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Timothy Coop was a clothing manufacturer from the north of England, and a prominent member of the Churches of Christ.

Early life

Timothy Coop was born into a working class family near Bolton, Lancashire on 28 May 1817. His father was a devout Wesleyan and convinced of the value of education, so as well as taking Timothy to church meetings, he sent him to school from the age of six until he was twelve. On his fourteenth birthday, in 1831, he began a seven-year apprenticeship with John Ackroyd, a Wigan cloth-dealer, in return for "good and wholesome food, all necessary apparel, washing, and comfortable lodgings in the dwelling-house."^[1]

Business interests

Timothy Coop's factory was in Dorning Street, Wigan, and there seems to have been a shop in nearby Wallgate. Mark Haddon, of Wigan Heritage Service, states that the company is listed in a Wigan directory of 1890 as 'Coop & Co. wholesale and retail clothiers, 1 & 3 Wallgate: Works - Dorning Street'.^[2]

Haddon notes with surprise that the directory also lists Coop & Co. at 'Alliance Collieries, Crompton Street', and suggests that it may be 'a compositor’s error when the directory was being prepared for printing'. He also points out that another business with the Coop name is also listed: 'Brown & Coop wholesale clothing manufacturer, Wood Street Mill, Chapel Lane.' Whether or not this was Timothy Coop or another member of his family is not clear.

Christian faith

Timothy Coop founded the Church of Christ in Wigan in 1841. The first meetings were in a Market Place cellar with just two or three people. By 1858, a chapel had been built in Rodney Street and a full-time evangelist was employed.^[3]

Coop's Foyer

References

^ Thomas Hagger, 'Heralds of Christian Unity: Being Brief Biographical Sketches of Some Pioneers of the Restoration Movement (Melbourne: Austral Printing and Publishing Company, 1938).
^ Mark Haddon, 'Brown & Haigh’s Chartered Train', Past Forward, Issue 42, April-July 2006 (Wigan Heritage Service) p. 16.
^ Mrs. G. Lloyd, 'The Church of Christ Rodney Street, Wigan,' Past Forward, Issue 46, August-November 2007 (Wigan Heritage Service) p. 12.

[hagger-1] Thomas Hagger, 'Heralds of Christian Unity: Being Brief Biographical Sketches of Some Pioneers of the Restoration Movement (Melbourne: Austral Printing and Publishing Company, 1938).

[haddon-2] Mark Haddon, 'Brown & Haigh’s Chartered Train', Past Forward, Issue 42, April-July 2006 (Wigan Heritage Service) p. 16.

[lloyd-3] Mrs. G. Lloyd, 'The Church of Christ Rodney Street, Wigan,' Past Forward, Issue 46, August-November 2007 (Wigan Heritage Service) p. 12.

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