The Co-op Movement had its roots in Brighton where a local reformer, Dr William King, advocated the principles of self-help trading in home produced goods. In 1844 a group of Rochdale textile workers set up an independent business encouraging cooperation and providing the customer with a dividend on each purchased item, the accumulation of which went into shared profit.

One of the earliest co-op traders in Stoke-on-Trent was a Burslem potter James Colclough who opened Stoke-on-Trent’s first co-operative store, in Newcastle Street Burslem. Meanwhile another Co-op pioneer, James Stanway, a manager at Royal Doulton, encouraged Fred Hayward to attend the infant Co-op meetings. In 1902 Fred became the company’s unpaid part-time secretary and helped the organisation to become the most successful mutual commercial enterprise Stoke-on-Trent has ever known.

“From 1902 until his retirement in 1935 Sir Fred Hayward remained at the top of the Co-op movement in North Staffordshire. He helped to execute its rise from a single Burslem bread shop into a production and retail industry that affected the lives of possibly every family in the region.