Woodbridge, Lacy and Co (Uxbridge Old Bank)

Also known as Uxbridge Old Bank, the firm was founded in 1791 by two cousins, Mercer and Norton. A well known figure in Uxbridge, Norton was also known as 'Old Squire Norton.' Both men had made their fortunes in milling, and it was as an extension of that business that the bank developed. Around 1820, believing the bank to be in trouble, they handed it over to two Quaker families, the Hulls and the Smiths.

Various partners came and went in the nineteenth century. When Sir Frederick Dixon Dixon-Hartland, Charles James Lacy and John C Hibbert joined the firm in 1881, it became Woodbridge, Lacy, Hartland, Hibbert and Company. The latter part of the nineteenth century was a time of expansion for the Uxbridge Old Bank. By 1900, when it was taken over by Barclays, it had branches in Pinner, Northwood, Brentford, Hounslow, Isleworth, Southall, Slough, Eton and Windsor.

Material available at Group Archives: partnership papers from 1881; examples of bank notes