Gloucester Old Bank

51°51′57″N 2°14′48″W / 51.865918750937325°N 2.246550903607915°W / 51.865918750937325; -2.246550903607915

An 1828 painting of the bank by J.R. Orton after a print by George Rowe of Cheltenham. The figure in the doorway is almost certainly intended to be Jemmy Wood. In the collection of Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery.
Plaque marking Gloucester Old Bank site
An 1814 banknote from Gloucester Old Bank.
A print by George Rowe depicting Jemmy Wood with the Gloucester Old Bank in the background.


The Gloucester Old Bank was a British bank that operated between 1716 and 1838. It was founded in 1716 by James Wood.[1][2] The bank was said to have been the oldest private bank in Britain, having survived the financial consequences of the Napoleonic Wars when many other banks went out of business. The claim is wrong as both C. Hoare & Co. and Child & Co. were founded earlier; the Gloucester Old Bank was, however, one of the oldest banks in Britain in the nineteenth century.[2]

At some point in the nineteenth century the bank became the Gloucester City Old Bank. In 1838 it was taken over by the County of Gloucestershire Banking Company which eventually became part of Lloyds Bank.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference grey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Heighway, Carolyn. Gloucester: a history and guide. Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1985, p.157. ISBN 0-86299-256-7