Cunliffe, Brooks and Co. was a bank founded in Blackburn, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1792. In 1819, Samuel Brooks

Samuel Brooks

Samuel Brooks was born at Great Harwood, near Whalley in Lancashire, England, the second son of William Brooks. In 1815 he became a partner in his father’s Blackburn-based business, Cunliffe Brooks & Co. This business supplied cotton and/or textile equipment, and also ran a bank as a sideline...

, son of one of the founders, opened a branch of the bank in Manchester. In the 1820s, a second generation Cunliffe opened a London house, at 29 Lombard Street

Lombard Street, London

Lombard Street is a street in the City of London.It runs from the corner of the Bank of England at its north-west end, where it meets a major junction including Poultry, King William Street, and Threadneedle Street, south-east to Gracechurch Street....

. In 1844, the Manchester bank was listed in an Act of Parliament

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 as one of ten provincial banks working under an arrangement with the Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

. The London house merged with Alexanders, a discount house, in 1864, but a new London house, Brooks and Co., was opened at 81 Lombard Street by the sole partner in the Blackburn bank. A new bank building in Manchester was opened in 1868 at nos. 46-48 Brown Street; the architect was George Truefitt. At the corner where Brown Street meets Chancery Lane is a three-storey oriel with crisp carved ornament and on top an iron crown. In 1900, the bank merged with Lloyds

Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...

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