it was making a loss, so Reg was moved to Pleasant Valley to work out his few months to retirement and I was given the poisoned chalice.
The building had a widening crack, down the North wall, through the warehouse and shop floor and up the front wall. When eventually it was demolished to build houses, when the roof was removed, the walls caved in.
I was put into trying one final time to arrest decline. I tried out introducing Self Service. This worked well at first until summer when the stacks of butter previously kept in a fridge, which were on a marble slab. melted.
Pushing stock from the High Street Store on a loaded unitainer like they use at Waitrose on 4 small wheels through the streets of Walden kept me fit.
One morning the Safe Key broke in two pieces and we could not get the broken part out of the lock nor twist it to open the Safe. So when the District Manager enquired where I found the money to resume trading I said “Well I used the Baptist Church Sunday collection which as Church Treasurer I was going to bank during my Lunch Break”.
Well we did not arrest the decline, our loss making doubled.
So the decision was taken to close down after 27 years trading
This caused a great fuss in the Sheds Lane and Little Walden Road area mainly from people who seldom ever entered the shop or only bought sweets there, and a demonstration was organised by one Vera Barlow.
We closed at mid-day on a Saturday and the Head of Food Division came over from Cambridge to finalise arrangements with me for stocktaking, listing and transferring the stock the following week to the High street Store. His name was Jim Henderson, a very good fair guy and a great friend. He was nearly 7 feet high so he could see all the dust the rest of us missed.
Vera having got wind of his coming organised a final noisy demonstration of local disgust and caught him by surprise and he was mobbed. I had to unlock the front door quickly to rescue him. He remarked that " had that lot all supported us we would not have needed to close".
Jim asked me “ Right John what are you going to do now? There is a vacancy for a Warehouse Manager at our new Beehive Store at Dunmow and you can have it if you like”.
I had no car and the bus service is erratic so I replied “I will go and manage the High Street Saffron Walden’s new warehouse”
“But” says he “There isn’t a vacancy”. But within a week there was. So then in 1979 I commenced 16 years service there beginning as Warehouse Manager and Deputy Store Manager. And ending up as Twilight Team supervisor, working through the night in 1994-95 the last year before we closed.
At the General Election in 1979 that elected Margaret Thatcher to office the plan had been that had Labour won again, many millions of pounds of European funding was poised to be invested in the British Co-op movement to expand it. Had this been done the Co-op would probably be still here.
The Conservatives won that election, the deal fell to pieces and one of the beneficiaries of that was a relatively small Company called TESCO who went on to take advantage of that money
My opportunity to move to High Street came because the man who should have become Warehouse Manager was sacked for shop lifting.
When I moved from Castle Street Co-op to the Central store in the High street I was faced with an empty warehouse and having to order weekly stock for the new enlarged shop about 10 times more than at Newport, and I had to start from scratch and create an ordering system, a stock book and lay out the warehouse in line with the order of the stock book. it had too to be a system to which we could easily add new lines as we expanded.
I went from shops with a staff of 2 or 3 women, to one with a mixed staff of over 50. I had a Desk at the top of the lift shaft now an electric powered hydraulic thing with a curious v shaped metal stick to slide into a hole in the wall, if the lift broke down that would release the doors and allow us to rescue stock or staff
I was allowed an assistant, and while there I trained several young men to be warehouse managers who have since moved on to be managers for other companies, including Steve Ashman from Sawston. Barry Jackson from Chesterford, James Rowlandson one of our student Saturday staff members
When Barry had been doing it a couple of years he was competent enough to go and be a relief store manager and he was assigned to Thaxted, 12 miles from where he lived, he had a car but had no idea where Thaxted was. So we had to teach the youngsters geography as well.
I had been brought up from the age of 5 in the Baptist Sunday School and in my teens I had rebelled against family, society and God, but then God had convinced me that I had better take better notice of him and at 15 I became a Christian and a member of the Baptist Church
At one stage in my time as a manager I had to go on a management course where we were trained as training instructors. We had to prepare and present a speech Afterwards the tutor said “You were very good, I fancy you have done this before.
Well I had debated at Grammar School. and been a lay preacher for 16 years, a Sunday school teacher and a Youth leader so something had stuck.
So I got involved in more staff training and I used to be responsible for students from County High School doing work experience for City and Guilds Courses
One of them joined us and began a relationship with one of the girls. Her mother was rather strict as to who her daughter could go with and when, so he continued to spend quite a lot of the time with his laddish mates
The day came when they decided to marry, It only lasted a week. He thought it was OK to be out each night with his mates providing the little wife was at home to prepare his meals.
