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Did you know that Toad Lane is the birthplace of the Rochdale Pioneers?
To help our volunteers learn more about the history of Rochdale as well as the Co-operative movement our volunteers have been on various visits.
The volunteers enjoyed a trip to Pioneers Museum on Toad Lane and they gave us a wonderful historical account of life in Rochdale prior to the co-op’s existence (especially relating to food – saw dust, chalk and other nasties mixed in flour & sugar, dirty water mixed in with milk and some chemical mixed in butter!)
They learnt about how the Co-op came into existence and the difficulties the founder (Howarth) and his apprentices encountered leading up to and on the day of their first opening of the co-op. We were all pleased to hear the success stories that lead to the co-op being recognised around the world.
They had a good look around the museum before heading back to Sparth via Broadfield Park and stopped and took a closer look at the Dialect writers memorial (one of our group was very interested as they have a personal interest in dialect). We all attempted to read the engraved scripts on all four sides of the memorial and chuckled as we tried to make sense of it – we all might need more practise reading Rochdale Dialect poems!