The building at 31 Toad Lane is enshrined in history as the place where the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers started trading in 1844. This was an early consumer co-operative made up of skilled workers like weavers, who were being thrown into poverty by the increased mechanisation of the Industrial Revolution.

The aim was to provide high-quality basics like sugar, tea, butter, tobacco and flour at affordable prices, and the Rochdale Pioneers laid down the foundation for all modern co-operatives around the world.

The pioneers moved out of 31 Toad Lane in 1867, but the Co-operative Movement bought the building and turned it into a museum in 1931. The museum offers context, showing the climate in the mid-19th century, and outlining the principles of the textile manufacturer Robert Owen (1771-1858), one of the founders of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement.

You’ll learn how co-ops helped set the ball rolling for 20th-century reforms involving women’s rights, education and poverty.