Like Waitrose and Tesco today we employed a lot of student labour from the age of 15 and that included some very fine young men and women, and others.
One 17 yearold male, after only a few weeks with us, had sex with a girl assistant, and they both enjoyed it so much, that they took off one night in his car to make a new life for themselves on the Norfolk Coast, to the shock of both sets of parents and the staff.
That was when I encountered my first Homosexual acquaintances. One was very protective of his gender and critical of the rest of us and did not stay long. “I was” he said “ the first Christian believer he had come across, a curious specimen of humanity apparently”.
The other one, Steve, stayed some years and moved on to manage Co-op stores in Cambridge and at one stage Harts Stationery shop. He was a great comedian, and drew wonderful cartoons of all the staff which we displayed in the staff room and which even got into the Company magazine.
I used to hang my jacket on a nail behind my desk, and one day a lorry driver came up looking for the manager, so I nipped across the flat roof using a catwalk to the offices to get Rookie, and by the time we got back the man and his lorry and my wallet had disappeared leaving me £40 lighter which I wrote it off as a donation to the needy
After being there a few years we had a new Area Manager, a very young man. Mark, who was seeking fast track promotion.
He had a curious idea of working flat out every day 7 days a week for 6 months and then having 6 months holiday touring the world. Right now he may be stuck long forgotten on some desert island.
In those days we still opened basically 9am - 6pm.
The Board of Directors wished to visit the store, so he cajoled all the staff to come in the evening before from 6pm - 10pm to clean up the entire store and fill up all the fixtures and displays.
It looked pristine. They were all very impressed and he got most of the credit. To maintain this level of quality control it was decided to do night fills 6 - 10 twice a week. this ended up as 6 nights a week and Sunday afternoon as commercial greed increased
So as to not increase the manager's workload an assistant Manager was appointed so part of my job got shaved off and my annual salary cut by £500 a year. Needless to say it also fell to me to train him as he was a right rookie. He did not stay long, I got the status back but not the money.
What I learned as a Co-op manager was that co-operation is something that should spill over into other areas of life although we were actually taught to concentrate on our jobs to make as much profit as possible and encourage our wives to get on with the good works in the community.
Not having a wife explains why I ignored the advice.
So in 1980 being part of a larger team, I had bit more free time and so I became an Officer assisting the newly formed 1st Saffron Walden Boys Brigade which continued for the next 27 years but that’s another story.
But during the 1980’s the Town Council organised a series of Annual 10 Mile Runs around beginning and ending at the Common on a Sunday in June.
For several years I led and trained a Boys Brigade team to participate and had to take part myself. Then I had use of the managers new office overlooking the store and I had a half hour tea break about 8pm when having got everyone working i stripped down to just a pair of shorts and trainers and ran round the park training.
About this time the CWS Rep called weekly and he was also president of the Colchester Society. He introduced me to a black and gold Co-op tie that he and his society managers wore, I bought one and introduced it to our management staff until eventually the Cambridge Society took up the idea for all their male managers. Years later they replaced it with a light blue version.
We were regularly inspected by Area Managers. After a time they knew every nook and cranny and there were times when we needed to obscure things from their attention. Especially if we had over ordered or ordered lines we should not be stocking. The secret hiding place
The Warehouse had been constructed with a flat roof but along 3 sides a false A - shaped roof was added over a corridor above the ceiling to make it look from outside or above as though it was a barn, as the planners wanted Walden to retain it’s old worldly rural character. Through this corridor in winter, hot air could be circulated to warm the warehouse.
Only the warehouse staff actually knew of this hiding place and as far as I recall only 3 staff had ever traversed it’s length.
It was accessible by two trap doors accessible from the top of stock shelves, and later using a long ladder.
That is where The Ghost lived.
There wasn’t actually a ghost but some of the staff invented him and warned all new staff about him, “Never be in the warehouse on your own at night” Towards the end of the business I was often in the warehouse on my own in the early hours of the morning and auto suggestion caused cold shivers to run up and down my back so that I sang to keep my spirits up..
About this time in 1983 I became Chairman and Treasurer of the Residents Committee of Four Acres Sheltered Housing Community and that too is another ongoing story .
After CRS took over I was working officially 2.30pm - 10.00pm preparing stock lists and getting up stock onto unitainers for the evening fillers to pack into the fixtures
I was also expected to order stock, by a hand held computerised ordering machine to come in next day from the Regional Warehouse, and daily twice a day take the temperature of 50 refrigerators, and if any were too high to clear them to a back up supply, and that could happen if I was there on my own and could take a long time.
