Proud to have been a small part of the creative team who manifested Nottingham's newest craft beer pub in Canning Circus - The Overdraught. Formerly being a bank (and fancy dress shop!) gave me lots of scope to research the unique heritage of this building. I never knew that Nat West’s origins date back to 1658 with the foundation of Smith's Bank of Nottingham - just streets away from The Overdraught.
According to the British Museum, early reactions to the introduction of bank notes varied. A local note from East Anglia was inscribed with the following cynical verse:
The rage for banking now is grown
So great in country and in town,
That all our Rags, Shirts, Shifts and Coates,
Will soon be turned to One Pound Notes
There are also big links with local Derbyshire industries and the development of banking.
"The early mechanization of the textile industry and the applications of new technologies, including Richard Arkwright’s (Derbyshire) water frame for the cotton spinning wheel, revolutionized production in the textile mills. More efficient ways of weaving cotton helped Manchester become the most important British centre of the cotton industry (often called ‘Cottonopolis’) and the world’s first industrial city. Paper money issued in Lancashire shows the importance of the textile industry in the county."
If you are a craft beer fan, you are in for a treat.
