No toilets, expensive food of dubious quality, crowded housing. This was the reality for many in 1840s Britain. And it was set to get worse: cholera had already claimed the lives of 50,000 people in the UK and another epidemic was looming. “It was a particularly bad time for the economy,” says Liz McIvor, manager of the UK- based Co-operative Heritage Trust. “People were out of work and certain areas faced starvation.”
Something had to change. And the Rochdale Pioneers knew it.
The group of 28 artisans and cotton weavers from an area that today forms part of greater Manchester, wanted to start a co-operative society in order to provide their community with affordable and unadulterated food.
