The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a six-figure sum to the Co-operative Heritage Trust for its ‘Seeds of Change’ project, which aims to fully catalogue and open up the Co-operative College Archival Collection

The £131,653 grant will enable the Trust to recruit a project archivist to work with community volunteers over the next two years, to conserve and protect the collection and make it accessible. Key aims of the project include identifying items for digitising, conservation, creating outreach events and developing work towards an exhibition at the end of the project.

The Co-operative College was first established in Manchester in 1919 – founded by the Co-operative Movement to offer specialist learning to members and employees of co-operative societies who were primarily from working class backgrounds. It pioneered new forms of learning including correspondence courses and visits to co-operatives establishing a reputation as a centre of excellence for training, learning, consultancy and research for students from across the UK and globally. From 1946, a longstanding relationship with the Colonial Office brought students from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean to the College.

The archives are of particular significance for the development of education within the co-operative movement and provide excellent coverage for the range of courses offered by the College to co-op societies, individual members and auxiliary groups such as the Co-operative Women’s Guild. The archives highlight the history of the movement, education of co-operative principles and role in social and international development through the 20th century.

A highlight will be the conservation of fragile items such as scrapbooks of photographs and creative work which provide insight to the experiences of students that attended the college in the first half of the 20^th century.

The funding will also allow for oral history interviews to be collected from past and present staff and students, providing a deeper overview of the history of the college and its importance within the national and international co-operative movement as it celebrates the UN International Year of Co-operatives in 2025 and provides co-operative training as a charity body.

Ian Adderley, Vice Chair of Trustees for the board of The Co-operative Heritage Trust said: “The Co-operative College archives are a unique and valuable part of the co-operative movement’s history, in the UK and internationally. With thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players for their support, we at the Co-operative Heritage Trust can start preserving and amplifying this collection through digitization and sharing its stories. This is particularly welcome as we start the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives in 2025.”

On the Co-operative Heritage Trust website:
Read more about the project.
Read about the Project Archivist vacancy.