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Human, helpful ... and history

Michelle Worvell investigates the closure of the nation's largest high-street broker

Hill House Hammond (HHH) - the national insurance brokerage with over 230 branches throughout England, Scotland and Wales - is no more.

Once the largest personal-lines intermediary in the UK, with a developing commercial insurance division, HHH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwich Union (NU), has now been shut down by its former owner. But how did this all start? And how did the brokerage come to its sorry fate?

Early days

The Bristol-based company was founded in 1959 by Arthur Holmes, who set up

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