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Messrs
Wakefield Crewdson’s Kendal Bank opens a Branch in Carnforth in 1887 at 30
Market Street. There seems to have been a period of itchy feet, and a change
of owner, before the Bank of Liverpool finally settles on No 3 Market Street
in 1907, but even then, future expansion is on the cards… Carnforth’s enduring claim to fame is
the starring role played by its railway station in the 1945 classic film,
‘Brief Encounter’. Since then the
station itself has gone through several different phases, including a
post-Beeching ugly stage, and thankfully a twenty-first century handsome
stage, whereby period features have been restored, and you can even take
afternoon tea in the very café seen in the film. Some things have, however, changed
forever. Nowadays if wanting to travel
North from Carnforth to Kendal by electric train, you must first go south to
Lancaster by diesel, change trains and go back the way you came to pass
through Carnforth and head North to Oxenholme where you change again to
go to Kendal! No doubt modern PR would
hail this as a great service to customers…
Just like MORECAMBE, Martins Bank’s Branch at Carnforth bears a
similar, but smaller scale, resemblance to an eastern European palace. It would appear that Messrs Wakefield
Crewdson went in for a certain amount of grandeur in their bank branch
buildings. “From
the North”…
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In Service: 1887 until 13 October 2022
Image
© Barclays Ref 0030-0565 < Image © ITV Studios 1968 to date |
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Just the thing when you need money for
your train ticket. The Midland Bank
next door is decorated with new branding that will last until the 1980s.
John Mashiter Began his career with the
Bank in Manchester in 1925, worked throughout the Northern District of the
Bank and retired in 1969. In 1963 he was a member of the History of Martins
Bank Committee, whose remit was to collect the history of Martins Bank
together for Publication. He recalls
his own time at Carnforth Branch in Volume I of “Four Centuries of Banking”… {There
were only two of us at Carnforth. The Manager Edmund Herd was an old friend
and life there was very good. I cycled
the eight miles from Milnthorpe and with practice could do the daily stint of
sixteen miles in remarkable time. This
was the main A6 road but in those days traffic was light and I did the
journey for two years without mishap.
The Reynolds family from Leighton Hall were customers; one of them was a director of the Bank and
they frequently came to the Branch on horseback. On these occasions I had to go out and hold
their horses. The sight of me being
towed up and down the street by two restive horses always amused our
shopkeeper customers, who came out to watch the fun and urge on the horses.} ABRIDGED FROM FOUR
CENTURIES OF BANKING VOL I © MARTINS BANK
LIMITED 1963 Business as usual…
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A Bank manager used to be seen as a pillar of the local
community – someone who knows everyone and knows everyone’s business. Just
occasionally along with chairing a few local committees or holding the
treasurership of one or two charitable concerns, a manager may be called upon
to impart knowledge of his life’s experience. In October 1954, Mr G Keen,
Manager of Martins Bank’s Carnforth Branch lets members of the local Junior
Anglican People’s Association know all about his days in India during the
Second World War. Once again the trusty Lancaster Guardian is on hand to
report mr Keen’s presentation… Newspaper
Images (above,) Lancaster Guardian 18/11/1938 and 29/10/1954 © Johnstone
Press. Images created courtesy of THE
BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Images reproduced with kind permission of The
British Newspaper Archive |
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Images © Barclays Ref
0030-0565 |
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