Saffron Walden Herts & Essex Building Society - CCC Financial |
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The Saffron Walden Herts & Essex Building Society has a record of more than 150 years of service to the community. It has assets in excess of £400 million and 12 branch offices serving the community in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and London. Our Service As a local Society, we understand the needs of local people and are able to respond more quickly and with greater understanding than many other societies. Don't make a move without talking to us first. Enquiries All our branch offices deal with mortgage applications from enquiry to offer. Our managers and staff are experienced at helping people through the house buying/home improvement process. The Saffron Walden Herts & Essex Building Society has a record of more than 150 years of service to the community as a traditional building society. During that time it has grown into a well-respected local society with assets in excess of £400 million and a network of branches throughout Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk as well as many agencies in the region. Society history It is known that there was a Building Society in Saffron Walden in 1847, however the only remaining record of this is a bank passbook now in the County Record Office. In January 1849 the 'Saffron Walden Second Building Society' was founded by the Revd John Marten, who became its first Secretary. He was Minister of Hill Street Baptist Church, and also Manager of the Gas Company. The first Chairman was Joseph Durrant, a builder with premises in King Street. By 1857 this Society had become The Saffron Walden Second Benefit Building and Investment Society on the Permanent Plan. The Directors in their report for that year remarked on the 'very large amount of money lent' - £1, 730 Steady and unspectacular growth followed, with assets reaching £37,000 by 1900. At this time the Society was being operated from a solicitor's office, but in 1930 it purchased its own premises in Limetree Passage in Saffron Walden. Assets had reached £300,000 by 1948 and the £1 million mark was reached in 1959. In 1965 the Society moved to premises in Market Place (which it vacated in 1984) and total assets reached £2 million. In 1968 it took over the small Saffron Walden & Essex Mechanics Permanent Building Society and the following year the first Branch office was opened at Haverhill. In 1972 the Royston & District Building Society transferred its engagements to the Society and by the end of 1978 the Society, then known as the Saffron Walden & District Building Society, had assets of more than £21 million and four offices. In 1979 came a merger with the London and Essex Building Society and the change of name to Saffron Walden & Essex. This merger, together with the more substantial growth that had been taking place for some years, led to the need for new and larger premises. In 1981 the Society had the opportunity of purchasing the redundant Cattle Market site in Saffron Walden on which its current headquarters, Saffron House, was built. The Society opened for business in its new office with its own "in-house" computer system on the 16th January 1984 and in March of the same year the Duke of Norfolk, who then was the President of the Building Societies Association, officially opened the building. In April 1989 the Society merged with the Herts & Essex Building Society, based in Bishop's Stortford, which consolidated the Society's position within the area. The Society's name was changed to the Saffron Walden Herts & Essex Building Society - a name it has kept until the present day. |
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