CHARD INDUSTRIAL & PROVIDENT SOCIETY LIMITED

'The Chard Industrial and Provident Society Ltd.' was the registered title of the co-op. in Chard, which commenced business in February 1866. The local lace mill owner allowed the new-formed Society to use a room in the Holyrood Mill yard, and to stock the little shop he advanced them a loan of £15. Shop premises were soon acquired in Holyrood Street; in 1875 a much larger shop was bought in Fore Street which, extended over many years, still forms the centre of co-operative trading in Chard.

Through the next century the Society opened branch shops in Ilminster and nearby villages, went into farming, clothing, furniture, butchery and diary businesses, and was the largest owner of cottage property in the area, mostly newly built by the Society.

At its most extensive its employees numbered over a hundred, but post 1945 changes in retailing necessitated the ending of farming, bread baking, and the use of small village stores. After a series of meetings extending over several years, the Chard Co-op. finally transferred its engagements to Co-operative Retail Services, South West Region, in October 1982.

[Note by L. Hoskins of Tatworth, a former manager of the Society]

S/1307, 1547