Saucey!

Bottles of sauce at the Co-Op at Beamish, County Durham.

Presented as the Annfield Plain Industrial Co-Operative Society Ltd, (but more commonly referred to as the Anfield Plain Co-op Store) this department store opened in 1984, and was relocated to Beamish from Annfield Plain. It represents the store element of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), formed in 1863 and having a presence in Annfield Plain since 1870. A two-storey building, the ground floor comprises the three departments – grocery, drapery and hardware; the upper floor is taken up by the tea rooms (accessed from Redman Park via a ramp to the rear). Most of the items are for display only, but a small amount of goods are sold to visitors. The store features an operational cash carrier system, of the Lamson-Paragon wooden ball design – common in many large stores of the era, but especially essential to Co-Ops, where customer’s dividends had to be logged.