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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 NEWSLETTER |
AUTUMN/WINTER 2019 NEWSLETTER |
SPRING/SUMMER 2019 NEWSLETTER |
AUTUMN/WINTER 2018 NEWSLETTER |
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On 1 November 1968 Martins
Bank Limited becomes one of the Barclays Group of Companies – a status
maintained until close of Business on Friday 12 December 1969. The following Monday, 730 branches of the
bank will open their doors under the name of Barclays. As we find ourselves in times tinged with
the sadness of the closure of hundreds of Bank Branches, including those that
are former Martins Bank Branches, we
really do appreciate the continued
support of our ever increasing band of loyal visitors and contributors. There are now fewer than 80 Branches of
Martins Bank still open, and to mark their passing, our Branch Watch feature
now includes a separate page featuring details of THE LAST 72 BRANCHES . Our most recent news
stories are shown below, and you can catch up with some previous stories
in-depth, by downloading our half-yearly Newsletters (see above). Don’t forget to visit our sister site -
Lewis’s Bank Archive - which tells the story of Britain’s department store
bank for the nine years that it was a subsidiary of Martins Bank. Click HERE to
visit the Lewis’s Bank Archive web site (opens in a new window).
From World War to Pandemic…
Much of the World is still
working round the clock to beat the effects of the Covid 19 virus, and to
bring it under some kind of control. We wish good health and happiness
The First World War brings us
stories of courage and promotion, a member of staff wounded but safe in
hospital, and the sadness and poignancy of a letter of condolence following
the loss of a young soldier. From records of the Second World War, we look
again at the key role played by the Bank in looking after some of Britain’s
reserves of gold, and we look at two patriotic advertisements for the Bank,
aimed at re-starting trade with the rest of the World. We take a trip to the Lake District where a
very special building is equipped as a kind of “haven” for staff who need a
break from the horrors of war – the Ambleside Rest House, an asset prized by
Staff and their families. Using information
held within the Martins Bank Staff Database, we examine the Bank’s decision
to employ a large number of its female staff to be Managers (in all but name)
of Branches whilst the male staff were away fighting for King and
Country. We look at the Branches which
were damaged, or destroyed by enemy acgtion, including the devastation at
Exeter – a branch that had only been open for three years – bombed in the
infamous Baedecker Air Raids of April 1942. We meet a polymath with a
top-secret role, and glimpse the Bank’s preparations for “business as
usual”. We pause to reflect on the
efforts of some who worked for, or fought and died to create, a better future
for us all, and finally as the World picks up the pieces, the Bank looks to a
new future and the prospect of the 1948 London Olympic Games. Click on the image shown here (right) to
read and/or download the newsletter.
I liked the Bank so much, I bought it!
Treasure trove!
“I
am using the spare time I have at the moment to go through old paperwork and came
across these old photos belonging to my late Dad. The two photos are of the
house he grew up in. All of the four people in the photos are my family. The
young man on the left in uniform is Ben Wilson, my nana's younger brother. He
went off to the Far East to fight eventually. In the middle is Fred Wilson,
my great granddad alongside his wife Ellen Wilson (nee Woodend). He fought in
the Great War and was in the Home Guard in WWII. My mother remembers it was Mrs Wilson who
looked after the sub Branch, and that Fred Wilson was the village cobbler.
She says that Ellen used to sit at a table with a ledger, doing the books at
No 2 Herschell Terrace, Kirkby in Furness, Lancashire (now Cumbria). The toddler in the bottom right corner is
my dad, Fred Brown. He was born in 1939, so I would guess this photo was
taken in 1941. They all lived in the one small house, which was also a bank!
I can remember visiting this house to visit my nanna and great grandparents.
The house was just a house at this stage (late 1960s). The smaller sign was
still there when my nana moved out in the 70s, but has since disappeared.”
Another mystery to solve…
Signing Off in Style…
We never cease to be amazed
at the lengths of service that some Martins Bank employees achieved. Even by
1969 some were retiring with more than FORTY-FIVE years under their belt. One
or two even achieved FIFTY or more years.
