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Tue 14 Nov 2023 |
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Following on from two previous visits to CHAS David made a very
welcome return to share more of his researches and photos of
historic Bolton. This evening’s presentation covered the
Churchgate and Deansgate area. Many of the shop frontages had
their origins over 200 years ago and David’s photos showed the
changes. Many towns and cities including Bolton used to issue
their own banknotes. Merchants would get together and set up
their own banks. But their notes could only be used locally, so
when many of these provincial banks went bust their notes became
worthless. Bolton Bank was founded in 1818 by local business-men
Hardcastle, Cross, Ormrod, Barlow and Rushton whose names appear
on the surviving note. |
David Lloyd.
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Fustians Warehouse 1838? - 2014. |
Deansgate, Bolton. The central
figures are there to manually change the Tram points. |
Spa Rd then. |
Spa Road now. |
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While many provincial banks went bust, Bolton Bank survived all
the economic crises and flourished and survived for 60 years,
from 1818 until 1878, when it was taken over by the Manchester
and Salford Bank. It became Williams Deacons and Manchester and
Salford Bank Ltd in 1890, and eventually became part of the
Royal Bank of Scotland in 1985. |
Sample
Bolton Bank note. |
Soviet map
of Bolton. |
David showed us a map of Bolton
extracted from the ‘Red Atlas’ and was compiled by the Soviets
between the 1950s to 1990s. They were part of the Cold War
conflicts and give a detailed view of the world through the eyes
of Soviet strategists and spies.
This was a fascinating evening of
little known historical facts. |
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B.H. |
