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 Tunstall is one of fifteen Branches of Martins Bank
in Staffordshire, and sadly none of them is still open today. Barclays actually closes their own branch
at Burton as the Martins Branch is larger and better situated to attract
custom. Tunstall is, however, not so
lucky and its business is transferred to the Barclays Branch at 120 high
Street on 12 December 1969. Martins
Bank is no stranger to The Potteries, and opens its doors in Tunstall in 1953
in what is described by Martins Bank Magazine as a tasteful, friendly and
cosy office. They visit the branch
just over a year after it is opened, and as usual get down to the business of
meeting the staff and describing the local area.
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In Service: January 1953
until 12 December 1969
Image © Barclays Ref
0030-2991
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We are especially pleased with the interior photographs of
Tunstall Branch, one of which (unusually) includes customers at the counter…
 We
visited Tunstall on March 8th. Mr. Williamson was at the station to meet us,
and, to our surprise, he seemed regretful that the sun was shining brightly,
that there was blue in the sky and that the Potteries were undoubtedly
looking their best on that lovely Spring morning. He was, of course, afraid
that we might paint too glowing a picture of the climate in this part of the world,
where our managers are deepening and widening the Bank's interests and
keeping the flag flying.
Images © Barclays Ref
0030-2991
 But
he needn't have worried: it was not our first visit to the Potteries, and we
have seen the Five Towns under typical conditions. Mr. Alfred Williamson entered the service in 1926 at
Manchester, and his previous experience includes Brooks's Bar, Deansgate,
Bath, Bristol and, since 1947, Pro Manager at Derby. He opened Tunstall
branch in January 1953. There was also a period of five years spent with H.M.
Forces, part of the time in India.Mr. R. Raw is the second man. Before going
to the Potteries he served in the Northern District and it is not surprising
that, with his Lakeland background, his colleagues who work among the dark,
satanic kilns should spread the story about him that when he was asked
whether he would like to go to Hanley, he affirmed his enthusiasm with
commendable vigour, being under the impression that Henley was what was being
offered. Whether there be any truth in that or not, he has put his back into
the new job enthusiastically after a distinguished war career which took him
from Africa to Burma, via France and Syria, and he was awarded the Military
Medal at Tobruk.
P. G. Joy is a product of the Five Towns who entered the service
at Hanley, and, lured by the recruiting posters to join the Navy and see the
world, found that the most he could do was to gaze at it from Plymouth Hoe.
He has yet to feel the heave of a deck beneath his feet. Keeping the flag of the gentle sex
flying is Miss Joan Gleaves, also a native of the Potteries, who entered the
Bank in 1952. Our new office is
tasteful, cosy and friendly. Mr. Williamson has been living over the branch
while his new house at Newcastle-under-Lyme is being built. Tunstall is not such a " shocker " from an
aesthetic point of view as Longton, but the kilns are there just the same,
and the all-pervading soot, grime and smoke pall of concentrated industry.
We saw it on a Spring day, however, when the unsullied daffodils were in full
bloom round a monument less than five minutes'
run in a car from the branch, at the spot where our photograph was taken, and
we shall always think of it like that.
We shall remember, too, the very pleasant lunch we
had with Mr. and Mrs. Williamson
on the outskirts of Newcastle, and tea in their
home, where we met their lively young son, who insisted on coming to the station afterwards to see us safely on the
train.
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