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Bank of Liverpool

The Bank of Liverpool’s Heathfield Branch is an elegant office set on a corner aspect.

 

1940 ish Heathfield Bank of Liverpool Crest Close Up BGA Ref 3-4373.jpg

This beautiful sculpture representing the Liver Bird, features promiently on the front of the building which is situated in Smithdown Place.  Heathfield Branch is opened in 1906 and is not to be confused with Smithdown Branch, opened twenty years earlier at Smithdown Road.

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At the time this photo was taken, the Branch still bore a plaque, fitted across the doorway, displaying the Bank of Liverpool’s opening hours, which prior to 1918 are four hours longer each week than the standard hours seen during Martins’ era.

By 1969 the staff associations and the banking union and have pushed for an end to Saturday opening, and Martins’ former branches begin to open late on Thursdays.

In Service: January 1906 until October 1972

Image © Barclays Ref: 0030-4473

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This is supposed to be by way of compensating customers for the reduction in trading hours, but for Barclays, this will be a temporary move whilst its network of Barclaycash machines is expanded more quickly than originally planned. (See our feature page MARTINS AUTO CASHIER). However, within only twelve years of Saturday closing, competitive pressure, and in particular banking’s new found love for “marketing” will bring Saturday opening back again, with all banks will fighting to start down the slippery slope of selling ever more inventive but flawed “products” before descending into the murky mess that became PPI - payment protection insurance. 

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This is all a far cry from the commitment to extremely high standards of service espoused by Martins Bank, and its commitment to “go to EXTREMES to be helpful”. We shall therefore return to December 1964, as Heathfield bids farewell to Manager Adrian Ellis, who after 42 dedicated years of service with the bank, and (in common with a number of long serving staff at this time) is, sadly, too ill to be at his own retirement celebration. Mr Ellis lives on until 1 August 1967, when he dies at what today would be considered the very early age of 64…

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1965 01 MBM.jpg1954 to 1965 Mr A R Ellis Manager MBM-Sp65P56.jpgthe many friends of Mr Adrian R. Ellis were extremely sorry when increasing health problems caused his retirement at the end of December. At the time his absence from Heathfield branch, of which he had been Manager for 10 years, made a formal presentation impossible much to the regret of his colleagues, but a cheque to which they had subscribed was sent to him by Mr Buchanan who expressed the Bank's gratitude for more than 42 years’ excellent service and conveyed good wishes for the future. Mr Ellis entered the service at Water Street in 1923 working in Merseyside branches until going in 1939 to Plymouth where he became Manager in 1941. After 3 years with H.M. Forces he joined the Visiting Inspection Department in 1946 and was appointed Manager of Heathfield branch in 1954.

Robert Montgomery has spent a number of years taking photographs of former branch banks, and has kindly donated a large number of these images to the Archive. The contemporary view of Martins Bank’s Liverpool Heathfield branch was taken in 2009, at which time the building was in use as a GP practice, using the iconic Liverpool address “Penny Lane” where, as the song has it, “The Banker never wears a mac, in the pouring rain, VERY strange”…

Image © Barclays Ref: 0030-4473

 

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections - Robert Montgomery

1909 to 1913 Mr F E Bold MBM-Su47P25.jpg

1913 Mr F J Brennell joined the bank here MBM-Au55P47.jpg

1920 to 1922 Mr W Roberts MBM-Su55P52.jpg

1925 to 1929 Mr J V Dobie Pro Manager MBM-Au57P54.jpg

1936 approx to 1937 Mr A E Pearson MBM-Wi57P48.jpg

1942 to 1942 Mr W A Foulkes Pro Manager MBM-Au60P52.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Mr F E Bold

On the Staff

1909 to 1913

Mr F J Brennell

Joined the Bank Here

1913

Mr W Roberts

On the Staff

1920 to 1922

Mr J V Dobie

Pro Manager

1925 to 1929

Mr A E Pearson

On the Staff

1936 to 1937

Mr W A Foulkes

Pro Manager

1942 to 1942

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1942 to 1943 Mr D W S Wilson MBM-Sp65P07.jpg

1949 to 1953 Mr K E Jarvis MBM-Au62P42.jpg

1949 to 1954 Mr W Alderton MBM-Wi66P04.jpg

1954 to 1965 Mr A R Ellis Manager MBM-Sp65P56.jpg

1965 Mr RE Pickering Manager MBM-Sp65P05.jpg

1968 Mr JW Tickle pro Manager MBM-Wi68P08.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Mr D W S Wilson

On the Staff

1942 to 1943

Mr K E Jarvis

On the Staff

1949 to 1953

Mr W Alderton

On the Staff

1949 to 1954

Mr A R Ellis

Manager

1954 to 1965

Mr R E Pickering

Manager

1965 onwards

Mr J W Tickle

Pro Manager

1968

 

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Title:

Type:

Address:

Index Number and District:

Hours:

 

Telephone:

Services:

Manager:

Martins Bank Limited 11-42-40 Liverpool Heathfield

Full Branch

7 Smithdown Place Liverpool L15 9EL

21 Liverpool

Mon to Fri 1000-1500

Saturday 0900-1130

SEFton Pk 7032

Nightsafe Installed

Mr R E Pickering Manager

 

Liverpool Garston

January 1906

18 December 1918

3 January 1928

15 December 1969

October 1972

Bank of Liverpool

Bank of Liverpool and Martins Bank Limited

Martins Bank Limited

Barclays Bank Limited 20-50-76 Liverpool Heathfield

Closed

Liverpool Heywoods

 

M

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