19 September 2006
This month, staff at Nat West's Corn Street branch have been celebrating a special event - the bank's 200th birthday. Many of our familiar High Street banks have histories stretching back to Georgian times and NatWest's Corn Street branch is no exception. A bank was established here by George and Vincent Stuckey in 1806.
The Stuckey family, from Langport in deepest Somerset, had, like the Bagehots (Walter Bagehot, born in the town, went on to become a famous economist) started out trading by barge along the river Parrett but had then used their accumulated wealth to make loans to farmers.
This might seem surprising today but in Georgian times this lowland area of Somerset was no backwater. It was, in fact, very prosperous, with the barges on the tidal Parrett Navigation supplying a large population of some 100,000 people or thereabouts with many commodities that it would be difficult, and expensive, to bring in by road, such as salt, sugar, flour, coal and herrings. In return the region exported bricks, stone, willows, cider, corn, and wool along the Parrett and so through the port of Bridgwater to the wider world.
The Stuckeys - having earned a reputation as Somerset's favourite bank - were eager to extend their business to Bristol, which in the late eighteenth century was the country's second largest city.
A private diary tells us that on September 1, 1806, a 'new bank opened on The Quay called the Bristol and Somersetshire Bank'. This was, of course, Broad Quay.
In 1826, the Stuckeys consolidated all their interests in a single firm, Stuckey's Banking Co. Then, after acquiring Bristol's Castle Bank, which had a home in the picturesque timbered Dutch House on the corner of High Street and Wine Street, they decided to move there from Broad Quay.
As business prospered, the bank - which printed its own notes - decided to cast about for more prestigious premises and, having purchased a site on the corner of Corn Street and St Nicholas Street, commissioned local architect Richard Pope to design a brand new building in the Italian Palazzo style.
The new building, number 32, opened on June 5, 1854. Now listed, it still houses a NatWest branch office. Iain Glover, stated 'My team and I are delighted to be celebrating the fact that the origins of our branch have been operating a banking service for the people of Bristol for 200 years'
'We are proud of our close association with the area and look forward to celebrating this occasion with our customers as well as continuing to provide a high quality service to the local community.' Soon after Stuckey's bank had merged with Parr's bank in 1909, the interior of Corn Street branch was remodelled and the premises extended into number 34.
The original horseshoe-shaped counter was replaced and a curved glass ceiling installed. The seven-shield emblem, representing Parr's Bank and the banks it had acquired, including the Stuckey family arms, was added high above the main entrance.
The First World War (1914-18) caused problems for the banking sector and in 1918 Parr's Bank was taken over by the London County and Westminster Bank.
Further amalgamations in the 1920s finally resulted in the emergence of the Westminster as one of the nation's top high street banks. The Second World War (1939 - 45) brought difficulties, but the post-war years, prosperity.
In 1970, after the Westminster Bank had merged with the National Provincial to form the National Westminster, its chief Bristol branch was at number 32 Corn Street. The new bank now had four offices in the immediate area and in 1980 the old Stuckey premises were joined with the former National Provincial office next door to create the present Bristol office.
Today, two centuries after the Stuckey's first opened for business in the city, the aim is just as it has always been - to provide a high quality service to the local community.