In recent decades we have become used to people in the workplace being
“portable” – that is they take their skills from job to job, staying for a
few years before moving on, building their knowledge and experience
accordingly. Martins Bank employees
however, really knew the meaning of “a job for life”. The Archive holds a number of the special
retirement souvenir books that were given to some colleagues when they hung
up their banking clothes for the last time.
Typically, these books are specially bound and great trouble was taken
to show the love and respect colleagues had for one another.
Inside, the pages are filled
with the autographs of just about everyone that the retiring colleague worked
with during a long career. It seems something
of a lost opportunity, that messages and memories were not also recorded
alongside the signatures. Perhaps with
the Bank’s mantra of “going to extremes” in mind, one book even has everyone
signing in ALPHABETICAL ORDER! What
makes these retirement books of extra interest to the Archive, is that they
provide the opportunity to enrich the detail held in the Martins Bank Staff
Database. Many of the autographs include forenames, and this is especially
good news for records of the female staff, for whom we are always working
hard to find information about their careers in order to produce a more
meaningful career summary. Once again
it is the attention to detail inherant in Martins Bank’s Staff which has
yielded dividends today for those who want to research the lives and careers
of relatives who worked for the bank.
Martins Staff Databasa is not held online. If you would like details
of your own career, or that of a relative, please contact Martins Bank
Archive at the usual address – gutinfo@btinternet.com
.
More Branch closures… Of the forty-four branch
closure announced by Barclays up to 28 Feb 2020, SIX are Martins Branches,
and will disappear from the high street between mid-April and mid-June. Those
deemed no longer viable are LIVERPOOL Speke and hunts Cross, closing 17 April, MORECAMBE Euston Road, 7 May, CLECKHEATON and also HYDE on 29 May, BRIGHOUSE on 5 June and HALIFAX King Cross on 12 June. As ever, our thanks go to those members of
the staff of Martins and Barclays Banks past and present, who have served
these communities down the years.
Buyer Beware… We have left the following article here once again for reference, to
help explain the position regarding the theft of copyrighted images for the
purposes of re-sale. There is a common misconception that if you
can Google an image, then it is “in the public domain” and you can do what
you want with it. Even some staff at eBay® believed this until they were
recently put right – if you take or
copy someone else’s work or property without their permission or
acknowledgement, and sell it on to
make even a penny out of it, this is breach of copyright, and the real
owner can take legal recourse to stop further theft and misuse of their
property. There are currently on eBay® a number of listings
of photographs for sale, showing scenes from the past and old buildings
including these four (and many more) Branches of Martins Bank. These images originated on our web site. As you can see, under our agreement with
the owner, we prominently display copyright. These images have been copied
and printed onto cheap photographic paper. The seller even has the gall to
add their own watermark to the displayed images to prevent others from
stealing them!!!
As well as
being against copyright law, these items are worthless, having little more
than sentimental value – you will often find that collections and archives
will make images available free of charge for private use, but you MUST check
with them first. You should always check the seller’s right to copy the image
– reputable sites such as eBay® do now allow you to report copyright
infringement. For ANY item of memorabilia, the best thing to do is shop
around and compare prices – in the case of Martins Bank there are often up to
twenty different items for sale on eBay® alone on any given day. For printed
material which looks as if it has been copied, or actually claims to be a
copy, ALWAYS question the seller about copyright.
Best Regards, Jonathan. Westmorland, Thursday 30 April
2020
WHILST
MARTINS BANK ARCHIVE HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE DAY TO DAY TRADING ACTIVITIES
OF THE BARCLAYS
GROUP OF COMPANIES, WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE CONTINUED GENEROUS GUIDANCE,
ADVICE AND SUPPORT OF BARCLAYS GROUP ARCHIVES IN THE BUILDING AND SHAPING OF THIS ONLINE SOCIAL HISTORY.
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