11-19-80 Stafford

BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED

Market Square

R A F Stafford

CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE

Princess Street

DISTRICT BANK LIMITED

41 Greengate Street

Greyfriars

LLOYDS BANK LIMITED

5 Market Square

Rising Brook

MARTINS BANK LIMITED

15 Greengate Street

MIDLAND BANK LIMITED

8 Market Square

NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK

3 Market Square

WESTMINSTER BANK LIMITED

43 Greengate Street

Martins Bank opens this attractive little Branch at Stafford in 1948, as part of the post War effort to grow the Bank into the Midlands, South and West. Once more the Bank goes for a “mock Tudor” look, to give the impression of security, stability and great “age”. In the county of Staffordshire alone, there are fifteen branches by the time of the 1969 merger with Barclays.

Today, NONE of these branches is still open, although Barclays does have its own offices at different addresses in some of the same towns. This image (right) of the Branch is as Barclays Bank Stafford in 1973.

We were contacted by Wendy Young, who as Miss K W Cheadle joined the Bank at stafford Branch on 12 August 1963. Wendy married in 1966 and left the Bank for Scotland in 1968. She told us:

“The Manager was Mr C G Cripwell. Mr J R D Chapman in your photo was Assistant Manager and Doreen Haughton had just left to be married which created the vacancy I filled. I started work there on 12 August 1963 and left 31 January 1968 to move to Scotland with my husband who was in the RAF.

In Service: 26 July 1948 until 31 March 1983

Image Martins Bank Archive Collections - © Dennis postcards & successors

Image © Barclays Ref 0030/2759

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

I then worked for the Clydesdale. It wasn't as much fun or as well run! Stafford Branch was a really happy place to work and we were like a family. The latest reincarnation of the building is a trendy clothing shop for men”.

Wendy also provided us with a postcard from which we were able to scan a fairly reasonable image of the Branch with its Martins signage as it was when she worked there. Also here (above, right) - restored from the original newspaper advertisement of July 1948 - is the Bank’s announcement of the opening of its Stafford Branch. As well as this advert having been printed in the local newspaper The Staffordshire Advertiser, Martins Bank will have placed the same copy in the Liverpool Echo, as the Bank was proud of its Liverpool Roots and wanted Liverpudlians to know of the successes of its National bank.For our feature, we go back to the Summer of 1957 and the ninth anniversary of the opening of the Branch at Greengate Street. Martins Bank Magazine visits the Manager and his staff, and tells readers something about the town and its industry…

1957 03 MBM.jpg Our Visit to Stafford on 25th July was made within a few days of the ninth anniversary of the opening of the branch. It was our first visit to the town although, in common with most people, we have often passed through its station on our journeyings South. Stafford is a town of a little over 40,000 people and the largest single employer of labour is the English Electric Company which absorbs over half the available labour force of the place. There are one or two well-known shoe factories, including Lotus, and there is the Universal Grinding Wheel Company, seen from the train quite close to the station. As a town it is undistinguished, with few outstanding shops and little of architectural note except St. Mary's Church, halfway towards being the local cathedral and very beautiful inside, and the castle, which is not very old, being built to replace an earlier structure.

Stafford figured in the Civil War and King Charles I stayed in the town in a lovely old building quite close to our branch, from a bedroom of which he is reputed to have amused himself by taking pot shots at a prominent landmark nearby. A plaque on the wall commemorates his stay. Mr. Armatage met us at the station and took us out to his home which is situated in a private park only a few minutes away from the centre of the town in a most attractive residential neighbourhood. One might be miles away, yet the busy main roads are only two or three minutes away by car. Here we received a most cordial welcome from Mrs. Armatage and after a brief stay to admire their home we all went to lunch at a country hotel on the outskirts of the town. Afterwards we made our way to the branch where we were very pleased indeed to meet once again Mr. J. R. D. Chapman, whom we had met on a similar occasion when visiting our branch in Worcester in 1952. He has been at Stafford since 1955. Mr. Armatage himself entered the Bank in 1917 at Quayside. In 1930 he went to Laygate and in 1937 was appointed Pro Manager at Gateshead and Manager in 1941. Five years later he was promoted to be Manager at Low Fell and he opened the branch at Stafford in 1948. Mr. G. J. Willatt entered the Bank in July 1956 after some business experience at the offices of the Staffordshire County Council. Miss D. M. Haughton has been at the branch since August 1953 and before that she spent five years at the offices of the Council also.

One is struck by the very happy spirit prevailing at the branch and while this is characteristic of many branches, in Stafford it was especially noticeable. The branch has made good progress in the difficult years since it opened and Mr. Armatage is to be complimented on a good job of work. One of the causes with which he has specially identified himself in Stafford is the Staffordshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society, of which he is County Treasurer, and in the course of this work he has made many good friends, among them being the Countess of Lichfield, herself an indefatigable Red Cross worker. After finishing at the branch, we were greatly privileged to be allowed to visit Shugborough and, following tea with the Earl and Countess, to be personally shown by the Countess some of the priceless treasures their lovely home contains. In the next issue of the Magazine, we propose to make more detailed reference to this visit as we are sure it will be of great interest to many of our readers. We used every minute of our stay in Stafford to good purpose and in fact, caught the 8 p.m. train homewards with only half a minute to spare. A day to remember.

Image © Barclays Ref 0030/2759

Our contemporary photo of 15 Greengate Street shows the building as a restaurant in 2014. By 2020 it had become a trendy gents’ fashion shop…

Image © G R Wylie 2014

Mr C B Armatage

Manager

1948 to 1962

Mr J R D Chapman

On the Staff

1955 to 1968

Miss D M Haughton

On the Staff

1957

Mr G J Willatt

On the Staff

1957

Miss K W Cheadle

On the staff

1963 to 1968