About Us

History

Barnsley Building Society was established in 1853 as the Barnsley Permanent Benefit Building Society with the objective of 'enabling persons to purchase their own residences, or other freehold or leasehold property, to pay off mortgages, or to invest money profitably.

At the inaugural meeting, John Whitworth presided and on a proposition made by Edward Parker and seconded by Benjamin Hague, it was resolved that it was desirable to form a Building Society. The Society became incorporated under the Building Societies Act of 1874.

Having occupied an office over a grocer's shop and then moving to larger premises in 1890, the Society moved into its current home, Permanent Building, which was purpose built at a cost of £50,000, just prior to the Second World War, in 1938. The offices were opened by the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Harewood who held the post of president of the Building Societies' Association and of the Yorkshire County Association of Building Societies.

His opening comments on the day were as follows:

'I am doing something which will contribute, even though it may be in a comparatively small way, to the permanent bettering of the housing of people.'

In 1873 branches were formed in Mexborough and Clayton West, with the Society's assets standing at £679.

In 1953 the Society had grown to fifteen branches spanning Dartford in Kent to Blackpool. Assets at that time were strong and exceeded five million pounds with half a million in reserve funds.

The Society's current position sees it having eight branches at:

Barnsley Cudworth, Wombwell, Mexborough Rotherham Doncaster Chesterfield Wakefield.

For a copy of the latest report and accounts click_here

The Society is an independent, mutual organisation with a strong commitment to community. We have a number of programmes which have been developed over some years following consultation with our members and we now provide a grant scheme to which community groups can apply for financial assistance, staff programmes for mentoring and the Right To Read projects and Cares challenges where staff take part in a challenge as part of a larger training plan.

We make a commitment to the environment and work closely with organisations such as South Yorkshire Police, and Fire and Rescue to address community safety issues. We also have links with community groups who are working on projects that are to the benefit of our region and who requiring funding assistance, such as Yorkshire Air Ambulance, local Hospice's and Wentworth Castle.

The Society believes in demonstrating mutuality by its actions and has received some serious commendation in recent years for its efforts

CommunityMark

The Barnsley was awarded CommunityMark by Business in the Community in October 2003. It subsequently went on to collect 'Best Company Submission in the Yorkshire and Humberside region in 2004.

Charitable Business of the Year

We were also awarded 'Charitable Business of the Year 2004' by South Yorkshire Community Foundation for which the award is a prestigious silver salver which is on display in our Head Office Reception.

MAD Programme

Following on from these two awards, we were able to fully develop our community focus and develop our MAD programme. This programme is made up of 10 areas where we are able to have an impact on the community often through our links with other groups, for example, Fire and Rescue Police and Ambulance services.

The Society takes part or plays a role in the following:

• Mentoring – providing support for pupils at Secondary Schools
• Right To Read – providing staff to assist junior school pupil with their reading development.
• Pride In Your Community - grant aid initiative which offers financial support to local community groups
• Affinity accounts – Exclusive supporters savings accounts which pay a 1% bonus back to the Club
• Cares Challenges – providing people power to raise funds for and get a local community job done in a day
• Employee Benefits arrangements which provides exclusive savings and mortgage products to local employers
• Local organisation support and sponsorship. This has included hospices in the Society's areas of operation
• Environment - addressing environmental issues in the workplace
• Member education – bringing to the attention of the membership issues that might affect the individual such as safety and security often in conjunction with South Yorkshire Police
• School Banking – providing a savings service to local junior and infants schools.
• Attendance at regional community events to raise the Society's profile and also to raise funds for third parties.

Cares

The Society is committed to undertaking one Cares programme with Business in the Community per year.

To date we have had teams of staff completely redecorating a school canteen where the School council picked the themes and it was up to the staff to turn their ideas in to artwork for their walls.

Last year a group of Society supervisors were involved in the building of a chicken run and hut, ultimately providing the chickens as well through extensive fundraising, for a local group in the Cudworth area who work with adults with disabilities.

This formed part of a training course the hard work from which was passed over to a deserving community group. The Pinfold allotments produce fruit and veg for the area and now thanks to the Society, they are able to produce fresh laid eggs as part of the service.

Pride In Your Community

Pride in Your Community is a grant initiative aimed at assisting small groups clubs and associations that can demonstrate that their existence has a positive impact on their community.

It was introduced in 1999 and is in place to distribute fund of up to £15,000 per annum.

The applications are judged by a panel consisting of a couple of senior managers with the Society but a majority of independent individuals, some of whom are actual members of the Society.

The panel meets twice annually and grants tend to be distributed in Spring and Autumn.

Rules are very simple in that the group has to originate from the Yorkshire, North Derbyshire of North Nottinghamshire regions, be non-political and non-profit making.

Grants will not be offered to individuals or for one off projects. Applications must be able to demonstrate that the funding will be used for long term value of the community.

Application packs are available directly from the Marketing Department at Head Office of any branch outlet.

Environment

The Society began to assess its environmental footprint in the summer of 2004 and assessed ways that it might be able to reduce its impact in specific areas. Following on from this initial assessment, it took part in the Yorkshire and Humberside Environmental Index in 2005.

The Society has been further assessing the areas where it may make further improvements and hopes to improve its ranking in the 2006 version.

“ENVIRONMENT: The Society continues to search for ways to minimise its impact on the environment such as waste management exercises incorporating a paper recycling programme. In addition, during 2005, we have also taken part in the Yorkshire and Humberside environment index demonstrating our commitment to environment issues.”

Extract from Chief Executive's report within Report and Accounts 2006

The Society can confirm that in just under a 12 month period it has recycled 3.145 tonnes of paper over a 12-month period.