Two Banks - Steyning Museum Archive June 16

Henty, Upperton, Upperton and Oliver, who had already established a bank in Worthing, opened a branch in Steyning in the late 1820's.  Over the years they gradually shed Upperton, Upperton and Oliver and by the 1850's it was known as Henty's Agricultural Bank.  The Agriculture reference was partly because the original Henty had made his money farming and partly because his main customers were the local farmers.   It had a carved stone wheatsheaf set in its outside wall.   They didn't open every day - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were their days of business. 

Then, in 1896 it was taken over by the Capital and Counties Bank, a much bigger concern which had another small branch in Storrington.  Being no longer an 'Agricultural' bank the wheatsheaf was moved from the wall and re-erected on the other side of the street beside the doorway of what was then the Steyning Permanent Benefit Building Society.  The manager of Capital and Counties at Steyning, Edward Tucker, used to set off for Storrington twice a week in his pony and trap with a shot gun beneath the seat, carrying enough money for the day's business.

Before long the bank had changed hands again when Capital and Counties was taken over by Lloyds in 1918.  That's how things remained until now.

Bank Passage to the north of the High Street has nothing to do with Henty's Agricultural Bank.  It got its name from the use to which the building at the foot of the Passage (now 'Body Matters') had been put.  But the story is a little confused.  We know, because the Museum has one, that a "Two Pence" bank note was issued in 1798 by Thomas Sone of the Steyning New Bank at No.1 High Street.  That is where the High Street was deemed to begin - hence No.1.  The lower part of the Street was known as Singwell Street.  Thomas Sone had brought the property in 1789.  It had previously been a public house called The King's Arms and, 70 years earlier, The Spread Eagle.  In 1794 he is referred to as a shop keeper, at the time that he rebuilt No.1, and, four years after the issue of the bank note, he is identified as a draper.  At that stage he was putting all his stock up for sale but re-assured his friends that he would continue as an auctioneer, an upholsterer and a dealer in household furniture.  None of our records describe Thomas as a banker.

So what was he doing issuing a "Two Pence" bank note in 1798 in the name of the "Steyning New Bank"?   Twopence was a really trivial amount, even then.   A suggestion has been made that he was attempting to create a bank in Steyning and was trying to get it up and running at a low financial risk.  When we put this to The British Museum we were told that the note, known as a "flash note" was a forgery and the bank a figment of Thomas Sone's imagination.  In 1798 the Bank of England had been drained of its gold reserves and refused to offer coin in exchange for notes - which opened the way for forgeries.  We are not entirely convinced.  Thomas did not hide his address.  He did not try to deceive by hiding the fact that the note referred to two pence and not two pounds, as some forgers did.  He might, in reality, have been doing nothing more than following a fashion by using the issue of the note as a way of publicising his business.

So Thomas Sone's "Steyning New Bank", if it ever existed, lasted for only a fraction of the time of the bank on the other side of the street which Lloyds have now brought to a silent end.

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