1912.] 



History of Scawby Credit Society. 



827 



HISTORY OF SCAWBY CREDIT SOCIETY. 



Of the 44 Agricultural Co-operative Credit Societies 

 now in existence in England and Wales, the Scawby Credit 

 Society is the oldest. It may therefore justly claim to be 

 the pioneer in this country of the movement for enabling 

 small agriculturists, by combining their credit, to obtain 

 small loans for agricultural purposes on easy terms; and 

 as it has satisfactorily achieved its object, and has now 

 attained a sound financial position, an examination of its 

 history may not be without profit to younger Credit Societies, 

 or to agriculturists who feel the need of some such means 

 of obtaining credit on more favourable conditions than are 

 at present available to them. 



Scawby is a rural parish in Lincolnshire, about two miles 

 from the market town of Brigg. It has a population of 

 about 1,000, and an acreage under crops and grass of 2,825 

 acres, of which two-thirds are under crops, and one-third 

 under grass. The land is held in 39 holdings, of which 

 26 are under 50 acres each. A number of the small- 

 holders have other occupations besides agriculture. There 

 is no other local industry, and the parish is typical of many 

 other country parishes in England. 



On July 3rd, 1894, after a public meeting had been held 

 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Sutton Nelthorpe, the prin- 

 cipal landowner in the parish, and had been addressed by 

 Mr. H. W. Wolff, a leading authority on Co-operative 

 Credit, and by Mr. Leman, Secretary of the Agricultural 

 Banks Association, it was resolved to form an Agricultural 

 Credit Society for the parish of Scawby. Further meetings 

 were held to discuss the proposed rules, and the Society was 

 finally registered under the Friendly Societies Act on 

 November 1st, 1895. The rules provide that the object of 

 the Society is to create funds to be lent out to its members, 

 and that every loan must, in the opinion of the Society, hold 

 out a sufficient prospect of repaying itself by the production, 

 business, or economy which it will enable the borrower to 

 effect. No part of the funds can be divided by way of profit, 

 bonus, dividend, or otherwise among the members ; any 

 surplus accruing to the Society after payment of the costs 



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