Halifax Commercial Banking Co Ltd

This bank can be traced back to the private bank of Hainsworth, Holden, Swaine and Pollard for whom evidence of existence goes back to 1779. In 1807, this bank was wound up and reconstituted as Rawson, Rhodes and Briggs, known as Halifax New Bank. This bank was in turn dissolved in 1811 and two new banks established. John Rhodes and Rawdon Briggs took in John Garlick as a partner and formed the banking firm of Rhodes, Briggs and Garlick. This partnership was converted to a joint stock bank by deed of settlement in 1836. By 1919, when it was taken over by the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, it was a regional Yorkshire bank with branches at Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Dewsbury, Castleford, Pontefract and Brighouse. Local goodwill was preserved by the establishment of a Halifax district board which became the Leeds district board in 1927. See also the Halifax and Huddesfield Banking Company whose history is closely related.

Material available at Group Archives:

• partnership agreement 1818
• board minutes
• annual reports and accounts
• early bank notes
• manager's diary 1826-1831
• customer bankruptcy papers
• press cuttings