Guild's work (From Barry And District News)

Guild's work

I AM a student at the University of Glamorgan researching the Women s Co-operative Guild in Wales.

The Guild was started in 1883, and was an organisation made up mainly of married working-class women who were committed to the co-operative movement and who wanted to improve the lives of ordinary women, and their children.

The Guild worked for women to have the vote, to have old age pensions, and to have family allowances to assist with the costs of childbirth and bringing up children. They also campaigned for pit-head baths and for children s nurseries.

They worked to promote international peace, and it was the Guild who invented the white poppies for peace which are still worn alongside red poppies on Armistice day.

The first branch in Wales was founded in Newport in 1890, but soon many other places had their own Guild, including separate branches in Barry Dock in 1902, Barry Town in 1917 and Barry Island in 1920. By 1939 there were over 100 branches in South Wales with over 4,000 members.

Not many paper records about the Guild in Wales have survived, but perhaps some of your readers may know of its work, or have been members, or perhaps their mothers or grandmothers might have been involved.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has memories or papers about the Women s Co-operative Guild.

Please contact me by phone on 029 2070 0798, or by post at 44 Plassey Street, Penarth, CF64 1EL, or by e-mail at hfothomas@btinternet.com

Helen Thomas

Plassey Street

Penarth

Via email