31, Toad Lane, Rochdale was the address of the first branch of which organisation?
Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Wythenshawe, Manchester by 1991. In 1991, then Norwest Co-operative Society transferred its engagements to United Co-operatives, that was run from Rochdale when it in turn transferred to the Manchester-based national hybrid society, The Co-operative Group, in 2007. At the outset, the Pioneers had a clear set of what we now would call objectives – in 1844 they called them 'Objects'. The objects of the Society were stated in "Law the First" of their rules and were: Many aspects of these objects can be seen directly in the modern-day co-operative movement. The Pioneers rented their first store at 31 Toad
The Rochdale Pioneers the community. The vision and efforts of these twenty eight working class men is recognized as the birth of the co-operative movement, and the Rochdale Principles which they developed formed the foundation of the principles still in use by the modern cooperative movement which now numbers around 1.4 million independent enterprises with nearly 1 billion members worldwide. "The Rochdale Pioneers" was inspired by the 1944 film, "Men of Rochdale" which had marked the centenary of the first shop's opening and had been in turn based upon G.J. Holyoake's "The History of Co-operation". The original shop at 31 Toad Lane in