From 10pm when the rest of the staff left, I as supervisor was often left working on my own until 2am or longer including taking out loads of cardboard and putting it in a recycling skip in the then locked Car Park.
Every night when I left I had to follow a locking up procedure similar to the Tower of London, and in a set order for which I had two large bunches of keys and a check list.
One day when I went to start the procedure I found I had left one bunch at home. I could not phone anyone as it was 2am.
I could not even phone anyone to explain to Mum why I was not home when she woke up. I had to spend the rest of the night on a bed of packing cases in the warehouse until the duty Manager arrived at 6am to open up for the office cleaners.
That bed was very hard and I only got about 1 hour asleep as I was constantly woken up by passing traffic.
At one stage I served both as Deputy Store Manager and Trade Union representative. Some found that too difficult to accept as I appeared to be working for both sides but that is what co-operating is about. Working Together.
In 1989 I was dined by the Directors at a Cambridge University college and awarded a certificate for 25 years service and a large wad of Co-op tokens. A few years later CRS under their different scheme feted me again and gave me their overdue 20 years award with some more Co-op tokens .
In 1991 I started an overseas Co-operative Project of Tree Planting.
It was a bit disconcerting to see on TV last Sunday evening that in Russia millions of trees over a 100 years old are being ripped up, releasing from the soil large quantities of lethal methane gas, and destroying a forest source of oxygen and that absorbs large quantities of the carbon dioxide we humans produce..
So for the sake of the planet we need to plant billions more trees in other places.
My contribution so far of 6000 looks rather small in comparison. But if we all got into the habit of planting tress we could make a useful contribution.[ now in 2015 that has risen to 7613 trees]
I have funded 3 woods in Uganda, a coffee plantation in South America, an olive grove in Israel, fruit trees in various parts of Africa, and palms to help hold back soil erosion south of the Sahara desert and a couple of groves of trees native to England, in Hampshire and in Bedfordshire.
In 1992 I started another Co-operative project to help people,. particularly students, in Ghana, which was supposed to last 2 years, but is still going on, and has spread to Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo,. Uganda,Zambia and Nigeria.
As Cambridge Co-op came close to bankruptcy it was taken over by Co-op Retail Services Ltd and so in 1993 we bade farewell to Manager Colin Rooke who had come from Birmingham Co-op in 1978.
He began working as a trumpet player in his Dad’s band. When he first joined the Co-op he was told “It’s a job for life, people always have to eat”. He was at one stage the first Employees Director on the Cambridge Board and represented the Staff Pension Scheme on it.
When I first worked with him, when he went on holiday I deputised and he always worked in a muddle, so I tidied up his office for him, all friendly like.
He was not amused and filed a complaint so I had to go to Cambridge for an interview with our boss. He said
“John, I know he works in a dreadful chaotic muddle, but he achieves results. I understand that you meant well and probably found his method difficult to work with, but in future just leave him in his muddle and don’t tidy it up”. Poor Rookie couldn’t find a thing and had to put it all back in a mess before he could resume his work.
Since then I have learnt his method and do most of my voluntary work from my office at home in complete chaos.
Perhaps it’s normal, since local, county and national government appear to work on a similar basis.
CRS demoted Colin to the smaller Sawston store and then eventually found a reason to sack him. Before the final refit, our store only survived about another 18 months and had another 7 managers in that time all young and inexperienced who depended on me and Margaret Simpkin as deputy managers to find out what do.
One even carpeted me for a disciplinary hearing, and I had to basically tell him how to do it. I called in the Trade Union and we went above him. His case collapsed and he got moved somewhere else.
Another nominated me to train as a First Aider and I went to a 4 day course at Cambridge Red Cross. I enjoyed it and it was very interesting I had a very successful interview with a GP but failed all over a supposed broken arm. I put it in a nice sling but anchored it to the wrong shoulder. Still next day a staff member came to me with a severely cut thumb which I dressed and wrapped it in a very long bandage and told her to go next morning to her doctor. He remarked that it was somewhat over bandaged. You can’t please everyone.
One young manager who was very bright and enthusiastic had been sacked from another company by a very strict taskmaster of an Area Manager. But the Area Manager too was sacked and joined the Co-op. He soon made himself unfriendly to everyone and sacked the young mean again.
Then having acted unwisely himself he found that he had almost no friends and was made redundant, and in his last 2 weeks tried very hard to be humane, reasonable and kind but it was too late. He left to take over as an Area manager for a chain of low priced Discount Convenience Stores, He had not been doing that long when the Co-op bought them out and promptly sacked him. Poetic justice.
What had once been a business based on principles of fair play had become a dog eat dog jungle.
