Fakenham Enterprises Limited.

Records of the first year of existence of Fakenham Enterprises; copies of minutes; 1973-1974; reports; correspondence; financial papers; publications, 1971-1974. The archive demonstrates the orders which were received and the support which given in the months following the decision to occupy the factory. The papers also show the many difficulties experienced throughout the three years of existence of Fakenham Enterprises, with a more detailed and formal record of activities from the summer of 1973.

In April 1972, Sexton, Son and Everard Limited, a Norfolk shoe manufacturer, went into liquidation and its workforce threatened occupation. This was carried out in the small Fakenham factory which employed women on the closing of shoe uppers. Coming as it did after the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' occupation, the Fakenham women's work-in, which was on a much smaller scale, stimulated support and interest from the trade union movement and women's groups nationally. After 18 weeks of occupation the Fakenham workers received a donation from the Scott Bader Commonwealth and decided to form a co-ownership company on the lines of Scott Bader's own. Their work from that time varied from closing shoe uppers to manufacturing Envopaks (a plastic document case). The company traded successfully for a number of years but went into receivership in August 1977.

Reference: Deposit information; 'Fakenham Enterprises' (Co-operatives Research Unit, Open University, Co-operative Research Monograph No.1, 1978); J Wajcman, 'Women in control', (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1983).

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

This collection was deposited in the Centre by Fakenham Enterprises Ltd in a series of deposits in 1974.

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/FAK

There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

This collection has been weeded for duplicates.

Further deposits are not expected.