A powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham was as vital both in the transport revolution, through its canals reaching out to world markets, and the financial revolution, through the founding of  Lloyd’s Bank in 1765 and the minting of coins by Matthew Boulton. Birmingham’s impact on the making of the modern world didn’t end there for it propelled another revolution – the extension of house ownership through the beginning of the building society movement. 

Crucially, that movement arose from the concept of mutuality, a group of people cooperating towards a  common goal and for the common good. The antithesis of individualism and personal interest, the ideal of mutuality took hold in Birmingham in the exciting and transformative years of the late eighteenth  century - and it wasn’t by chance that it was the birthplace of building societies.

A French observer declared that it was one of the most curious towns in England, boasting numerous and varied industries supported by the genius of invention and by mechanical skill of every kind. That distinctiveness was emphasised by Birmingham’s numerous little gaffers, smallscale manufacturers, and skilled men in its population of about 50,000. Self-made and self-reliant, they were keen on  self- improvement. Owning a house was the visible means of that aspiration.

In or before 1775, the first known building society in the world was founded at the ‘Golden Cross’ inn at 60, Snow Hill. The proprietor was Richard Ketley, after whom the innovative society was called. Each person had an equal interest, contributed the same amount for each share, and shared equally if there  were profits when the society was wound up after each subscriber had his house.

The idea of combining to become homeowners appealed to men in similar circumstances elsewhere. In  February 1779, the Dudley Building Society was formed (a different Dudley Building Society to that inexistence today), followed two years later by Northwood’s Building Society at the Lamp tavern in Birmingham. Named after Sarah Northwood, the publican, one of its members was a widow whilst the bricklayer employed by the Society was another woman.

Its original leases specified that the Society’s subscribers would spend at least £500 in building ten  houses in a straight-line fronting Livery Street. Thereafter some smaller plots were leased to tradesman,  leading to the building of houses further along Livery Street and the cutting of a new road, the aptly named Northwood Street.

Soon after, in the autumn of 1781, the Amicable Building Society was started at the Swan with Two  Necks inn and by the end of the century, Birmingham had at least 32 building societies with 29 of them  based at licensed premises. Pubs were the main meeting places for small groups of men like the 20-30 who usually made up the earliest building societies and publicans were keen to accommodate them  because of the business they brought.

That phenomenon was as noticeable elsewhere as the idea of building societies spread. By the mid- 1790s, there were two such clubs, as they were sometimes called, in Sheffield, at the Elephant & African Prince and the Bell; another in Rowley Regis where the Society spent 4s 6d on ale at its monthly meetings; and one more in Longridge in Lancashire which met at pub in Dilworth.

Little remains to remember these pioneering building societies. There’s a plaque to Ketley’s that’s difficult to find since moved from its original site by Birmingham Council, but there is Northwood Street - recalling a woman who played an influential role in the start of the building society movement.

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This article was first published in Society Matters magazine