TYPIFYING the homely pleasures of village life between the wars, these fancy-dress characters have lined up for Haworth photographer J Shuttleworth at a Stanbury Co-op Gala – Pierrots, ‘Stanbury’s Happy Family’ and a young lady on the right advertising CWS fertiliser and seeds (“Yes, Madam, this is the CWS Brand”).

Originally a branch of the Haworth Co-operative Society, the Stanbury store had struck out on its own account in 1896.

Thanks to its small team of staff and overheads, the branch became known as “the little Co-op with the big dividends”.

The Stanbury Co-operative Society regularly paid a three-shilling dividend in the 1930s, achieving 2s 11d as late as 1955 at a time when other local societies were averaging 10 or 11 pence.

It was taken over by the Keighley and Skipton District Co-operative Society in 1967, subsequently falling an inevitable casualty of changing social and shopping habits.