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 The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank opens its Branch
at Bispham in 1923, another “corner shop” affair that guards the Northern
gates to the Bank’s Blackpool kingdom.
The branch is amongst those kept open during World War II when women
clerks in charge look after the business whilst the men were away fighting
for King and Country. Bispham is lucky
enough to remain open beyond the merger, and shuts its doors for the final
time in 1987. The longest surviving
Blackpool Branch of Martins Bank is Whitegate Drive, which stayed open after
the 1969 merger as a Branch of Barclays until 25 September 2015. Martins’ kingdom amongst ice-cream and
donkey rides has now sadly passed in history…
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In Service: 1923 until 28 June 1987
Image
© Barclays Ref: 0030-0272
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Images © Barclays Ref
0033-0272
Bispham sub-Branch was opened in 1923 by Mr C W Aked, who apart from
three year’s War Service, during which the office was maintained by Mrs Norah
Towers, ran the place for thirty years until his retirement on 31 March 1953. As ever, Martins Bank Magazine was there to
record the retirement festivities, which were held also to mark the
retirement of Blackpool Branch Accountant, Mr E Barlow…
  On the afternoon of 31 March, the
staff of Blackpool Branch gathered together to pay tribute to Mr E Barlow,
Accountant, and to Mr C W Aked, Clerk in Charge at Bispham Office, who were
both entering their retirement and to wish them both many years of good
health and happy leisure. Mr Aked had
completed forty-seven years in the service of the Bank, and the Halifax Equitable
Bank and had opened Bispham sub-Branch in 1923 becoming quite an institution
in the Village during his years there. As a reminder of his banking days, he
had chosen a travlling alarm clock suitably engraved, and Mr Sharples
(Manager, Blackpool) expressed the wish that he would “tick on” for many
years to come. both Mr Barlow and Mr Aked expressed their sincere thanks and
referred to the happy years and the many friendships they had enjoyed during
their periods of service.
Bispham
in colour…
We are most grateful to Steve Palmer, whose atmospheric
images of the Blackpool area appear in his book “Blackpool and Fleetwood, 100
Years by Tram” (Platform 6 Publishing Ltd.,1998), and who kindly provided us
with this 1960s colour image of Martins Bank’s Branch at Bispham. Colour pictures of Martins Branches are
relatively rare, and it is always interesting to see just how well they bring
to life specific periods in our history.
Apart from the old road signs, and the glimpse of overhead
tram cables, this picture gives little else away about when it was actually
taken. It certainly adds to that nostalgic yearning for those times within
living memory when everything seemed much less brash and impersonal than the
huge out of town shopping “experiences” of the twenty-first Century.
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