FAKENHAM LANCASTER HERITAGE TRAIL
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    • 08 Banks
    • 09 Peckover Family
    • 10 The Manor House
    • 11 Cromwell Cottage
    • 12 Fakenham Mill
    • 13 Museum of Gas & Local History
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    • 18 Fakenham Town Sign
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    • 23 The Old Rectory
    • 24 Salvation Army Temple
    • 25 Old Post Office
    • 26 The Old Fire Station
    • 27 Hall Staithe
    • 28 Goggs' Mill
    • 29 Fakenham West Railway Station
    • 30 Three Brick Arches
    • 31 Fakenham East Station
    • 32 Fakenham Racecourse
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08. BANKS

08. BANKS


An entry in the Fakenham Trade Directory in 1791 read: "There is a banking-house in this town, trading under the firm of R. Gurney, B Gurney, J. Gurney, J. Birkbeck, J. Taylor, and J. Peckover; their bills are payable at Messrs. Barclays and Tritton’s London". ​

The next year it said: "that a new bank is opened at Fakenham in this county by Mr. Joseph Peckover, a gentleman of great respectability and responsibility, in conjunction with Messrs. Gurneys".

Joseph Peckover resigned from the partnership in 1816 and in 1820 the bank was referred to as Gurneys, Birkbeck and Rawlinson Bank.

It was still the only bank in Fakenham and was on the northeast corner of the Market Place next to the Lion Inn. It is not clear whether that was the original site, but the survey of 1839 has the building described as Gurney and Co. bank and offices.
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Click on image to enlarge.
In 1896 Gurney, Birbeck, Barclay and Buxton Bank in Fakenham became part of Barclays with its local head office in Kings Lynn. The Savings Bank was opened at the south end of Oak Street in 1829 probably near Tesco’s entrance. Savings banks were popular in the 19th century but declined with the rise of the Post Office Savings Bank, one of which opened in Fakenham.

In 1835 a new Norwich bank called the East of England Bank was established and a branch was opened in the south east corner of the Market Square; it closed in 1864 with heavy debts. The National Provincial Bank of England, began in 1833 and merged with the Westminster Bank in 1970. It is first recorded in the trade directory of 1879 and only did business on Market Day each week. It is uncertain when it moved to the corner of the Market Place and Bridge Street though it is known that John Page of Blakeney designed the entrance of the new bank (now NatWest).

The next Plaque is on the Nationwide Building Society, south side of the Market Place.
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Barclays Bank moved here from its site next to the Red Lion in 1927.
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In 1924 Lloyds Bank moved to 23 Market Place seen on the left in this 1967 picture.
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The Midland Bank, later to become the HSBC in 1999, can be seen in the centre of the picture. Lloyds is the stone-faced building beyond the Midland.

From the early years of the 20th century the Capital & Counties Bank had an agency in Norwich Street, as a sub-branch of its East Dereham branch opening on Mondays and Thursdays. Capital & Counties was absorbed by Lloyds Bank in 1918. Fakenham became a full branch in 1924 when it moved from Norwich Street following a
merger with the Trustees Savings
​Bank which was already established there.

​
​The Midland Bank Fakenham was built in 1920 on land previously occupied by the tailors and outfitters Ecclestone & Son. In 1992 it was taken over by HSBC and the name changed in 1999.

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  • Home
  • Plaque List
    • 01 Market Place
    • 02 The Crown
    • 03 The Red Lion
    • 04 Norwich Street
    • 05 Corn Exchange
    • 06 Aldiss
    • 07 St Peter & St Paul Church
    • 08 Banks
    • 09 Peckover Family
    • 10 The Manor House
    • 11 Cromwell Cottage
    • 12 Fakenham Mill
    • 13 Museum of Gas & Local History
    • 14 The Cattle Market
    • 15 White Horse Street
    • 16 Quaker Burial Ground
    • 17 British School
    • 18 Fakenham Town Sign
    • 19 Junior School
    • 20 Queens Road Cemetery
    • 21 The Star
    • 22 The Methodist Church
    • 23 The Old Rectory
    • 24 Salvation Army Temple
    • 25 Old Post Office
    • 26 The Old Fire Station
    • 27 Hall Staithe
    • 28 Goggs' Mill
    • 29 Fakenham West Railway Station
    • 30 Three Brick Arches
    • 31 Fakenham East Station
    • 32 Fakenham Racecourse
  • History
  • Trail Map