Skinflats Co-operatives
The road to Airth closest to the mouth of the River Carron had ford in 1750. By 1860, with the deepening of the Rver Carron, a drawbridge had been constructed. The Carron Company owned the mineral rights on the west side of the road. The Grangemouth Coal Co, founded in 1839, obtained the mineral rights for the land to the east of the road. Skinflats was developed as a mining village on the east side of the road, suggesting that it was developed by Grangemouth Coal Co. to house the miners who worked the local mines.
The indication is that Skinflats was originally the main farmtown in the area. In 1832 a dwelling house, gardens and pertinents at Skinflat, occupied by a tenant, was offered for sale[1]. In early 1849 there was a cholera outbreak that hit Skinflats particularly hard[2]. By this time the village was decribed as having a collier population of 200 to 300.In the first month 80 people had become infected with cholera and 30 died in the first 10 days of the outbreak - the final death toll was about 17.5% of the village population.
Letham Colliery, operating between 1913 and 1930, was being developed as the Grangemouth Colliery pits near Skinflats were closing. This resulted in men transferring from one colliery to the other. However from 1925 Letham Colliery had significantly reduced production.
SKINFLATS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY 1875-1972
A report appeard in 1857 suggesting that people in Skinflats were being coerced to buy their goods in a local store, this being described as a form of the truck system[3].
The society was formed in 1875.
The society joined Grangemouth in 1972.
In 1908 a man was convicted of stealing three tokens that had been put on another customer's book for that customer[4]. The tokens were a 5s bread token and two 1s meat tokens.
| SKINFLATS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:SflatCoop.3.jpg | ||
| Source | (DNW N Beaton Collection) | |
| Filename | SflatCoop.3 | |
| Value | 3 | |
| Add Desc. | ||
| Size (mm) | 25 | |
| Manufacture | Plated Iron Bracteate | |
| Notes | ||
| File:SflatCoop.1S.jpg | ||
| Source | (DRR) | |
| Filename | SflatCoop.1S | |
| Value | 1/- | |
| Add Desc. | ||
| Size (mm) | 25 | |
| Manufacture | Plated Iron Bracteate | |
| Notes | ||
