Great Underbank

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 19 Aug 2023

On the left is the Grade II listed https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1356829 Underbank Hall. now the NatWest bank. Underbank Hall was the Elizabethan town house of the Arderne family of Bredbury. The original house must have been larger as an inventory of 1619 lists more rooms than survive today. The hall was sold for 3,000 guineas in September 1823 to the banking firm of Christy Lloyd & Co which became the Stockport and East Cheshire Bank in the following year. In 1829, the Stockport and Cheshire Bank became part of the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company. By 1880 this bank had 54 branches, in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. The bank changed its name to the District Bank in 1924 and in 1962 was acquired by the National Provincial Bank. Then in 1970 this bank merged with the Westminster Bank to form the National Westminster Bank, which is now known simply as NatWest. Outside the bank is #8 Minty, one of the frogs on the 2023 Great Frogtastic Invention Trail in Stockport, sponsored by Moorcroft Group PLC and created by artist Benjamin McChrystal Plimmer. "Minty must be worth a fortune - look at all his gold coins, how many can you count? The first coins, dating back to the 7th century BCE, were made of a mixture of gold and silver and stamped to indicate their value."

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