A CRUMBLING gravestone marks the final resting place of one of Huddersfield’s finest sons.
And now the town’s MP wants to honour one of the Co-operative movement’s pioneers with a festival.
Barry Sheerman visited the grave of Thomas Hirst, a central figure in the early years of mutual societies, at Holy Trinity Church, opposite Greenhead Park .
He said: “He’s one of our great unsung heroes. In the 1820s he was so popular that he could only speak in halls which could hold more than 1,000 people.
“Yet he lies under a badly chipped grave in a neglected part of the cemetery.”
Mr Sheerman, the Co-operative Bank and the Huddersfield Co-operative Party will club together to pay for the gravestone to be restored.
But the MP has bigger plans.
He said: “I will be organising a festival next summer to celebrate the fact that Huddersfield is the centre of the universe in terms of the co-operative movement.
“I plan to discuss this with the university and Kirklees Council.”
And Mr Sheerman is determined to establish the town as the home of co-operatives.
He said: “There’s this big myth that the first co-operative shop was set up in Rochdale in 1844.
“But this is an example of bad history. There was a co-operative shop in Kirkburton in 1818.
“It was people like Thomas Hirst who spread the ideal of co-operation to Lancashire, not the other way round.”
Mr Sheerman wants anyone with information on Thomas Hirst, who died in 1833 aged 41, to contact his office on 01484 451382.
He added: “I would like Examiner readers to get in touch if they know of any places where he lived, or indeed if they are his ancestors. His daughters had the surname Varley.”
Mr Sheerman, a Labour Co-operative MP, says the organisation which Thomas Hirst helped to found is still strong, saying: “It’s very successful in banking, travel and funeral services.”
