The Chesham Building Society was a

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingd ...

based in the market town of

Chesham Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...

in Buckinghamshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

which merged with the

Skipton Building Society The Skipton Building Society was established in 1853 in Skipton, North Yorkshire, where it remains headquartered. It is the UK's 4th largest building society and has over 1 million members and 100 branches. Its most important subsidiary is the ...

in June 2010. Prior to the merger it was the 37th largest building society in the United Kingdom based on its total assets of £231 million. It was a member of the

Building Societies Association The Building Societies Association (BSA) was originally established in 1869. It is the voice for all 43 UK building societies as well as six large credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, i ...

. Their logo was a stylised chess piece, a pun on the name of the

River Chess The River Chess is a chalk stream that rises near Chesham in the Chiltern Hills, and flows for through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire to its confluence with the River Colne in Rickmansworth. The Chess, along with the Colne and Gade, gi ...

, the local river.

History

Founded in 1845 it was the world's oldest (surviving) building society - many early societies were wound up after all members had a house. The Society promoted itself as offering a more personal service due to their focus on the locality of their main target customers, including the residents of

, hence the original slogan was "Far better for being near to you". The Society had branches in Aylesbury,

Little Chalfont Little Chalfont is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is one of a group of villages known collectively as The Chalfonts, which also comprises Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter. Little Chalfont is located ...

, an agency in

Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...

and the branch/head office in

Merger with Skipton Building Society

On 24 February 2010 the society announced a proposed merger with the

. This was approved by Chesham Members at their AGM on 31 March 2010 with just over 80 percent of both savers and borrowers voting in favour. The merger of the two societies took place on 1 June 2010. The enlarged society operates under the Skipton name.Chesham Merger Announcement
Skipton Building Society

References

External links

Chesham Building Society
(now redirects to Skipton)
Building Societies Association

KPMG Building Societies Database 2008
{{UK Building Societies Chesham Banks established in 1845 Organizations established in 1845 1845 establishments in England Companies based in Buckinghamshire