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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Thursday, 9th September 2010

 
STORY OF THE LOCAL COOP

The Hemel Co-op celebrates Peace Day in 1919
The Hemel Hempstead Co-operative Society was formed in 1906 and after an initial branch in Bridge Street central premises with a bakery department were erected in Marlowes.
Trade reached £1,000 a week, but things went down hill after the First World War and by 1923 trade had slumped to just £500 a week.
It was at this point that the Berkhamsted society took over and was, for a short time, called the Berkhamsted and District Co-operative Society before the name was changed to Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead.
It was still this society that ran things - and in fact built the Co-op’s Quality House department store in 1956 - right through until 1958 when it was decided to become part of the national Co-operative Retail Society.

The Hemel Cop had expanded by the 1930s
New premises to house the butchery, drapery, boots and hardware department were opened in Marlowes in 1929.
A “fine new branch” was opened at Lawn Lane in 1936, but the Second World War brought a halt to further developments for a time.
In 1947 there was a change in the society’s rules giving equal committee representation to Hemel Hempstead and the same year saw the purchase of the Belswains Lane branch in Hemel Hempstead.

The new Belswains Lane branch
This was the time of the coming of the new town and this was one of the reasons why the society bought its first travelling grocery shop in 1948 and commenced the replacement of all it horse-drawn vehicles with electric or motor transport.
Just a year later the first self-service grocery shop was opened in Apsley - the same year which saw the opening of a store in Northchurch.
With the rapid growth of Hemel Hempstead new town the Co-op’s fleet of travelling shop vehicles was expanded to three grocery and two butchery.
They became a real lifeline to many new townies who arrived from London to find the shops in their neighbourhood had not yet been built.
The first of the neighbourhood Co-ops was opened at Queen Square, Adeyfield.
By 1953, with the Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead Co-op celebrating its 70th anniversary, sales reached £500,000 for the first time.
FOR MORE CO-OP MEMORIES AND PICTURES, CLICK BELOW
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