Some years earlier when the local Council agreed to having a store built on the site of the old pig market they first offered the site to the Cambridge Co-op but having just taken over Bedford with all it’s debt, they did not have the money so Waitrose came in instead.
To begin with Waitrose hit us badly but we had the larger of all the other food stores, and while they gradually all died out we carried on but the arrival of Tesco was another matter.
After I left the Co-op, I did a RSA Course in Computing and my first computer was an old1985 model with thick 3 inch disks much of which were unusable. It was given to me by a supporter of the local Labour Party and I discovered amongst the disks a set from a committee set up within the local Labour Party to investigate and discuss whether the proposed Tesco would be good for Walden
The local Labour Party thought it would be, and that it would have no effect on the Co-op whatever; but they did not consult Co-op management, staff or customers, and had they done so they would have discovered the truth.
The first week that Tesco opened, our sales dropped by £35,000, our customer base melted away and we only ever managed to get one third of that back The Co-op that had weathered the opening of Waitrose was crippled by the opening of Tesco.
So I believe the Local Labour party made a big mistake which they have suffered from ever since, but we cannot hold back change and let’s face it the cash strapped Co-op could not then here have organised a store as large as Tesco.
But it might have recovered if it’s Senior Managers had listened to the local members and customers.
In a last attempt to rescue the store, they gave it a refit in 1994 and put us in fancy clothes. They brought a Malaysian manager in his 20’s from the South Coast to set up the new discount store and he stayed for a few weeks and I found him very pleasant. Had he stayed on we would have made progress. Another young man from Sudbury was offered the job but his parents ill health prevented him coming at that time.
So they took a young man from being a green grocery section head and put him in charge of a super market without any training, They downgraded Margaret and me and put a 19 yearold, in as Assistant Manager, and they closed the exit door that led to the Car Park which customers had been using for years and forced everyone, many with loaded trollies to walk down Park Lane to go into the car park where cars were constantly coming and going
The complaints poured in. we had to get printed customers complaint books and they were soon filling up but Howard picked up each book replacing it with a new one and then dropped it in his waste paper basket and later into the skip in the yard, hundreds and hundreds of complaints never reached Senior management
As customers left in droves and sales fell, staff hours had to be continually cut and as I was in charge of staff rotas it pained me greatly to have to reduce the hours of work of some very good dedicated young workers who needed all the money they could get. Unfortunately I had little choice and finished up working a lot of unpaid overtime.
Eventually Margaret and I tipped off a former Director who knew the national head of Food Division who lived at Arkesden, He investigated and sacked Howard. He had the closed exit reopened and brought in the young man from Sudbury to oversee the closure of the store.
He actually began to turn the store round and as word of closure became public knowledge customers poured back many of them Co-op members who had let themselves down and shopped in other towns in other stores, but it was too late.
So in May 1995 we closed the doors for the last time, most of the staff had gone, just a small team of us stayed on a week to do stock taking, pack everything up and send it to Leo Stores around the UK, and demolish the interior
The following Saturday we had a Staff Reunion and Farewell Party at the Temereire and we said we would have a staff reunion a year later and it was down to me to organise it at the Eight Bells. Six turned up, me and 5 ladies.
AFTER THAT I was unemployed for 16 months before I began 3 new careers one after the other but that is another story I might tell about one day.
Some years before the Food store closed, the smaller shops having closed, the Home Household Store next to the Post Office closed too but remained Co-op Property, It was divided into an arcade of small shops. Eventually that closed and ALLDAYS STORES took over the lease and Post Office Counters was moved into it.
Then CRS bought out ALLDAYS and all their other stores were sold or became Co-op Discount Stores, except here, where COST CUTTERS chain stores took over the lease. The freehold remaining with the Co-op. Nationwide the Co-op is thriving opening new supermarkets and new convenience stores and have taken over 50 chemist shops including Moss’s in Hill street.[ 2015 addition. Since the the Co-op Banks and other sections of the Group have suffered from scandals and heavy losses, but they are pulling round these difficulties]
So Saffron Walden District Co-op is not quite dead, and while any former staff remain or any former customers, the spirit of it lives on, because the principles of co-operation carries on in all the things we all do with other people.
The Co-op at Walden began because Christian people in the labouring movement got together and pooled their resources to establish a system of trading that would give their customer members the opportunity of a democratic say in what should be done and to provide good quality goods at fair prices, and provide the workers with fair wages.
