Rebecca Harvey the deputy editor of the Co-operative News reports – a new painting of Toad Lane in Rochdale, the site of the very first co-operative food store, has been unveiled in Manchester.
The birthplace of the Co-op’ by Stephen Campbell was commissioned this year by David J. Thompson, a US-based author and active co-operator, and is now adorning the reception area of the Co-op Group’s Angel Square.
David Thompson was born in Blackpool, England, to parents who worked for the Blackpool Industrial Co-operative Society. He emigrated to the United States in 1962 and is now president of California’s Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation.
He is the author of Weavers of Dreams: Founders of the Modern Cooperative Movement and over 400 articles about co-operatives. He was inducted into the US Cooperative Hall of Fame in 2010.
“In early 2016, Mr Campbell was contacted to do a painting of the original Co-op Shop at Toad Lane. The artist immediately said yes and produced a truly memorable depiction of the ‘Birthplace of the Co-op’.”