“Hence I was led to reflect how much easier it is to discharge our duty to our neighbours, and to fulfil the leading object of the Parochial Mission Women Association, to ‘help the poor to help themselves,’ in provincial towns and in the country, where we are personally acquainted with each other, than in London, where we do not know our next-door neighbour. To help the poor to help themselves is the cardinal principle of the Yorkshire Penny Bank."[1]

[Footnote 1 e Yorkshire Penny Bank, a Narrative; with an Introduction by Edward Akroyd, M.P.]

The business of the bank commenced on the 1st of May, 1859.  At the end of the year, when the bank had been in operation seven months, twenty-four branches had been opened.  It went on increasing in the number of branches and depositors, and in the amounts deposited.  In 1874, about two hundred and fifty branches had been established, and the amount of investments in the names of trustees had reached nearly four hundred thousand pounds.

The Yorkshire Penny Bank does not interfere with the Post Office Savings Bank.  It has a special function, that of teaching the young of either sex the habit of saving.  It is also convenient to the adult worker as a convenient receptacle for his savings.  Many have been induced to save, in consequence of the banks having been brought almost to their very doors.  One of the most remarkable facts connected with the history of Penny Banks is the sympathetic influence of juvenile thrift upon paternal recklessness and intemperance.  The fact is well worthy the consideration of Temperance advocates, who would probably effect much greater practical good by enabling working people to save their money in the Penny Banks, than by any speech-making agency.  Take, for instance, the following illustrations from Mr. Akroyd’s narrative:—­

An actuary says:  “All the juvenile depositors seem inclined to take care of their pence by depositing them in the bank; and the grown-up people have become of the same turn of mind,—­rather than carry their loose money to the public-house, or spend it foolishly.  Some factory operatives have saved sufficient to buy stock and commence farming.”

Another actuary says:  “A drunken father being shamed out of his drunkenness by the deposits of his children, now deposits half-a-crown a week in the bank.  A notoriously bad man, a collier, became a regular depositor himself, as well as depositing money in the name of his child; all his spare money having previously been spent in drink.  From the date of his beginning to save, a perceptible improvement took place in his conduct and character.  In another case, two boys prevailed upon their father, also a collier, to allow them to deposit a shilling a week, until they had saved sufficient to buy themselves each a suit of new clothes.  Before then, all their father’s earnings, as well as their own, had been spent in drink.”