page_title: Anglia Regional Co-operative Society
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Anglia Regional Co-operative Society / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Co-op clock, Park Road This is a working and good looking public clock. It is attached to Westgate house which is a department store of the Cooperative society.
context_page_description: Anglia Regional Co-operative Society Limited was the fifth largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the merger of the Greater Peterborough Regional and Anglia co-operative societies in 1987. The Society had a wide-ranging and extensive portfolio with over 80 stores, principally trading in East Anglia. Head office was located at Westgate House, Peterborough until 2011.
  The Society was a registered Industrial and Provident Society, a member of the Co-operative Union, the Co-operative Retail Trading Group and a corporate member of The Co-operative Group, the largest consumer co-operative in the world.
  On 19 September 2013, it was announced that the boards of Anglia Co-operative Society and Midlands Co-operative Society had agreed merger terms. Approved by members on 4 and 18 November, legal completion of the merger took place on 1 December, with the Society transferring engagements to Midlands Co-operative. On 15 January 2014, members of the merged society approved a change of name to Central England Co-operative effective from 25 January 2014.
context_section_description: The consumer co-operative movement has its roots in the early part of the nineteenth century and the principles of self-help and social equity that developed during the Victorian era. One of the first successful retail co-operatives was established in 1844 by the Rochdale Pioneers.
  The society was founded as Peterborough Equitable Industrial Co-operative Society in 1876 and incorporated in 1887. It later absorbed the following societies, becoming Peterborough and District Co-operative Society and finally Greater Peterborough Regional Co-operative Society in 1982:
  Stanley Tiffany, a director of the Society, was elected Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for the Peterborough division of Northamptonshire at the 1945 general election.
  Waveney Co-operative Society was formed in 1982 by the merger of Lowestoft Co-operative Society, founded in 1890 and Beccles Working Men's Co-operative Association, founded in 1879. In 1983, the Waveney Society absorbed Diss Co-operative Society, which had been established in 1898; it became Anglia Co-operative Society in 1986, shortly before transferring engagements to the Peterborough Society the following year.
caption: Memorial at Westgate House to the 31 workers that did not return from World War I, dedicated by the Bishop of Peterborough in 1921.[49]
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