They also organised Saving Clubs, education schemes, a Women’s Guild. Staff and customer outings and locally they cared for us from the cradle to the grave with 8 grocery shops, a Butchery, a Bakery, homes to rent, a Funeral Service, Coal delivery, 3 Mobile shops visiting the villages,. A cafe, and a Co-op Hall, At the central store opened in 1935 they had a big clock outside as few people wore watches.
One bit of equipment still gets an airing most years at local events, is the length of coloured cotton bunting bought for the 1953 Coronation.
I learnt long ago that as humans in the sight of God and as part of the Universe he has created, we do not always make the wisest of decisions and as a result we are all flawed characters.
We cannot correct this ourselves nor work or earn our way into God’s favour
Nor do we need to do so because He has done for us all that is necessary
by sending Jesus Christ into the world to show us how to live, and love who by sacrificing his own life provided for us our forgiveness and reconciled us with God.
At the Co-op I sometimes heard, and have heard people since say that when they die they are not good enough to go to Heaven but they’ll be joining lots of their friends for a big party in Hell.
If we think that we are mistaken We have got the wrong address, the party is booked for Heaven. On the basis of our individual goodness none of us are going to be at that party and Hell is going to be so congested we’ll never find a location for one.
However none of us need ever go to Hell, because God through his Spirit makes us good enough to be accepted in Heaven for Jesus Christ said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to God the Father except through me,”
It is Jesus Christ himself who alone makes us good and impels us to do good to other people.
In the course of my work I met many Christians. They were faithful in their care for other members of the staff. Several died in service and I was able to be of encouragement to their families or organise collections for wreathes or charities.
One young Christian aged about 16 arrived on work experience. Being young, newly converted, and anxious to share of what Jesus Christ had done for him he went about urging other staff to confess their sins and surrender their lives to Jesus. Needless to say some did not take kindly to being reminded that they were sinners, and reacted against him but he took it all in good part and was a breath of clean air in the place..
One of our staff, a Roman Catholic, was dying of cancer but she continued working as long as possible always showing concern for fellow workers, which made a big impression.
Other people have said “I am not religious” or “I have no time or interest in religion.” Well Jesus had little time for religion either and spent most of his time looking out for the needs of other people or reconciling them with his Father.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to my Father except through me”
Because Jesus Christ rose triumphant from death and intercedes for us in Heaven, the power of the Spirit of God is available to all of us, by trusting him.
It is Jesus Christ himself who alone makes us good and impels us to do good to other people.
Other people sometimes said “I am to old to change my ways”
well my Dad was 61 when he became a Christian and I know someone who gave in to God aged 80.
He had never been to church since the day he was taken to be Christened but at 80 he responded to an invitation to attend. He said that since that visit the Bible has become his bedtime book. A Bible given to him by his grandmother that he had never before read.
Because Jesus Christ rose triumphant from death and intercedes for us in Heaven, the power of the Spirit of God is released and available to all of us, by trusting him.
Jesus Christ taught that at the end of the world, He as our judge will divide humanity into two groups. Not according to class, religion or politics, but according to how much we cared for other people.
Those that ignored the needs of other people He called GOATS. Those who did what they could to help other people he called SHEEP and told us he is our SHEPHERD and HEAVEN is our FOLD or home.
Nor are we ever too old to help our neighbours and do good to other people. I see that regularly amongst my neighbours and friend at Four Acres
Ethel Hatfield was 76 and desired to serve her Lord Jesus whom she greatly loved and admired. She asked her pastor if she could help in the Sunday School He said “No you are too old.” A bit miffed she went back to her gardening.
One day Ethel was approached by a Chinese student who was admiring her roses. She invited him in for a cup of tea. They chatted and she told him of Jesus and his love for us and what he meant to her. Next day he called again with another Chinese student. That was the start of many conversations over tea with students and at her funeral 70 Chinese believers attended. They had been won to Jesus by a woman thought to be too old to do any good.
We never know what a day may bring. 10 yearold Maria her mother having recently died, looked after her father who was a miner. One evening having made up his sandwiches before he went on the night shift, she put in the box too, a Gospel booklet entitled THE WAY OF SALVATION, thinking it might comfort him in his loss. That night the mine tunnel caved in and he and his mates were trapped.
When rescuers finally tunnelled through they found him and his mates sitting in a circle with the booklet on her Dad’s lap with this message to Maria written in pencil. “ My dear, by the time you read this I will be with your mother. I read your little book. I read it several times to the others. Our hope is fading for this life...but not for the next. We did as the book told us. We prayed asking Jesus into our lives. I love you very much and one day we will all be together in heaven.
One of the by-products of co-operation is doing good together.
And that is a lot more than shopping in a Co-op shop. It is a foundation stone for living. Thank you.