Team needed to sketch out Pioneer party
●●SKETCH video to celebrate Rochdale Pioneers’ Anniversary
ROCHDALE Pioneers are looking for an amateur dramatic group to participate in a short sketch sequence to be filmed on video for their anniversary.
They would like to involve local people in a
Gracie Fields-inspired sketch. If your group would like to participate in the project, please email: liz@heritagetrust. coop
Situated in Rochdale town centre, the Rochdale Pioneers Museum is widely regarded as the home of the worldwide Co-operative movement.
On December 21, 1844 – 179 years ago – the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society opened their first little store, selling pure, unadulterated food at fair prices with honest weights and measures.
The Pioneers started a revolution in retailing which has played a significant part in our lives ever since.
The ground floor of the museum faithfully recreates the original shop, together with its rudimentary furniture and scales.
Here, the basic needs of daily life such as butter, sugar, flour, and oatmeal first went on sale 179 years ago.
In the display and exhibition area, you can learn of the inspiration the Pioneers received from visionaries such as the great social reformer Robert Owen; see how the profits from the shop were returned to the members in the form of a ‘dividend’; and watch the story unfold of the Coop’s subsequent success.
The Pioneers have used the room upstairs to provide members with further education.
There, you can journey back in time as you view examples of early advertising, packaging, and retailing artefacts.
Special displays feature a unique collection of Cooperative postage stamps, commemorative china and plateware and rare dividend coins and commodity tokens.