Banking revolution arose from 19th century crisis
FEBRUARY 1827 saw the publication in Huddersfield of a prospectus for a new banking business, framed in dramatic terms: “The late panic, which caused such a lamentable effect upon the trade of the kingdom, and so materially contributed to the general distress suffered by the commercial and manufacturing classes, has been felt by HUDDERSFIELD AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD in a peculiar degree; this district has not only suffered the evils resulting from the general suspension of demand, which has been common to all manufacturing districts, but has been visited with an additional local evil in the failure of five banking establishments; thus instantaneously withdrawing from circulation some hundred thousand pounds, and causing losses to a very considerable amount.”
The “late panic” was a nationwide banking crisis when more than 80 banks collapsed over the winter of 1825/6. Five were in Huddersfield, where credit collapsed, firms went bust and many people were thrown out of work.
By August 1826, about 12,000 people were receiving relief organised by 20 charitable committees (as revealed by the Underground Histories
website, https://undergroundhistories.wordpress.com )
Parliament responded to the crisis with the Banking Co-Partnership Act of 1826, which legalised joint stock banks, able to pool risks across a large number of shareholders.
Huddersfield was the first town in Yorkshire, and the third in England, to take advantage of the new legislation, adopting the prospectus for the Huddersfield Banking Co at a public meeting on 9 March 1827.
The occasion was noticed nationally, with the London Morning Chronicle recording that 2,000 of the 5,000 shares were taken up within half an hour, and by the end of the month they were over-subscribed. The HBC opened for business, in temporary premises, ahead of its target date of 1 July 1827.
From the start, its seven directors, some of the town’s leading merchants and manufacturers, were determined to establish an ethos of financial solidity.
The founding chairman was Benjamin Haigh Allen JP of Greenhead Hall, a wealthy landowner and founder of Holy Trinity church, while the others were leading merchants, manufacturers and ‘gentlemen.’
The new bank was to be “managed by a body of directors, who are chosen for their respectability, experience and fitness for the station” and, to spread risk, would allow no more than 100 shares to be held by any one individual. A Scottish banker, Hugh Watt of the Arbroath Bank, was appointed manager.
To stress the image of sobriety, the directors commissioned architects Atkinson and Sharp of York to provide “a plain substantial building ... to front Cloth Hall Street, to have a tooled front and to be in every respect without exterior decoration”.
This opened for business on 7 January 1828, celebrated by a great dinner at the George Inn in the Market Place. With a full military band in