HERE is a seasonal display for Christmas in 1928 at the Central Stores of the Keighley Industrial Co-operative Society Limited.

This was its fish and fruit department in Brunswick Street.

The chalked signs on either side of the door read respectively "Your Smallest Order will Receive our Closest Attention. Try Us" and "Look B 4 U Leap. This is the Place for Poultry". Rabbits also seem to have been a popular line.

This department boasted some original advertising. "Fruits are so tempting" ran one. "When you see our beautifully fresh fruits you will understand why Adam ate the apple".

Keighley Co-operative Society departments and branches always stayed open an hour longer on Christmas Eve, which for many years meant 9pm. Committee minute-books reveal that "temporary hands" were usually employed to cope with festive shopping sprees. In 1899 staff of the butchering department were given a bonus for their extra work – five shillings for men and half a crown for boys.

The Co-operative Society committee traditionally sent Christmas tips to "firemen, postmen, draymen etc", but gratuities worked both ways. In 1907 it granted "the railway companies permission to give the usual Christmas gifts to our carters".

The Keighley Society supported Co-operative self-sufficiency as epitomised by the Co-operative Wholesale Society. In 1899 the committee wrote to head office in Manchester asking "the meaning of the label 'Made in Germany' on the chocolate boxes bought from the CWS."