11-196 Clitheroe Auction Mart

A short-lived affair…

We do love a good mystery, especially when it surrounds one of the Branches of Martins Bank. Clitheroe Auction Mart sub-Branch is opened on Monday 6 December 1937, to great fanfare in the local newspaper, the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times. The new Branch is also recorded in that year’s Annual Report and Accounts, which provides shareholders with a full list of the Branches of the Bank.

Like several other small outlets, Clitheroe Auction Mart sub Branch is mothballed at the outbreak of World War Two, but it is NOT re-opened at the end of the Conflict. In a clear case of economics, the Bank does take the opportunity to review its Branch Network in 1945/6 and sets about closing a number of previously under-performing outlets.

In Service: 6 December 1937 until September 1939

Image © Northcliffe Media Limited Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive

It does however seem strange to have opened a cattle market sub branch for such a short period of time, and then not re-opened it after the War. The main Clitheroe Branch at Castle Street has three more sub Branches over the years, at Chatburn, Gisburn and Whalley, all of which remain open through and beyond the 1969 Merger of Martins and Barclays.