When people were able to put their trust and cash in town’s own bank
THE 1817 Savings Bank Act meant that local philanthropic citizens in any town could form a board of trustees to establish a local bank which accepted small sums of money deposited by townspeople.
The Ormskirk Savings Bank was established on the May 30, 1822, a good few years before its building was erected in Derby Street.
In 1841, Dr Thomas Ashton of the Dispensary, Burscough Street was in charge of the Savings Bank.
In the summer of 1849, an advertisement was placed in the Liverpool Mail asking for builders to submit tenders for the proposed new Savings Bank in Derby Street, Ormskirk.
On Monday, December 11, 1849, the foundation stone was laid by Dr. Thomas Brandreth, founder of the Ormskirk Dispensary and one of the trustees of the New Savings Bank; he lived at 1 Derby Street.
By December 1866, there were 1,471 savers on the books, the treasurer, Mr Hudson Atkinson Binney, plate glass maker of Rainford had completed the accounts, and trustee Joseph Lyon, an accountant who lived at Chapel House, Chapel Lane, Ormskirk, assured the members and trustees that the bank was thriving despite a national financial crisis.
The bank £74,690.19s 3d.
In 1866 the patron was the 14th Earl of Derby, three times British Prime Minister and uncle to the 2nd Lord Skelmersdale of Lathom House.
Trustees at that time were Rev James Taylor Wareing of Wellfield, Ruff Lane, (1803-1884); Rev Joseph Bush, Vicar of Ormskirk; Rev William Wannop, Vicar of St John’s Burscough; John Robinson, linen draper of 1 Aughton Street; James Shaw, coal proprietor of Asmall House; Robert Mawdsley, corn merchant of Maghull; Rev Oswald Henry Leycester Penryn, Perpetual Curate of Holy Trinity, Bickerstaffe and nephew of the Earl of Derby.
The bank opened for two hours on a Wednesday afternoon at 2-4pm held and every Saturday from 6pm to 8pm. The trustees attended times as managers on a rota.
This group of trustees were people that Ormskirk residents could put their trust in: the vicars at their churches and the employers they worked for.
The invested sums were then entrusted to the Bank of England and that also reinforced the trust of the small savers.
The Savings Bank actuary lived in the domestic accommodation on the premises and the first was Henry Brighouse, son of an Aughton quarryman and beerhouse keeper, also called Henry, who was known for his skill as a pugilist.
Young Henry, along with his younger brother, Luke, had trained as an attorney’s clerk with Ormskirk solicitor Robert Wareing.
Henry lived at the bank, No 9 Derby Street ,until his death in 1878 and after he died his eldest son, Samuel, took over the role of actuary and continued to live on the premises.
By 1916 the bank had 3,474 customers but the opening hours were still just Thursday 2-4pm and Saturday 6-8pm.
During the 1930s the domestic quarters at the bank were renovated and modernised, as was the business side of the bank, all under the guidance of the actuary, Samuel Brighouse.
Sir Samuel died in 1940 after serving the bank as actuary for 62 years.
For the Coronation of King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth, the Ormskirk Savings Bank had some leather wallets made as a souvenir.
After 124 years, in 1947, opening hours had changed to five days a week.
The bank had also found great success in school savings accounts, encouraging children to make regular weekly deposits through a bank operated on school premises and funds deposited at the bank weekly.
After the war, the future of the Ormskirk Savings Bank was to merge over a 30-year period to form the Trustee Savings Bank as a regional and then national banking service.