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Flixton
is a sub branch to Urmston, and comes to Martins Bank through the 1928
amalgamation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank with the Bank of Liverpool
and Martins. A plain but fuctional
shop-front Branch, it survives the 1969 merger with Barclays, lasting until
the Summer of 1976, when the doors close for the last time in this part of
Urmston in what is now known as Greater Manchester. Not known for too
many moments of self indulgence, our Archive Editor has made an exception in
the case of Flixton to bring you some childhood memories which include
eliciting bars of chocolate, living under the same roof as “Sue’s Gaywear”
and walking past Martins Bank on the way to and from school…
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In Service:
Pre 1928 until 25 June 1976
Image: © Barclays Ref 0030-1014
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  “In 1968 we were spoilt for choice with Martins Branches – Sale, Sale Moor,
Hale, Altrincham,
Timperley, Bramhall, Urmston, the list goes on, but Flixton was OUR local branch. My
mother ran a ladies fashion shop (genuinely and quite innocently called
“Sue’s Gaywear” in the days when the items on sale were nothing more daring
than ordinary womens’ clothing and separates in bright and “gay” colours) at
302 Flixton Road. The Bank was further
along at No 438 - Flixton Road itself being a very, very, long introduction
to Urmston. I would walk past Martins
twice a day on my way to and from school, and was often sent on shopping
errands to a nearby grocers. Every now and then I would try my luck with the Nestlé® Chocolate machine outside the
newsagents – you were normally required to exchange a sixpence for a small
bar of milk chocolate, but a few of us had learned how to catch the machine
unawares by pressing the return coin button and pulling the drawer at the
same time.
 I can’t remember
how near to the bank this “theft” took place, and I wonder now if any of us
were ever spotted by eagle eyed bank clerks who decided to keep quiet! Free
chocolate was, shall we say “forthcoming” on more than one occasion. Flixton was a happy place to be so young,
but this was also a time in our social history when as boys and girls of six
years old, we would be expected to purchase cigarettes for our parents. I look back in horror now, at the thought
that I regularly bought 20 Kensitas Tipped for my mother, and no-one batted
an eyelid. Fortunately I was and still am repulsed by the smell of
cigarettes, and did not go the way of many of my young friends into the world
of nicotine addiction. My pocket money
of 3d (about £0.01¼) per day, was dutifully placed into a small money box on
the mantelpiece ready to be used to buy presents for family birthdays. Hmmmm, wait a minute, someone certainly saw
ME coming… I wonder how much I
could have amassed instead, in a Martins Bank Account of my own…
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