CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY
ARCHIVES IN THE SOUTH EAST
One of the most
important of Greenwich Institutions and employers was the Royal Arsenal
Co-operative Society. Last year
Greenwich Industrial History Society heard Ron Roffey talk about the Royal
Arsenal Co-operative Society and his work in collecting their archives and
memorabilia. Ron also concentrated on
the work which the Society did as a productive unit – not just as a series of
retail outlets – and he talked at length about their factory in what was then
known as Commonwealth Buildings on the old Woolwich Dockyard site. The following article is by Peter Collier, Assistant to Honorary Archivist
The former Royal
Arsenal Co-operative Society’s premises in Powis Street, Woolwich, are well
known to many who live in South East London. Until the end of 1999 they housed
amongst other things the Co-operative Archive that was founded and built up by
Ron Roffey, the former Secretary of the RACS. At that date the collection
comprised over 10,000 objects and documents and an estimated 10,000 unlisted
pictures and photographs.
In addition to the
RACS records and artefacts, the collection included material from the societies
that at various dates had merged with the RACS, from Faversham & Thanet in
the East to Slough in the West. Today it additionally includes other societies
that merged directly with the CWS SE, as it then was, namely South Suburban,
Brighton, Invicta and Sittingbourne Co-operative Societies. Altogether, the
Archive comprises an extremely important record of local, commercial and
working class history.
At the end of 1999
when the office closed, Greenwich Council agreed to provide temporary
accommodation for the material, in order to keep it in the Borough.
However, also at the
end of 1999, a decision was taken to create a National Co-operative Archive at
the Co-operative College. As a result a selection of approximately 3500 records
and documents were dispatched to the College in February 2001.
While the development
of a Co-operative Archive Centre at the national level is most welcome, the
future of the local archive is still uncertain. The National Centre does not
meet the need for archival resources relating to past co-operative societies in
London and the South East and a good case can still be made for a regional
co-operative archive and study centre.
For, while the Archive
was in Co-operative premises, Ron Roffey, as Honorary Archivist, was able to
show visitors the museum part of the collection, and also to welcome
individuals who wished to carry out research. He was, in addition, able to
obtain funds from South East Co-op to develop a number of databases. This
enabled a catalogue of the collection to be completed, and also his own
research into the Royal Arsenal and South Suburban Societies, which was
published in the book ‘The Co-operative Way’ a year ago.
Since leaving Powis
Street, these activities have ceased due to the material being held in storage
conditions. Since then, we have had only a trickle of funds to enable
caretaking functions to continue, to allow, for example, the reception of new
items and the loan of parts of the collection for exhibition. Yet still today
we receive requests from people wishing to carry out research (which we have to
refuse) and records and objects continue to be donated.
At the time of
writing, the Archive is again being moved, now to smaller and more basic
premises in Eltham owned by Greenwich Council. We hope it will be adequate for
the essential functions of maintaining the collection.
If the immediate goal
of preserving the collection can be achieved, we shall then need to develop a
strategy of long term development. Suitable accommodation will be needed, as
also will funds for conservation, for database work, and to enable the public
to have access. An encyclopedia of local co-operation on CD-ROM or the internet
could be produced; and digital recording is increasingly significant as a means
of giving access to old and delicate documents.
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