ULVERSTON DISTRICT CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY

Administrative records, members and financial records of Broughton-in-Furness Co-operative Society, Leven Valley Industrial and Provident Society and Swarthmoor and Ulverston Co-operative Society

Records deposited by Mr J McIlfatrick, Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Ulverston District Co-operative Society

Ulverston and District Co-operative Society is an amalgamation of three smaller societies: Broughton-in-Furness Co-operative Society, Leven Valley Industrial and Provident Society and Swarthmoor and Ulverston Co-operative Society. The three societies combined in the 1960s.

In 1862 a shop was opened in a private house in Market Street, Swarthmoor, by the cornish miners, who had recently settled in the area. Soon after, a new shop was opened in Market Street, Ulverston, and a third was opened in North Lonsdale Road, Ulverston, c.1886.

The latter branch is now closed, although the Market Street shop is still open. These three shops formed the Swarthmoor and Ulverston Society.

The Leven Valley Society was the second of the three societies to be established. A shop was opened in Backbarrow in 1884. The society was taken over by the Ulverston society eighty years later in 1964.

1891 saw the formation of the Broughton society. In 1929 the society took its secretary, John James Singleton, to court for fraud. Forty years later, in 1969, the Broughton society was taken over by Ulverston District Co-op.