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[chemimike]

Does not seem all that large, though it did have a gas works in the q890s. the smaller scale c1852 map seems similar

map c1893 cockersdale.jpg (483.29 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

map c1852 cockersdale.jpg (423.81 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

[jma]

I'm not suggesting for one moment that it was a big place, just that the Co-op wasn't isolated. As well as the gas works, there's a brass works (which led to a bit of a misunderstanding some years ago when I was discussing New Lane with somebody familiar with the area) and a boiler works. Also a mill pond shown, which suggests to me a mill. The land between Gildersome and Drig nowadays has signs of all sorts of abandoned mine workings.

[tyke bhoy]

Reccent Aerial view the building in question is towards the bottom left
https://goo.gl/maps/8A4sMo5VZjBcojQ27
and from the street view
https://goo.gl/maps/37TRehVay8UzsZSn7

[tilly]

Many thanks for your input, on the google view you can see the caravans just before the lake it looks has though there might have been enough buildings to warrant a shop.Thank you again stay safe Sid. It looks has though more of the fascia boards have come off since i last passed.

[jma]

I had a look for Cockersdale on Leodis. Most of the images are rural views but there's one of an early Morley bus with this in the text

These were kept in operation for about six years and at first ran between Morley Town Hall and Gildersome, Drighlington and Cockersdale,

That suggests to me there was something at Cockersdale more significant than there is now. Unless it was to get customers to an otherwise redundant Co-op.

[buffaloskinner]

On the 1905 map there are very few houses or buildings. If as JMA says there was a bus service it was probably taking workers to the mills (Valley Mills and Moorhead Mill) or the Brass Works certainly not because many people were living there.

[jma]

Thanks for that much-clearer map.

I'll reiterate that I'm not suggesting that Cockersdale was ever a big place, just that there was enough going on there to support a Co-op. The alternative explanation is that somebody built a Co-op there for no obvious reason. The A58 used to be a main transpennine route which might go some way to explain a pub but hardly a Co-op.

That map also shows a woollen mill towards its top edge. After WWII women were taken some distance in coaches to work in textile mills. I've no idea if that applied at the beginning of the 20C.

That map also shows Cockers Dale - the valley which is nowadays popular with walkers - and Cockersdale - the settlement we are discussing. So, at the very least, it was somewhere worth naming on a map.

Incidentally, I'm not sure this was ever Driglington (sic) Co-op. With a more modern frontage, here's Drighlington Co-op which was built in that era, and it's in Drig. Not a million miles from Cockersdale.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.75643 ... 384!8i8192

On checking I see that both have the sign Drighlington Industrial Co-operative Society. We must be talking about the Cockersdale branch, so it's not somewhere set up in competition but to extend the service

[tilly]

The Drilington CO OP in your google map has a very large population living around it.While the one about half a mile down the road is quit different, It could have been the industrial side of things that kept it going, but it still seems strange that they are so close to each other .

[jma]

Not Cockersdale, but here's a Leodis image to illustrate what I said about women being taken by coach to work in textile mills.

http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

[chemimike]

Not directly connected to the subject of the building in Cockersdale, but it is of interest that apparently the larger co-op building in Drighlington is the oldest purpose-built co-op building in the country still being used as a co-op.(https://liverpooluniversitypress.blog/2 ... n-pearson/)