United Counties Bank Limited 1836-1916 [previously Birmingham Town & District; Birmingham, Dudley & District; Birmingham District & Counties]

Scope and Content

The United Counties, under this and its pervious names, is a well documented example of Barclays' constituent joint stock banks that were formed before 1850. The original detailed deed of settlement by which the bank was founded in 1836 (under the Banking Co-partnership Act of 1826), is supplemented by subsequent amendments to its constitution.

A full set of directors' minute books has survived, together with a comprehensive run of annual reports and accounts and a set of internal ledgers.

The shareholders' meeting minutes survive from the start of the bank, and there are later registers and lists of shareholders.

There are good staff records, including a register of clerks entering service in 1879-81 that records previous employment: two of the men had worked for the Overend, Gurney bill broking firm that failed in 1866, precipitating 'Black Friday' in the City.

Company

  • Deed of Settlement including special resolutions, rules and regulations of company 1836-74
  • Rules and Regulations of company under Companies Acts 1866-98
  • Certificates of Incorporation, Registration etc. 1858-1907
  • Memorandum and Articles of Association, with special resolutions 1907-08
  • Amalgamation papers and Deed of Covenant (Directors' Bradford Old Bank) (1907)

Board and Directors

  • Minutes of directors' meetings 1836-1916
  • Minutes of General Purposes Committee (customer and shareholder transactions) 1881
  • Minutes of Ordinary Committee (weekly meetings to discuss customer accounts, general management of branches) 1904-1917
  • Minutes of Special Committees (records of inspections etc.) 1906-1920
  • Annual reports and accounts, balance sheets, circulars and lists of branches 1836-1916
  • Register of directors 1902-15
  • Board and Committees attendance books 1903-06, 1908-1909

Shareholders

  • Shareholders' meeting minutes 1837-1916
  • Registers, ledgers and lists of shareholders including allotments 1866, 1881-1916
  • Share certificates and associated documents 1837-1906
  • Dividend Warrants 1907-16
  • Pro forma letter re allotment of Birmingham Town & District shares in the names of husbands of existing women shareholders of Midland Banking Co. upon acquisition of that company 1881
  • Letter to shareholders criticising board of directors 1868

Accounting records

  • Private account ledgers 1836-1916
  • Private ledger balances 1840-66
  • Draft balance sheets 1845-81
  • Profit and loss accounts, statements, balance sheets and analysis 1865-1915
  • Statements, past due bills, suspense accounts, bad and doubtful debts 1865-80
  • Half-yearly profit and loss balance sheets 1893-1915
  • Statement of salary totals 1882-85
  • Estates ledger 1879-1908
  • Valuations and inventories of bank premises 1885-86, 1901
  • Premises ledgers 1901-1911
  • Quarterly statements including state of branch business 1875-1916
  • Ledgers of Stock Exchange Commission allowed to branches 1905-1910
  • Register and ledgers for bad and doubtful debts 1881-1900
  • Registers of failed accounts 1891-1905, 1909-1916
  • Brokers' loan ledgers for banks and discount houses 1874-1916
  • Cash book for differences discovered 1875-88

Management records

  • Head Office Instructions and circulars 1876-1919
  • Managing director and general manager's letter books 1883-85, 1887-95, 1906-10, 1915-19
  • Correspondence re bank's interest in railway ventures 1868-90
  • Correspondence with Birmingham branch of Bank of England 1875-83, 1888
  • Premises and property correspondence and deeds 1881-1907
  • General correspondence 1904-13
  • Premises register 1838-1890
  • Register of title to premises 1875-1906
  • Specimen or draft contract for building new bank premises 1890
  • Booklet including balance sheet and list of branches 1913
  • Correspondence, deeds and newspaper cuttings (1837-1940)
  • Register of documents signed under power of attorney 1889-1903
  • Letter re use of private telegraphic key 1906
  • Schedule of interest allowed and charged by head office to branches 1908-19
  • Specimen forms for mortgages, guarantees, and deposit of deeds and shares to secure advances 1900s
  • Pocket advertising cards including list of branches, statements of assets and liabilities, Birmingham District & Counties Bank 1890-93

Customer records

  • Register of Securities Deposited 1886-1912
  • Register of customers' negotiable securities 1892-1906, 1913-16
  • Register of securities held by nominees (organised by branch) 1908-22
  • Papers re liabilities of Cresswell & Sons to Birmingham Town & District Bank 1865-66
  • Correspondence, deeds, liquidation papers, pass books etc re customers and their accounts, including New British Iron Company, Hope Iron Company 1864-1911
  • Correspondence re loan to Wolverhampton School Board 1895

Staff

  • Salary lists and staff registers 1845-53, 1869-1904
  • Staff salary lists with summary, showing staff serving in Armed Forces in First World War 1905-1916
  • Staff appointments list for apprentices and officers 1902-1913
  • Specimen apprenticeship agreement form 1870
  • Signed contract of employment for a named clerk 1913
  • Guarantee bonds for officers undertaking external treasurerships 1868-99
  • Minutes of officers' superannuation fund including meetings of members and managing committee 1885-1917
  • Rules, accounts, ledgers, day books, subscriptions, correspondence, pass books of officers' superannuation fund 1884-1915
  • Instructions for cashiers 1886-1916
  • Rules and regulations to be observed by bank officers 1905
  • Illuminated book presented to J Cecil Clay [a branch manager] on his retirement from the Birmingham, Dudley & District Banking Company 1884
  • Papers re entitlement of staff members to rebates under Bankers' Guarantee & Trust Fund 1895, 1909-
  • Papers re establishment of Bankers' Health & Insurance Society following National Insurance Act (1911) 1912-14

