FEW organisations have been part of daily life in Clydebank longer than the Post – but one is the Clydebank Co-operative Society.

Formed in 1881, 10 years before the Clydebank Press was established, the Co-op was set up just before construction of the Singer factory began, and five years before Clydebank became a police burgh.

Formed by shipyard workers determined to supply groceries and other goods at fair prices, women were excluded at first.

But the community’s women were drawn to the co-operative movement and formed the first local branch of the Scottish Co-operative Women’s Guild in 1893. By 1914 there were another four branches in the town, and 11 branches with 1,500 members by 1948.

Sam Gibson, a founding member of the Clydebank Local History Society, told how everyone in the town “relied” on the Co-operative Society.

He said: “The Clydebank Co-operative owned the farm which the Faifley housing scheme now sits on.

“Nearly everyone had a Co-operative account. I can remember going to the head offices on Hume Street and every six months or once a year you got your ‘divi’, which you could collect and spend in the Co-op.

“You used to queue up to collect the money and went across the road to the shoe shop and bought your shoes.”

Still in operation today, the CCS is one of only two remaining independent retail co-operative societies in Scotland.