The Canterbury Bank. Plumptre, Hammond & Co.

As well as being land-owners, the Hammonds of St. Alban’s Court and the Plumptres of Fredville were also partners in a Canterbury bank.  In 1818, the bank was called Hammond, Plumptre, Furley, Hilton & McMaster, but was more generally known as The Canterbury Bank, but over the years the bank was also often referred to as Plumptre, Hammond & Co., or simply Hammond & Co. By 1830 the bank’s partners were: William Osmond Hammond, John Pembleton Plumptree, Deane John Parker and John Furley.

In 1845- The Bankers Magazine recorded that  that the partners were:-William Osmund Hammond, of St. Alban’s Court, Nonington,Kent;  John Pemberton Plumptre, of Fredville, Nonington, and M.P. for Kent; John Furley, of Canterbury, who had replaced the late William Foord Hinton; and William Henry Furley, of ,Canterbury.

Five years later the banks partners were listed as: William Osmond Hammond, St. Alban’s Court, Nonington, Kent, Esquire; John Pemberton Plumptre, Fredville, Nonington, Esquire; William Henry Furley, Canterbury, Esquire; Thomas Hilton, Nackington House, near Canterbury, Esquire; and John Furley, Jun.,Canterbury, Esquire.

The Canterbury Bank building, now Lloyd’s Bank on the corner of St. Margaret’s Street and the High Street, Canterbury

By the late 1880′s Hammond & Co’s Canterbury Bank had premises at 51, High Street with George Furley and McMaster as managers. In 1888 new premises designed by John Green Hall where built on the site. John Green Hall designed many buildings in Canterbury but this bank is said to be his finest work, which he never saw completed as he sadly died before the building was complete. These premises are now the present Lloyds Bank building on the corner of the High Street and St. Margaret’s Street.

The 1901 census records both Charles J. Plumptre of Fredville, the nephew of John Pembleton Plumptre, and William Oxenden Hammond, the son of William Osmond Hammond, as both being a “partner in bank”.

The 1903 Kelly’s Directory for Kent, the Canterbury section reports: “There are three banks , viz.: the Canterbury bank, carried on under the firm of Hammond, Plumptre, Hilton, McMaster & Furley, and branches of the London and County Banking Company and Lloyds Bank.”

Capital & Counties Bank took over Hammond & Co. in 1903, and were themselves acquired by Lloyds in 1918.