This obituary to David Watson appeared in the "Co-op News", February 14th, 1925.

Association of Friends of the Cameron Hospital Dinner, Whist Drive and Dance 1939. To take place in the Co-op Cafe, Stockton Street.

Date unclear but would be pre 1950 as there are trolley bus lines evident. This view clearly shows the entrance to the arcade where one entrance was in the centre of the Park Road side of the store under the grand arched window. The other entrance to the arcade was to the left of the blinds where some people can be seen. under a further arched window. For quite a number of years before the store closed , the Stockton Street side of the arcade was blocked and became part of the store, and then the Park Road side of it was also closed off.

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Shortly before it closed completely, most of the trading was done on the ground floor selling decorating,DIY, hardware and soft furnishings rather than the vast range of goods which had been sold throughout the life of the store.

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Central Stores Park Road. A view of the stores looking up Park Road.

Chatham Road Co-op.

The Co-operative Central Stores in 1973.  The building still stands on the corner of Park Road and Stockton Street.

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Central Stores looking up Park Road, taken from Stockton Street, Hartlepool

Co-Operative Central Stores, Park Road, Hartlepool

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Central Stores, Park Road, Hartlepool

Co-operative Women's Guild outing in 1930 from the Central Estate.

Co-op Insurance stand at Trade Fair in the Town Hall, West Hartlepool.

The Haberdashery department of the Co-operative store.

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On the corner of York Road and Victoria Road, the large Coop Chemist building opened on February 7th 1957. It was built on the site of North View which from the 1890s had been a private girls' school. 

The shop was a flagship store, the West Hartlepool Coop Society Drug and Dispensing Department opening a shop at 110 York Rd in 1922, followed by Cornwall St, then in 1938 Chatham Rd, Elwick Rd and Oxford Rd in 1947 and in 1949 the  West View Chemists' shop.

A view of a COOP clothes store of which there were a few around the town which someone may recognise from the distinctive tiles under the window.

This window display is of women's hosiry and underwear.

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Unclear where this was but hopefully someone will know ! The Coop had a number of branches throughout the town where clothing was sold. One was in the Young Street/ York Road area and there was perhaps one at West View and in Jutland Road ? This branch sells 90 shilling suits  and boys overcoats for 19s11d. The brand was the Coop's own Wheatsheaf brand.

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Looking East down Park Road, Hartlepool towards Pierce's Opticians, with the Central Stores on the right.

Power's was actually two shops on the  corner of Spring Garden Road, Stratford Road and Stockton Road. Both are now converted to houses and this image was taken in 1963.

To the right is the Co-op and this is now Blue Cow butchers. The Co-op is now to the right of the old premises which was then Walter Willson's.

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Staff from the Co-op store at 110 York Road, smile for the camera in 1959.

Staff pose behind the counter of the Northgate Co-op store, possibly around 1954.

Salavation army hostel long gone, just the old co-op building standing

A view along Stockton Street, Hartlepool, showing the Salvation Army building (Bell Terrace), with the unmistakable Co-op building behind.

The image shows the Premier Temperance Hotel. On the right is the COOP foodstore and towards the Central Stores is the Salvation Army Citidal.

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Central Stores and other Co-Op premises and staff in Hartlepool. See the Note 'The Co-Op in Hartlepool' (below), for a more complete history.

Between 1862 and 1873, there were five separate Co-ops in the town, two in old Hartlepool and three in West Hartlepool and this obviously was counterproductive. In 1882, following a meeting in the Raglan hotel, the Hartlepools Co-operative Society was formed with Thomas Tweddle as chairman. Tweddle went on to become known in the Co-operative Societies nationally as the president of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) in 1915.

In 1883, the first shop was opened in Charles Street, West Hartlepool and advertised that "goods would be sold at the same prices as those of respectable traders in the town". Sales and profits were good and the Society opened two more  shops in 1883. In 1890 it purchased land in South Whitby Street on which to build a Central Stores which opened in 1892.

By 1900, the Society owned 19 premises from shops to a building department, a bakery and stables. A dairy and meat factory followed and then the Society provided dyeing, dry cleaning, photographic, shoe repair and later undertaking services.

The Society bought Owton Fens Farm in 1901 and was in the farming business there for 50 years, purchasing Brierton Farm in 1943 and Owton Grange Farm in 1949. The farming business stopped in 1951 although the Society's Fresian cattle were given certificates of excellence.

A 1912 advert for Hartlepools Co-op Society said that membership was one shilling and the dividend or "divi" was 2 shillings and 3 pence in the pound. There were at that time branches throughout the Hartlepools, Seaton Carew and Graythorp. In 1912 there were 20,482 members.

In October 1915 new Central Stores were opened in the large building still seen today on the corner of Park Road and Stockton Street although it is no longer a Co-op. At the time the building was described as "the finest block of business buildings in the town". It had "an imposing tower and arcade, a Board Room panelled in oak with a fine modelled ceiling and a comfortably furnished ladies' rest room."

Soon after opening, the grand Central Stores building was commissioned by the military in World War 1 and the Commanding Officer was asked by the Committee to put up notices prohibiting soldiers striking matches on the tiles of their new building.

As new estates were built around the town, new Co-op stores were built and in 1955, the large Co-op Chemist building was opened on the corner of York Road and Victoria Road. 

In the 1960s, shopping habits were changing nationally. Dividend  Stamps replaced the "divi" numbers and new departments were introduced. 

When Hartlepool Middleton Grange Shopping Centre was planned there were many discussions about the future of the Central Stores as it was outside  the area included in the new plans. A site in the new centre was offered but rejected by the Society and the main store remained where it was. By 1969, profits, as in other small societies, were not great and Society members agreed to join the North Eastern Co-op Group in June 1970.

By 1996, the building had become The Venue nightclub and eventually the upper floors were converted into flats, ' Park Towers',  which they are today . The ground floor now houses offices.

Notes taken from 'The People's Store' which is a history of North Eastern Co-ops by Jim Lamb.

The Hartlepools Co-op Dairy, Grand Xmas Party December 1963.

The Hartlepools Co-op Society Limited, Employees Sports Club Whist Drive and Dance 1960.

Victoria Road, York Road junction, Hartlepool now with the Coop Chemist on the corner.

Looking East along Villiers Street with Gales Garage on the right and the Co-op Dairy in the distance. The building on the left where the Central Library now stands is The Northerns Cinema.

(Black photograph Album)

In 1958 a very modern new Co-op was opened in Wynyard Road and this advert from the Northern Daily Mail describes how new this concept was. The prices are interesting too ! As a guide, 2/- was two shillings so the price of three jellies advertised was 10p and 1 shilling was 5p.

The shop claimed to bring 'American style shopping for the Owton Manor housewife'.