As the “Four Banks” is reduced to Three it is perhaps timely to record the history of this building which has marked the centre of Chorlton-cum-Hardy for over a century.
Originally a private residence and surgery of successive doctors which was known as “Sunwick” as shown on this surviving gatepost.
Picture 2 - “The Gatepost”
Although this gatepost is on Barlow Moor Road Sunwick’s address was 40, Wilbraham Road.
Wilbraham Road was laid down in 1869 and its development began slowly initially from its opposite ends Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield and Edge Lane on the Stretford border. The section through Chorlton-cum-Hardy began a more rapid development outwards towards both extremities from 1880, the catalyst being the opening of the railway station on the 1st January, 1880.
The first owner of “Sunwick” I have been able to identify was Dr. Andrew Denholm who is shown in the township’s rate books for 1885 to have occupied the property from the 7th October that year. In previous rate books he is recorded at Fern Bank, High Lane.
Dr. Denholm only stayed at “Sunwick” for a few months before he moved the short distance to 67, Wilbraham Road (1) which he named Duddingston House after his birth town in Midlothian, Scotland. He was replaced at “Sunwick” by Dr. George Byrne from the 7th February, 1886 who remained in the house until the middle of the first decade of the 20th Century when he was succeeded in turn by Dr. Henry William Case.
Although born in Scotland, Dr. Denholm was raised in Doncaster, (2) South Yorkshire after his father, David, a smith had journeyed South, with his wife Margaret (née Fraser) and child (Andrew) to take up work in the railway engineering workshops in that town. He married Martha Fletcher in St. Mary the Virgin’s Church, Prestwich, Lancashire on the 21st June, 1884.
George Byrne was born in London in the December quarter of 1860. In 1871 his family is recorded at 141, York Street, Cheetham, Manchester. His father who was born in 1817 in Ireland was a Commercial Traveler for a Fustian Warehouse. His mother, Elizabeth was born in Hutton, Berwickshire, Scotland in 1825.
George was one of 4 children the eldest of 3 sons and is shown on the census return as a medical student at London University. He next appears in the on-line records in the entry for February 5th, 1886 described above. George married Florence Annie Walthew B. A., a graduate in French (1894) of the (Victoria) University of Manchester at St. Chrysostom's Church, Victoria Park, Rusholme, Manchester on the 16th June, 1897. After a reference (3) to him attending the funeral of his father-in-law George Walthew, who had moved to “Churchfield” on Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on the 28th July, 1905 I have found no further evidence linking him to “Sunwick”. The 1909 electoral register indicates that Dr. Case had taken up residence.
Dr. Henry William Case was a native of the Furness area of Lancashire being born at “Green Bank”, Ulverston in the September quarter of 1867. His father, Robert Fell, from a family of wine and spirit merchants, passed on before Henry William’s first birthday and was buried at the town’s Holy Trinity church on the 30th May, 1868. His mother, Agnes Harriet (née Longbottom), who was born in 1840 in Minster-in-Thanet, Kent, was left with 3 young children;
Henry William, his year older brother Robert Henry and younger sister Mary Fell who was born in the December quarter of 1868.
Henry William Case was placed on the Medical Register in Scotland on the 13th August, 1893 having qualified with an M.B. and a C.M. (Mast. Surg.) at Edinburgh University.
He married Constance Mary Kenworthy of Hampton House, Edge Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy at St. Clement’s Church on the 19th January, 1897. His mother and brother were both witnesses to his marriage.
Dr. Case occupied premises on Stamford Road, then at “Fulham”, 2, Groby Road, and 2, Maple Avenue before moving to “Sunwick”. Dr. Case and Constance Mary had three daughters; Dorothy Fell Kenworthy (September quarter, 1901), Molly Fell (September quarter, 1905) and Betty Fell (December quarter, 1912). During the First World War served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and attached to the 8th Battalion, Manchester Regiment from June 1915 with the rank of Captain. Subsequent to his demobilization he joined the Cunard Line as a ship’s doctor and surgeon, sailing on both the Aquitania and the Mauretania. Around 1924 he moved his family to Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex where he died, following an operation at the Bexhill Hospital on the 22nd December, 1934.
The exact date the property became a bank is unclear but it seems likely that it coincided with Dr. Case’s removal to Sussex in 1924. It was definitely a bank by 1933 when it appears in the Kelly’s Directory of that year, as Williams Deacon Bank with a Mr. J.H. Wright the bank’s manager. This photo, dated 1929, taken by A.H. Clarke also shows part of the building as a bank.
This ties in with the history of Williams Deacon’s Bank as given in The Nat West Group’s Heritage Hub. Founded in 1836 as The Manchester and Salford Bank with offices in Mosley Street, Manchester.
It expanded both by opening new branches and taking over other local banks. One such, in 1890, was Williams Deacon a Private Bank which had been its London agent from its foundation. “Williams Deacon” was added to the banks name and in order to keep membership of the London Clearing House its head office was transferred to Birchin Lane in The City of London.
In 1901 reference to Manchester and Salford was dropped from the bank’s title a reflection of its geographical expansion. In the immediate post-war years 1919-1922 the bank rapidly expanded opening 52 new branches, of which Chorlton-cum-Hardy would seem to have been one.
The boom was short-lived and as the 20’s decade advanced trade especially in the bank’s heartland of Lancashire went into a decline then came the Wall Street Crash in October, 1929. Williams Deacon’s was in difficulties with mounting bad debt. A “bail out” was needed and in 1930 it was purchased by the Royal Bank of Scotland, although it continued to trade under its former name as a subsidiary of its parent company until 1970. This year saw a reorganization of The Royal Banks subsidiaries and Williams Deacon merged with Glyn Mills & Co. and some 38 branches of The National Bank to form Williams and Glyn’s Bank. At its incorporation into the new bank Williams Deacon were operating 288 branches.
Williams & Glyn’s lasted until 1985 when a further re-structuring saw the two major subsidiaries of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group merge. From that year the bank operated as the Royal Bank of Scotland until its demise on the 15th August, 2018.
In closing I like to share this photo of the buildings stained glass windows, which were kept when it was turned into a bank, in the hope that they remain after its next transformation.
Tony Goulding ©2020
Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Pictures; Sunwick, 2020 from the collection of Tony Goulding, and in 1929, A.H. Clark, m17430, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
Notes:
1) Dr. Denholm is on the electoral register residing at 67, Wilbraham Road in 1910 but the following years census records him as having retired to live in Feltham, Staines, Middlesex. His replacement was the exotically named Hedley Gascoyne Daft who was a widower under tragic circumstances as having married Ethel Rose Wilshaw in Leeds on Valentine’s Day, (14th February), 1910 he was bereaved of his young partner during the December quarter of the same year.
2) In the census of 1861 the family is recorded at 7, Whitaker Street, Doncaster, Yorkshire and in addition to Andrew and his parents the household also included his younger sister 6-years-old Helen and his aunt Helen Fraser.
3) As reported in the following days edition of the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser
MORE OBSERVENT READERS AND ANY WHO HAD AN ACCOUNT HERE WILL KNOW THAT THIS BUILDING'S ADDRESS IS NOW 464, WILBRAHAM ROAD AS THE ROAD WAS RE-NUMBERED AFTER ITS FURTHER DEVELOPMENT IN THE 1920'S.
ReplyDeleteTHE BRANCH MANAGER IN THE 1950'S WAS THE ABERDEEN BORN NORMAN M'CLEOD FANTOM WHO PRE-WAR HAD BEEN AT THE HEATON CHAPEL BRANCH AT 1, HEATON MOOR ROAD, STOCKPORT