Banner of the Women’s Co-operative Guild Beds and Bucks District
The Women’s Guild was established in 1895. In 1908 the congress of the Women's Co-operative Guild proposed an international alliance of co-operative women and adopted the motto 'of whole heart cometh hope, of comradeship comes strength'. The motto became more widely used after the First World War. The use of the wheatsheaf and ‘of whole earth cometh hope’ as well as marguerite daisies suggest that it was made during the time Margaret Llewellyn Davies was the General Secretary of the Co-operative Women’s Guild, between 1899 and 1921, probably after 1917.
The blue silk background has a plain cotton lining whilst the fringe is synthetic and machine sewn. The maker is not known. The banner is 130cm high and 87cm wide.
The Beds and Bucks District was served by a number of independent co-operatives and some of these merged into current independent societies such as East of England, others with CWS, now the Co-operative Group.
The Co-operative Heritage Trust 117927
The Trust was formed in 2007 by Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative College and the Co-operative Group to bring together heritage assets of the British Co-operative Movement to educate and inspire audiences about how and why co-operatives developed from the 19th Century.
The Trust cares for Rochdale Pioneers Museum and the Co-operative Archive based in Manchester. In 2012 the National Lottery Heritage funded Rochdale Project took place including a major renovation of the museum building.
The banner and textile collection
As part of the Rochdale Project, conservation of banners in the collection was undertaken at the textile studios of the People’s History Museum, Manchester.
Trades Union style banners were carried by co-operators to reflect the pride of the membership in their societies and to rally support for positive change. As such they are decorated with symbols representing friendship, solidarity and peace.
https://www.co-operativeheritage.coop/
Photography by John Harris / Report Digital. Digital retouching by Adrian Hayes.
Photography, design and print by unionised labour. www.reportdigital.co.uk, www.kavitagraphics.co.uk and www.rapspiderweb.co.uk