125 years equals NatWest success

ALL smiles . . . staff celebrate the bank’s 125th anniversary

NATWEST staff in Chadderton have celebrated a proud 125-year history — and are banking on many more years yet.

They hosted a party to mark the milestone and invited customers and retired members of staff to join in.

Manager Dave Wright said: “NatWest is proud of its close association with Chadderton and a century and a quarter after it first opened for business, the branch continues to provide a quality service to the local community.

“We look forward to many more years serving the local community. We are grateful for the support of our customers over the years.”

It was a chance to look back over the years since the branch first opened in 1883 as a sub-branch to the Oldham office of Manchester and County Bank.

This bank, founded in 1862, had immediately pursued a policy of establishing an extensive branch network and by 1883 it had 21 branches and 13 sub-branches.

The bank’s Oldham office, opened 50 years earlier, had first traded as a branch of Saddleworth Banking Company, which Manchester and County Bank had acquired in 1866.

Back in 1883, Chadderton had 20,000 inhabitants on the Rochdale Canal and linked to Oldham by road and railway.

Chadderton’s main employment was provided by collieries and textile factories. Cotton mills increasingly dominated.

The bank’s Chadderton office immediately prospered, becoming an independently-managed branch in 1889 and moving to its present purpose-built premises at 212 Middleton Road in 1902.

During the inter-war years the bank extended its branch network even further with 190 offices by the time it changed its name to County Bank in 1934. The following year it amalgamated with Manchester-based District Bank, founded in 1829, which opened its own branch in Chadderton in April, 1921, at 471 Middleton Road. After the merger this became a sub-branch to the former County Bank office.

By the end of the Second World War, the bank had more than 800 customers and a staff of six at its Chadderton office and the number of accounts more than doubled over the next 20 years.

In 1962, District Bank was acquired by National Provincial Bank but continued to trade under its own name.

Six years later it merged with Westminster Bank and the operations of all three banks were combined and they began to trade as National Westminster Bank from 1970.