Sheffield Trustee Savings Bank records

Management and publicity records of the Sheffield Trustee Savings Bank.

Foundation

The founding of the Sheffield Savings Bank was instigated by a resident of Sheffield, James Montgomery. Montgomery was a poet and a journalist who had close ties with Dr. Henry Duncan. Duncan was the founder of Ruthwell Savings Bank, the world's first savings bank. The success of Duncan's Scottish saving bank inspired Montgomery to pursue the establishment of a similar institution in his home town of Sheffield.

The bank was founded as the Sheffield and Hallamshire Bank for Savings in 1818. Its first premises were in a room lent to the bank by Cutler's Company in Cutler's Hall on Church Street. It began with starting funds of just £175. On the first day of opening the bank took in £116 of deposits from 22 new account holders. By 1819 the bank had 256 depositors on its books and had increased the deposits it held to over £4000. This was a remarkable feat considering the nature of the accounts that the bank took. Savings banks were established to encourage the lowest earners in the community to save and so this level of deposits indicated the burgeoning popularity of the savings bank in Sheffield.

Through the nineteenth century

The success of the bank and its growth in profits meant that it was eventually able to commission a purpose built premises. In 1860 the bank purchased a new building on Norfolk Street that had been designed by the renowned Sheffield architect T. J. Flockton. Flockton had also been responsible for the design of other notable Sheffield landmarks such as Endcliffe Hall and Mappin Art Gallery.

By the second half of the nineteenth century a large proportion of the bank's customers consisted of artisans and female servants, with the numbers of depositors from the steel industries declining. The bank's trustees at this time tended to come from the local merchant and professional classes. This was somewhat unusual as the majority of savings banks across the country had trustees that came from the aristocracy and landed gentry.

Expansion

The bank engaged in a process of expansion at the start of the twentieth century and by the start of the First World War several branches had been opened across Sheffield. The bank engaged in a further period of expansion after the Second World War when 15 new branches were opened in the decade following the end of the war. 1974 saw a major redevelopment and expansion of the bank's headquarters on Norfolk Street. The original nineteenth century façade was retained, but a new four storey extension was added to the rear of the premises.

A larger TSB Group

The TSB Act of 1976, meant that the bank was subsumed into the new regional structure of TSBs. The bank would form part of TSB Yorkshire & Lincoln. This would remain until 1986 when TSB was floated on the stock market.

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