6th October 2025

 

The Co-Op: To be found in Todmorden, now it is 'The Kindness Cafe' and where we had lunch yesterday.  It was very full and Matilda's and my food was very late, the other two had eaten up their meals.  It is part of the kindness charity that lays at the work of many people who volunteer in Todmorden.  For £8 you can get, a vegan breakfast meal, or a vegetarian meal, or a carnivore's meal of sausages.  This of course is the only way to go to cater for the wide variety of tastes.

"fair exchange, just price, and the right to charity."

The Co-op started down North as people came together and questioned the right of the mill owner to his wealth and why wasn't it spread more widely. It came because a movement had formed called Owenism and the people who spread this gospel called Owenites  The movement came into being in Rochdale under the many co-operatives forming, in about 1844, spreading out to the large towns such as Huddersfield and Manchester.  Owen built a rural community next to his works, this was an experiment in an Utopian vision. The town of Saltaire is very much an example of this, built by Titus Salt for the great mill factory he had established and then with housing built for the mill workers and managers.

Listening to Zak Polanski of the Green Party and his talk on the media exchange and one cannot but feel he is carrying on the tradition as he rails against the wealthy (and about time).  The right to charity has of course been replaced by the social network that provides help too many people.  Also I notice that the old hot potato, Universal Basic Income for everyone, has been pulled out of the dusty cupboard of Green Socialism.

The Co-op as a supermarket is more expensive than either Aldi or Lidl but it can be found in most towns Up North.  Not in Tod but in Hebden Bridge, and are they being snobbish? (or perhaps loyal to the traditions of the area) to only allow the Co-op supermarket in the town.

After the wedding a couple of weeks ago, the flowers had to be cleared off the tables for the next wedding event, so we brought ours home and some of them dried as well, a good memory of the wedding.