Amalgamation Papers

  • Agreements, resolutions, deeds of covenant, correspondence, notes, memoranda, circulars to customers and shareholders, news cuttings 1879-1922

Artefacts

  • Proof impression of common seal 1866
  • Horse messenger bags 1858-1891
  • Printing plates
  • Epergne presented to Henry Griffin Walker [a branch manager] on his retirement 1883

Administrative / Biographical History

The bank that was renamed United Counties in 1907 was founded as the Birmingham Town & District Bank in 1836. Within weeks of its opening the Birmingham Town & District moved to premises on Colmore Row in Birmingham (a building that would later become a Barclays Local Head Office). Its first directors were George Bacchus (Chairman), Josiah Richards (Deputy Chairman), G. C. Lingham, P. Williams, E. Armfield, G. J. Green, and J. G. Reeves. The first manager was Bassett Smith (1790-1868), who led a team of three bank clerks at Colmore Row. Smith is an interesting figure, the classic self-made man of Victorian times, rising from banker's clerk in the 1820s to general manager of the new bank and retiring in 1865, aged 74.

By 1868 the Birmingham Town & District Bank had paid-up capital of £156,400 and a balance sheet totalling almost £560,000. Seeking growth, the Dudley & West Bromwich Banking Company (est. 1833) was acquired in 1874 and the combined bank renamed as the Birmingham, Dudley & District Banking Co., becoming a limited liability company in 1881, now with nominal capital of £4 million. Expansion continued in 1881 with the acquisition of the Midland Banking Co. Ltd (est. 1863). The Midland Banking Company was a joint-stock bank with a scattered branch network as a result of the acquisitions of Goodricke & Holyoake (est. 1816), London & North Western Joint Stock Bank Ltd (est.1862) and the private bank Saxton Brothers of Market Drayton. The new owners began consolidating by selling some of the far-flung branches after 1881. It is interesting to note that women who had held Midland shares were required by the Birmingham bank that their new shares be held henceforth in their husbands' name.

In 1889 the bank merged with the Wolverhampton & Staffordshire Bank (est. 1832) which was followed in the same year by another change of name; this time restyled as the Birmingham District & Counties Banking Co. Ltd. Further acquisitions followed: Hughes & Morgan of Brecon (est. 1855) in 1890, the Midland Counties Bank of Nottingham (est. 1889) in 1904, the Wakefield & Barnsley Union Bank (est. 1832) in 1906 and finally Bradford Old Bank (est. 1804) in 1907. The last of these had an interesting history, having been established in 1804 by Edmund Peckover and his nephew, Charles Harris. The Peckovers were wool staplers and engaged also in banking at Fakenham and Wisbech in East Anglia, as well as being related to both the Gurneys of Norwich and partners of the Craven Bank in Settle. Their bank went through a number of name changes and survived a financial crisis in 1825, before becoming a joint-stock company under the title Bradford Old Bank in 1864. In 1875 it acquired Harrison & Co. of Ripon, and by 1906 Bradford Old Bank had nineteen branches and four sub-branches in the North and West Ridings.

Following the Bradford acquisition, the business was renamed United Counties Bank Ltd in 1907, a name which more adequately described its geographical spread across the Midlands and Yorkshire. When United Counties was acquired by Barclay & Company in 1916 it had nominal capital of £6.7 million and a balance sheet totaling £19.34 million. Barclays had been appointed the Bank's first London agents in 1836-37, with the related Overend Gurney & Co. as one of its bill brokers in the City.

Arrangement

Records are arranged to reflect the history of the company.

Access Information

Barclays Group Archives is open to research visitors throughout the year, by appointment
E-mail: grouparchives@barclays.com
Full contact details: Barclays Group Archives, Dallimore Road, Wythenshawe, Manchester M23 9JA. Telephone 0330 1510159

Customer records are subject to extended closure/access conditions

Acquisition Information

Former historical records section of company secretary's office

Records transferred from other Barclays offices

Other Finding Aids

Searchable catalogue available locally on BGA's 'Archives' database; bespoke lists may be generated from specific search requests

Conditions Governing Use

Reproduction or publication of records is subject to the written permission of an archivist.

Custodial History

Barclays had a historical records section in head office from at least the 1960s, managed by an official with the title of archivist. In 1989 the first professionally trained archivist was appointed, with the remit of centralising historical records and collecting additional material deemed worthy of permanent preservation.

Related Material

The Bank had over 200 branches and sub-branches, and lists of records classified as being from branch provenance can also be produced from BGA's database catalogue.

Barclays Group Archives reference library

  • Memorandum and Articles of Association, with special resolutions altering title from Birmingham District & Counties Banking Company Limited 1907
  • 'Banking Alliance: Barclay and Company and The United Counties' ( Financial Times 28 October 1915)

Birmingham City Archives [Ref: MS 1460]

  • Deed of Settlement 1836
  • Annual reports 1862-66
  • Architectural plans 1876-1903

Bibliography

The official published histories of Barclays, especially the most recent volume, are based largely upon the archives:

P W Matthews & A W Tuke, History of Barclays Bank: including the many private and joint stock banks amalgamated and affiliated with it (Blades, East & Blades 1926)

M Ackrill & L Hannah, Barclays: the business of banking 1690-1996 (Cambridge: University Press 2001); this volume won the Wadsworth Prize for business history

M Perkins, 'Dudley Tradesman's Tokens of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and History of Dudley Bankers and Bank Notes from the Earliest to the Present Times' (Dudley, 1905)