UKSCS History Network

The network aims to give members an opportunity to meet 2 or 3 times a year to share information on current developments in the field. Meetings have been held at the Pioneers Museum in Rochdale and at Co-operative Congress in Wakefield. The network issues occasional short digests of activities, research and projects provided by members. 

Several network members are involved in the Workers Co-ops Archive Project that is collating materials documenting many workers' co-operatives set up in the 1970s and 1980s, to ensure a record of their development is not lost. 

There is a continuing appeal for help in finding them to record and preserve their history.  If you have information, contact a member of the advisory team: Andrew Bibby, Stephen Yeo, John Goodman, Gillian Lonergan and Bob Cannell at [email protected], or visit the National Co-operative Archives webpages. They are digitising resources and have displayed the results at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum.

The network reflects a revival of interest in the history of co-operation with a number of publications by network members including: 

All Our Own Work: the Co-operative Pioneers of Hebden Bridge and their Mill by Andrew Bibby

William Hazell's Gleaming Vision: A  Co-operative Life in South Wales 1890 to 1964 by Alun Burge 

A City of Light: Socialism, Chartism and Co-operation - Nottingham 1844 by Chris Richardson 

Roses and Revolutionists the story of the Clousden Hill Free Communist and Co-operative Colony 1894 to 1902 by Nigel Todd.

To contact the network, email Richard Bickle: [email protected]