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  many colleagues assembled in
the clubhouse of the Wood Hall Golf Club on April 30th to say farewell to
Geoffrey Kippax, Manager of Pudsey branch for the past 16 years. His wife,
who was at one time on the staff of Leeds City Office, accompanied him and
was handed a bouquet by Miss Jacqueline Simpson. The presentation of an automatic tea maker was made by
Mr P. M. Lister (Assistant District Manager) who spoke of the warm humanity
of Mr Kippax's character and emphasised the esteem in which he was held by
colleagues and customers. Mr Kippax's
response was one of thanks to everyone, after which a buffet supper was
served and reminiscences exchanged. Mr and Mrs
Kippax’s retirement begins with a month’s holiday in Ireland after which he
will indulge his hobbies of golf and gardening. He entered the Bank at Halifax in 1921 and served at
many branches in the Leeds District including three spells at Bradford. In
1939 he moved to York and the following year received signing authority at
York Cattle Market branch. He was appointed Manager at Pudsey in 1949.
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The original building used for Pudsey Branch was part of Pudsey
Town Hall, in what was known as the Mechanics Institute. Around 1937/8 these premises were
demolished and Pudsey branch was rebuilt. This is not the end of disruption
at this site, as once in Barclays’ ownership, changes are made which move
the main door and some of the windows of the branch as can be seen below in
our “then and now feature. The 1938 rebuild is covered in this article in
the Yorkshire Observer of 1 July 1938. As some of the image is hard to make
out, we have reproduced the wording as follows:
MARTINS
BANK - New Premises Opened At Pudsey.
Martins Bank at Pudsey is now transacting business in the
new building erected on the sire formerly occupied by the bank at the
corner of Lowtown and Manor House Street. The branch was originally opened in 1898
as an office of the old West Riding Union Banking Co., Ltd., in premises of
the mechanics institute which formed part of the Town Hall. The West Riding Union Banking Co., Ltd.,
was absorbed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank Ltd., in 1902 which in
turn was incorporated with the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd., in 1928
when the name of the bank was changed to Martins Bank Limited. Martins Bank has 575 branches,
some 100 of which are in Yorkshire. It is a member of the London Clearing
House, has separate foreign branches where all descriptions of foreign and
colonial business are transacted, and trustee departments which undertake
all kinds of trustee business. The Pudsey branch is under the control of Mr
W Barbour, manager of Bradford (Tyrrel Street) Branch.
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Image Courtesy British Newspaper Archive, copyright
holder currently unknown.
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