History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd.

by William Reid

THE HOLIDAY CAMP.

It is to Mr John Dewar, for many years president of the Renfrewshire Co-operative Conference Association, that the idea of a Co-operative holiday camp owes its origin. For many years Mr Dewar was an enthusiastic Volunteer, and his experiences under canvas during the annual training periods of his regiment impressed him with the value of this form of holiday. Associated with him in his propaganda for a camping association on Co-operative lines was Mr James Lucas, at that time president of the Glasgow and Suburbs Conference Association, and latterly, also, Mr John Paton, of the Renfrewshire Conference council, who had been converted to the idea as the result of a visit to Douglas, I.O.M., where he had seen the huge city under canvas which for a number of years housed thousands of holiday-making Lancashire lads every summer.

By 1910 these gentlemen had been able to get their organisation so far advanced that they had selected a site on the Ayrshire Coast for their first camp, and had made arrangements with the farmer who rented the land. At the last moment, however, the landowner stepped in and vetoed the whole proceedings. This put an end to doing anything further with regard to a camp during that year, but the search for a suitable site continued and, at length, the little farm of Roseland, situated on Canada Hill, Rothesay, overlooking the Bay, was secured. The farm was for sale, but the committee in charge of the arrangements considered that purchase was too bold an initial step to take, so they leased the farm for six months; securing an option to purchase at the end of that period if they wished.

Here, in the summer of 1911, the first Scottish Co-operative holiday camp was established. It was rather a primitive affair, that first camp. The cooking was done in the little farmhouse, while the campers had their meals in a large marquee. The U.C.B.S. directors took a keen interest in the camp from the very beginning. The catering was done by them, and the catering staff were housed in the little farmhouse.

Primitive though the arrangements were, they appealed to the campers, who were unanimous in their praise of the beautiful situation, the pure air, the perfect catering, and the small outlay for which they secured a perfect holiday. Thus encouraged, the committee which had promoted the camp proceeded to organise a Co-operative society to work it, and in this Co-operative society the U.C.B.S. took out twenty-five shares. The farm was purchased for £600, and in September the Baking Society increased the number of their shares to 100.

In 1912 the camp was much better organised than in 1911, but it was still far from being what its promoters desired to see it. They were hampered for lack of funds, however, as the Co-operative societies were showing caution and a lack of faith in the enterprise, and were not providing the capital necessary to work it properly as readily as had been expected. The only fault which the committee found with the site lay in the fact that in dry summers the water supply was inadequate. The summer of 1912 also showed them that it was desirable that something more impervious to rain than a marquee was desirable for the gatherings of campers and, in order that these two defects might be put right, they applied to the U.C.B.S. for a loan of £1,000 on the security of the property. This loan was granted them, and so good use did they make of the power which it gave them that, before the time came for opening the camp in 1913, they had put down a huge storage tank for water, capable of storing 20,000 gallons; and had erected a dining hall large enough to dine several hundred persons.

The camp was a very great success in the third year. Its popularity was so great that the committee found it quite impossible to provide accommodation for all who wished to avail themselves of its facilities for holiday making, and this has been the case in each succeeding year, notwithstanding the influence of the war. At the end of the third season, however, the committee of the association came to the conclusion that, if the camp was to be made the success they believed it was capable of becoming, some rearrangement of its management would require to be made, so they invited the Baking Society to take it over as a going concern and work it themselves.

They explained to the directors of the Baking Society that they were not taking this step because they disbelieved in its success, but solely on the ground that they considered that dual control was not good for discipline and did not make for good management.

The directors of the Baking Society promised to consider the matter, and the result was they brought forward to the quarterly meeting, held in March 1914, a recommendation that the camp should be taken over, and this recommendation was accepted by the delegates. Since then the camp has been managed by the U.C.B.S.

In 1914 accommodation was provided for 250 persons, and it is extremely probable that greatly increased accommodation would have been provided before now had it not been for the intervention of the war which, by providing another and much more strenuous form of camping for the past and prospective frequenters of Canada Hill, prevented for the time being such further developments. Doubtless, however, with the return of Europe to sanity, such developments will take place; until, before many years are past, almost the whole of the Society’s seven-acre estate will be covered in the summer and autumn months with the picturesque pyramids of white canvas.