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Beginnings… The Carlisle and Cumberland Banking
Company Limited is the first joint stock bank to be founded in Carlisle. Although it could consolidate the position of
banking in the area by merging with a Scottish or a North Eastern bank, the
Carlisle and Cumberland chooses to amalgamate with the Bank of Liverpool in
1911. The strong cotton industy in
Carlisle, and many other local industries use the port of Liverpool both for
the import and export of goods and materials.
Thus the top half of Martins Bank’s Northern district begins to be
defined through the addition of the Carlisle and Cumberland Bank’s small
network of branches and sub branches. |
In Service:
10 September 1836 until 21 June 2019 |
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Image © Barclays Ref 0033-0582 |
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The prospectus for the Carlisle and Cumberland Banking
Company is issued in 1836, and attracted by the new safeguards afforded by
joint stock bank legislation, many interest parties, from families whose
names are famous in the area since tudor times and before, come forward to
provide the necessary capital. At this time however, the responsibilities of
those whom we refer to nowadays as “the bank manager” are somewhat different… Wigton’s early days
TEXT ABRIDGED FROM “FOUR
CENTURIES OF BANKING” © MARTINS BANK
LIMITED 1968 And now, in colour… |
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Branch
Images © Barclays Ref 0030/3212 |
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Who’s that? Apart from a rather
late “rush” of colour Martins Bank Magazine articles about new branches from
1966 onwards, there are very few colour images of Martins Bank’s branches in
the 1960s, so to find two together for the same branch is quite special. Someone did, it seems, possess a colour
camera back then, and managed to take it along to a select few Branches in
the Northern district of the Bank.
(You can see more by using the Branch Finder to visit our pages for
Cockermouth, Kendal, and Settle, and there is also a rare 1950s colour image
of the Temporary Branch at Lowther Street in Carlisle). In this colour
picture from Wigton we see a member of staff hard at work. Do you recognise
him? We would love to know his
identity so that he can take his place is the staff gallery below. |
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Times change… Worlds apart from each other are these Wigton cheques – the
first from is from 1902 - the days of the Carlisle and Cumberland Bank, and
the second is from Martins Bank in the late 1950s. The third and fourth show that the 1960s
will bring yet more change, not least the introduction of automated cheques
which can be read at high speed by machines coupled to computers. This will be the first stage in the removal
of human involvement from the day to day internal accounting of our banks,
that will lead to the eventual demise of branch banking in the twenty-first,
less than fifty years after the merger of Barclays and Martins…
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As the amount of
space needed in which to conduct a banking service diminishes, Wigton Branch was
downsized and operated from the right-hand side of the building only until it
was closed permanently in june 2019 - hence the strange display of both MARTINS and BARCLAYS above
the door, a rare but welcome sight. The close up shows
the origins of the building, opened in 1905 by the Carlisle & Cumberland
Bank, in the form of this wonderfully preserved carving in the stonework
above the door of the Branch. Special
thanks also, to friend of the Archive, Ange Robinson, for bringing these
lovely images to our attention. |
Image © 2013 Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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Image © 1969 Barclays Ref 0030-3212 |
Image © 2013 Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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Title: Type: Address: Index Number and District: Hours: Telephone: Services: Manager: |
Martins Bank Limited 11-44-90
Wigton Full branch 6 King Street Wigton Cumberland 222 Northern Mon to Fri
1000-1500 Saturday 0900-1130 Wigton 2226 Nightsafe Installed Mr B Wilson Manager |
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