page_title: Skipton Building Society
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Skipton Building Society / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Skipton Building Society - Main Street
context_page_description: The Skipton Building Society is a building society in the United Kingdom. It is a member of the Building Societies Association.
  The Society was established in 1853 in Skipton, North Yorkshire, where it remains headquartered. It is the UK's 4th largest building society and has over 1 million members and 100 branches. Its pre-tax profit was £146.9 million for 2015. The Society has several subsidiary companies, mostly in the financial services industry These include Connells Group, one of the largest estate agency networks in the UK with 542 branches across the country. In 2010, it merged with the Chesham Building Society, founded in 1845, which was at the time the world's oldest surviving building society.
context_section_description: 1853 - The Skipton Permanent Benefit Building Society is established at a public meeting in Skipton, West Riding of Yorkshire, held at the old Town Hall. Samuel Farey (1822-1895), a cotton mill owner and George Kendall, a timber merchant, are amongst the founders of the Society. They are benevolent, wealthy industrialists who have prospered from the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, establishing the new Society as a safe place to deposit savings, with a return on investment offered.
  1854 - First Annual Meeting of Skipton and District Permanent Benefit Building Society. The society has 223 members and £2,951.16s.8d. in balances.
  1879 - 1,185 members, £47,129 balances.
  1892 - Head Office moves to 11 Newmarket Street from its home at the Old Post Office.
  1895 - Samuel Farey dies, aged 73.
  1903 - The Society becomes incorporated. It now has 1,532 members and £82,305 in balances.
  1921 - The Head Office moves a few yards along the street to numbers 5 & 7 Newmarket Street, Skipton.
  1922 - Branches open in Nelson, Blackpool and Lytham, soon followed by branches in other towns and cities.
  1923 - Henry Smith's (the draper's shop at 59 High Street, Skipton) is bought, with a view to demolishing it to make space for a brand new Head Office.
  1928 - The new Head Office in Skipton town centre is opened by The Rt. Hon. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government.
  1929 - In the year of the Wall Street Crash, the Society holds assets of £1 million. 
  1945 - The Second World War ends and the Society holds assets of £5 million.
  1950 - Assets double in five years to £10 million.
  1953 - The Society celebrates its centenary, holding assets of £11.7 million.
  1956 - Assets rise to £14 million.
  1958 - Assets stand at £15 million.
  1963 - Assets grow to £25 million.
  1974 - Assets have now reached £100 million.
  1977 - Assets stand at £150 million.
  1978 - A five-storey extension to the rear of the High Street Head Office is built, to house over 200 staff. It occupies part of the site where the first office opened in 1853 (in Providence Place). This year also sees the installation of the first computer (a Burroughs B3700) in the new Skipton Administration Centre. The society now has 32 branches and 75 agencies throughout the UK, holding more than 125,000 accounts.
  1990 - The Bailey, the Society's modern new premises on Harrogate Road, Skipton is built.
  1992 - John Goodfellow becomes Chief Executive
  1998 - The Bailey is extended.
  2005 - Featured in Private Eye magazine accused of hiding £30 million of losses at subsidiary CallCredit PLC and buying its main computer system from near-bankrupt IT company, Jade Software Corporation.
  2008-10 - Closes sub-prime lending vehicles, with over £1,920 million lent to potentially risky, sub-prime clients.
  2009 - Takes over the former Scarborough Building Society; numerous redundancies and branch closures despite previous promises of no redundancies.
  2010 - Skipton Building Society merges with The Chesham Building Society - at the time, the world's oldest surviving building society, founded in 1845.
  2014 - Sells HML, PHP and Torquill Clark
  2015 - Skipton launches retirement website - retiresavvy.co.uk
  2016 - Awarded Best National Building Society at 2016 What Mortgage Awards.
caption: Skipton Building Society, Bingley.
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