Huddersfield family’s 1815 bank note mystery

Oct 28 2009 By Emma Davison

THEY have been fixed to her late father’s office wall for as long as she can remember.

But Lynda Thompson says it’s a mystery how dad Harry Dyson came to be in possession of the rare 1815-dated Huddersfield banknotes.

She said: “The business has been here since 1961 and I can always remember the notes hanging in a picture frame in my dad’s office.

“I have no idea how he acquired them or if anyone else has notes this old, but it would be really interesting to find out!”

The crumpled, yellowing notes are a pound note dated June 1815 and a guinea note from October the same year. The £1 note would be worth the equivalent of £41 in today’s money

Both notes were issued by Huddersfield Bank Ltd.

The guinea note bears the inscription: ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of one pound one shilling, here value received’.

The date, October 3, 1815, has been handwritten, with the names Benjamin and Joshua Ingham and Co printed above the signature.

Lynda said: “I’ve not taken the notes out of the picture frame because they look so fragile I am scared they will fall apart in my hands.

“They are really brown and crinkled and quite difficult to make out but look very elegant with the scrolled writing, some of which is written in ink.

“They are the same size as bank notes today, which surprises me as I thought they would be a lot bigger.

“The notes also have a Boudicca-like figure that’s obviously quite different to the figureheads we see today.”