A well known bank celebrated 150 years in the town on Friday.

Mergers and acquisitions are behind the current NatWest’s presence in Ormskirk which can be traced back to 1866, when Manchester & Liverpool District Banking Co opened an office here.

That bank was founded in 1829 as a joint-stock bank - a bank owned by a large number of shareholders rather than a few partners – and began to establish a branch network throughout the north west of England.

However it wasn’t until 1866 that the bank’s attention was drawn to Ormskirk; the cotton famine of the 1860s had caused hardship for the populations of manufacturing towns in the north-west of England, and as a result, Preston Banking Co was forced to suspend its operations on 19th July 1866.

On 6 August 1866 the bank sent a letter to Manchester & Liverpool District Banking Co, proposing to transfer to them all of the accounts at their Southport and Ormskirk branches.

The managing directors of Manchester & Liverpool District Bank were keen to open branches in both towns but did not want to take on the debts of the Preston Banking Co accounts, so they decided to open their own branches instead.

The bank wanted to act quickly, and its new Ormskirk branch was opened in August 1866 under the management of Mr W H Smith, former manager of Preston Banking Co’s branch in the town. Because of the speed of events, it wasn’t until November that year that the branch received full approval to operate from the bank’s board.





Ormskirk was an ideal place in which to open a bank branch. Predominantly a market town, the coming of the railway to the town in 1849 had encouraged further growth and provided good transport links between Liverpool and Preston. The branch thrived and by 1874 it was clear that it had outgrown its premises, with a plot of land on Moor Street obtained on lease from the Earl of Derby and a purpose-built branch erected at a cost of about £4,500.



The First World War changed Britain’s banks significantly, with controls on lending and fewer trained staff as young men went away to fight. The changes continued in the post-war years.

In 1924 Manchester & Liverpool District Bank shortened its name to District Bank, and in 1935 it took over its leading North West-based competitor, County Bank. In 1962 District Bank was acquired by one of Britain’s biggest banks, National Provincial Bank, but the two banks continued to trade separately under their own names.

District Bank and National Provincial Bank merged with Westminster Bank in 1970 to form National Westminster Bank. Westminster Bank had also operated a branch here, opened in 1881 and located on Church Street; after the merger NatWest gradually reorganised and rationalised its branch network, and in 1977 the business of the two branches was brought together under one roof in newly extended premises here at Moor Street.









NatWest is proud of its long association with Ormskirk and the branch continues to operate from its premises at 34 Moor Street.

Guest of honour at celebrations on Friday was local mayor Liz Savage and the bank hosted a raffle for The Civic's roof fund. History boards and various films of old Ormskirk were also shown by Ormskirk Byegone Times, while outside, Skem's popular Prize Band played for customers and passers by.



*Archive bank pics c/o Nat West media