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The Mercantile
Bank of Lancashire opens its Branch at Bramhall Lane in the late 1890s, only
a few years before the Mercantile is subsumed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Bank. Following the merger in 1928 of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins and
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, Martins Bank is created, and Bramhall
becomes one of its Branches. Here in cheshire, as in most of the Northern
English Counties, you can find a Branch of the Bank in most towns and
villlages. Martins adds two
sub-Branches to Bramhall, Cheadle Hulme in 1967 and Poynton in 1968. Cheadle is not required by Barclays when it
takes over from Martins in 1969, but Poynton fares much better, and remains
open for a total of forty-three years, closing in March 2011. Bramhall Branch itself moves to Woodford
Road in 1976. For our feature, we visit the Bramhall of 1950, where, on the
first day of Spring, the Branch receives a visit from Martins Bank Magazine –
eager to capture life in this part of Cheshire…
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In Service: Late 1890s
until 1976
Image © Barclays Ref 0033/0096
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 We picked the first real day of Spring for our
visit to Bramhall, Manchester District's choice for the Summer Issue. By
train to Manchester first of all, there to meet Harold Blundell whose turn it
was to have a day out, and thence by car. The sun was shining even in
Manchester and whatever the Manchester folk think about Harold's job there
was no doubt in their minds about ours being the best job in the Bank on that
warm Spring morning as we left them all stewing at their desks. “The trivial
round, the common task” might suit some folk but we had the best of it that
morning, very definitely. The Cheshire countryside was looking its loveliest
and it was easy to understand why Mr. Verity lived at Bramhall when he was
District General Manager and why Mr. and Mrs. Tarn are grieving at the
thought of leaving it, as leave it they must to be nearer to Liverpool. When
we arrived at the branch we didn't quite get the hang of things at first. Mr.
Helme was there to greet us, but the rest of his staff appeared to consist of
two Inspectors from District Office and a lady relief clerk, also from
District Office. No one else was on deck. However, in course of time they all
showed up with the exception of Miss B. F. Marsh, who was on sick leave. She
entered the service in 1947 and has been at Gatley until January of this
year. Mr. Helme says that she is an excellent worker and he is very pleased
with her, but, alas, she is engaged to be married, a fact which numbers her
days amongst us.
 Mr.
Helme himself entered the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank in 1907 and has
served for varying periods at Spring Gardens, Corn Exchange, Oldham, Hulme,
Heaton Chapel and Brown Street before his appointment as Manager at Bramhall
in 1945. In his younger days he was a keen sportsman and skippered Cheshire
and was also North of England Captain at lacrosse. In the First World War, in
which he served from 1914 to 1919, he fought on the Somme, being wounded, and
later became a Staff Captain in the Indian Army. He has two daughters, one of whom is
nursing at the Middlesex Hospital and the other is on the staff of the B.B.C
In Manchester. A. W. Hawkins, the
second man, is another L. and Y. man, who entered that Bank in 1909. He
served at a number of branches before going to Bramhall in 1946, including
Harpurhey, Great Ancoats Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, Miles Platting,
Levenshulme and Heaton Chapel. At Miles Platting he held internal signing
power. He is another First World War veteran, serving in France and finally
being captured at Aveluy Wood. He is a keen British Legion man and is
Treasurer of the Cheadle Hulme branch of the Legion. He has a daughter out in
Trieste working with the W.V.S. G. Ramsell came into the Bank in 1947 at
Stockport, to which branch he returned after his military service. He had
only been at Bramhall a week or so at the time of our visit. He is a musician
and is organist and choirmaster at a local church. After a chat with the staff, we left them
to do the work, and motored out to Chelford for lunch, passing familiar
scenes and boyhood haunts in Wilmslow and Alderley Edge. We had to be back in
Manchester by 3 p.m. as, seeing it was such a lovely day Mr. Maxwell had
hatched up some business away from the city and wanted the car. Afternoon tea
with Mr. Cowpe concluded a very pleasant day.
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