Aspatria Agricultural Cooperative Society

Norman, a qualified chemist,[2] doubted the integrity of the declared chemical properties and sought verification from former colleague, Thomas Anderson, of Glasgow University.

It was during a speech at the inaugural show dinner, in September 1869, that Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet of Brayton advised local farmers to follow his example and join the Agricultural and Horticultural Association, established by Edward Owen Greening at Manchester two years earlier.

[4] Twentyman took the initiative one stage further and organised a meeting of local landlords and tenant farmers with a view of establishing a small company for buying fertilisers and feed stuff at a guaranteed quality.

At a meeting on 24 January 1870, twenty members agreed to draw up a list of rules, adopt a motto ‘each for all and all for each’, appoint Henry Thompson as secretary, on an initial salary of £65 per annum, and to purchase 160 subscription shares at £1 each.

The committee having supreme power, and being a representative body annually elected, no abuse of the kind can creep in without the connivance of the members themselves; a thing all but impossible.

[6] Later that year a vessel arrived in Whitehaven harbour carrying a cargo of high quality Peruvian guano, reported to contain 17 per cent ammonia.

The arbiter had settled the case but it took a further thirty-six years before the British government introduced legislation to guarantee the composition of fertilisers and animal feedstuff.

[10] Although Thompson left a society never seeking to become a market leader, it was steeped in genuine integrity, which continued to practice on the assumption that the reason for its existence was to guarantee the quality of its goods and services.