125 Years of the Tipton!

A milestone year for the Tipton...

It was in 1901 when the Tipton & District Permanent Building Society was founded, with the first subscription meeting held right in the heart of the town on Owen Street. Some 125 years later, we’re still on Owen Street – albeit in a different building – and we’re still going strong.

Now called the Tipton & Coseley Building Society, in recognition of the wider communities we serve, we've been sharing the occasion with those who matter most, our customers and our colleagues.

After celebrating 250 years of the building society movement in 2025, we’re delighted to reach our own incredible milestone and reflect on how the Tipton has supported multiple generations of savers and homeowners.
                                                                    - Adam Evetts, the Tipton's Chief Executive

Celebrating with our members

We've been celebrating our 125th birthday throughout the year, with a series of 125-themed social media posts each month, featuring our commemorative logo and stamp, across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. This significant milestone was also central to our 125th AGM in April, celebrating the history and achievements of the Society over the years. 

June was especially busy with celebrations, with the re-opening of our fully refurbished Tipton branch and celebratory coffee days across all our branches, taking place throughout the week commencing 22 June. During this time, we also launched our 125 Anniversary Regular Saver to celebrate our local origins with members. 

Did you see us out and about? We ran 125th anniversary themed billboards in the heart of the Black Country on our official birthday month of June, commemorating our special milestone on the big screen, across three locations:

• Wolverhampton (on Birmingham New Road)
• Bilston (on Oxford Street)
• and Wednesbury (on Black Country New Road).

Click through the picture gallery below to see highlights of our celebrations so far and check back here for further updates on how we've been celebrating our anniversary year.

Our History

Incorporated on 8 June 1901, as Tipton and District Permanent Benefit Building Society, the Society was situated in a local solicitor's office at 30 Owen Street, not far from the current Head Office building at 70 Owen Street, Tipton. One of 2,000 building societies in the UK. The Society's membership continued to grow and by the 1930s, a new office in Coseley was opened and the Society was renamed 'Tipton & Coseley Permanent Building Society'. A modern, imposing Head Office was built at 57-60 High Street, Tipton in 1963.

As the number of building societies in the UK began to decline, with just 287 left in the early 1980s, the Society continued to expand, with new offices in Sedgley, Dudley and Bilston. The Society moved into a new purpose-built Head Office in 1992, where the Head Office remains today on Owen Street. Branches were refurbished with state of the art computer systems and the new millennium saw the Society's first website go live.

Pictured below: The first Tipton and District Permanent Benefit Society office (top left and bottom left). The new, modern Head Office, 1963 (bottom centre). Bilston branch opened in 1980 (top centre). The first Sedgley branch office in the mid 1960s (top right). The Society's first minute book (bottom right).

In 2011, the Society relocated it's Sedgley branch to the current prime location, 6 Bull Ring, in the centre of Sedgley high street and in 2020, the Society was the first building society to offer a mobile app for new and existing members to open and access their accounts on the go.

In recent years, the Society continues to grow, expanding its savings and mortgage propositions, launching a fresh new website in 2025, opening its first new branch in over 40 years in the village of Codsall and launching a state-of-the-art online mortgage origination system, making lending smoother and more efficient with the Society. The Tipton branch located at the Society's Head Office has also been transformed, creating a modern, welcoming space for members, emphasising the Society's commitment to face-to-face, personal customer service 125 years on.

After 125 years of serving its members, the Society's purpose remains the same, helping customers achieve their most important financial goals. Here's to many more years of the Tipton, here for our savers, borrowers and local community since 1901.