A service that the town has always been able to bank on down the years
RECORDS show that there was a banker’s agent in Ormskirk in the 1820s. Thomas Ashton was an agent ‘to bank for savings’. The Ormskirk Savings Bank was opened in the 1820s.
Thomas was also a grocer with a shop in Church Street, he died in 1854 after retiring as the Actuary or Agent of the Ormskirk Savings Bank, a post he had held since it first opened.
He was succeeded in late 1851/52 as the Actuary by Richard Gradwell.
Gradwell, although only in his early 20s, was both the Actuary of the Derby Street Savings Bank, and the Manager of Law’s Bank, Burscough Street, later the Preston Banking Co. of 41, Burscough St. (Walter Brown House).
By the 1860s, two more banks had opened in the town, the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank which opened in Burscough Street, and the Manchester and Salford Bank on Derby Street, which became Williams, Deacon and Co. Ltd.
The manager of the first Manchester and Liverpool District Bank was Charles Oxley, the bank was at 49 Burscough Street, just before Knowles House – both now long demolished, No 49 having been knocked down to open up Derby Street West.
Charles Oxley (born 1845) was the Rotherhamborn son of an attorney. He was a boarder at St James Grammar School, Almundbury, (the school boasts a few famous old boys, such as David Brown of Tractor manufacturing fame and actor Sir Felix Aylmer (The Wicked Lady).
Charles married Marie Graham Sandberg, daughter of Paul Louis Sandberg, Cambridge graduate, clergyman and church missionary.
Marie was born in India, her father was born in Prussia. The family were not in Ormskirk for very long however, and Charles was only in the newlybuilt branch for three years. He died in 1878 aged just 33 and is buried at the Parish Church. His widow went to live with her mother in Northrepps, Norfolk, her father also died in 1878.
Marie herself died in 1880 in London but was buried with her husband in Ormskirk.
Scotsman John Morison took over the management of the bank after Charles Oxley died moved into the new purpose built Bank House, opened in 1875, at 34 Moor Street.
John had been born in Beauly, Inverness-shire but he had been working in Lancashire as a clerk for a few years when he married Lydia Johnson in Salford.
The living accommodation provided at the new branch for the manager and his family consisted of eight rooms. John and Lydia were at the branch for over 20 years until his retirement to Roe Lane, Southport when he turned 65 in 1908. He died in Southport in 1915.
The manager who took over on John Morison’s retirement in 1908 was Harold Hilton, a bank accountant who had worked for Parr’s Bank on Railway Road.
Harold married Annie Maude Warhurst in 1900 and they had two children, both born in Bank House. Margaret Hilton, (born 1903) and John Lewis Hilton (born 1905).
In 1924, the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Co. shortened its name to the District Bank.
In Ormskirk, the new manager taking over from Henry Hilton around the same time was John Wild Whitehurst. He had been a banker’s clerk in Birkdale, taking over as branch manager in Ormskirk. He did not live in the Bank House for long because he bought Rookwood, 32 St Helens Road by the early 1930s and lived there until his death in 1944.
From January 1 1970 the District Bank became the National Westminster Bank after merging with National Provincial and Westminster Bank.
Friday, August 12 2016 marked 150 years since the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank first opened the Branch in Street in 1866.
The current staff at the bank marked the occasion with a special display of historical photos by Ormskirk Bygone Times and also a charity raffle to raise funds for the Civic. Ormskirk Mayor Liz Savage attended to cut the cake, baked especially for the occasion by a member of the bank staff.
A raffle raised around £60 for the new roof for The Civic. Skelmersdale Prize Band also entertained customers and public outside the bank. Ormskirk Burscough