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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 NEWSLETTER |
AUTUMN/WINTER 2018 NEWSLETTER |
SPRING/SUMMER 2019 NEWSLETTER |
Contributors’ Special 2019 NEWSLETTER |
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From Drive-In Branches to
computerisation and the birth of the Cash Dispenser, it seems Martins Bank
has it all. 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 101 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).
One thing leads to another…
Recently Derek
has been reading the autobiography of author, journalist and broadcaster,
Hunter Davies OBE.
Mr Davies spent much of his youth in the Carlisle area, where one of
his contemporaries was Ian Johnstone, son of Mr J A P Johnstone one of
Martins Bank’s most respected Managers in Carlisle. In the early 1960s, Ian Johnstone
emigrated to New Zealand where today he is one of that country’s most
respected broadcasters. In the pages of Hunter Davies’ autobiography,
reference is made to Ian’s father being Manager of Martins sub Branch at
STANWIX – this is the first time we have come across mention of this office,
apart from within official Martins Bank records. Naturally, we wanted to
contact the publisher of the autobiography to ask if we might quote the
relevant passage, and we currently await their response.
At the same
time we contacted Radio New Zealand International to ask if Ian had any photographs
from his father’s time with Martins Bank.
When the reply came, it was not from New Zealand, but Alberta CANADA,
where another of Mr J A P Johnstone’s sons, Andrew lives. Amongst several
photographs of his father, was the image of him standing outside a sub branch
of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins.
The carving above the door reads “WHIN VIEW” and a quick search on
Google® revealed Whin View to be a house in DALSTON, also near
Carlisle.
By now you
might need to pause for breath, but to summarise the situation would be to
say that we are now in the happy position of having confirmation of the
existence of TWO former sub Branches of the Bank, both of which were closed
many years before the merger of Martins and Barclays. The photograph of
Dalston is likely to be the only one in existence, and had it not been for
Derek Longden’s original email in reference to another Carlisle sub Branch,
this curious trip around the World would not have happened!
A special “contributors” edition of our newsletter, out now… The scanning
and sorting of staff records data for the Martins Staff Database has taken
around ten years to complete, and that
News for family tree researchers…
We are always
looking for head and shoulders photographs of staff as they were when they
worked for the Bank. Martins tended to publish mainly photographs of the MALE
staff, and we would like to redress the balance by being able to add images
of female staff members to the staff galleries which are shown at the bottom
of nearly all of our Branch Pages here within our Online Archive. Also - if you are the relative of a member
of staff who is no longer with us, and you would like to send us a photo to
be placed on each relevant Branch or Departmental page of our web site, then
please do get in touch with us at the usual address gutinfo@btinternet.com. It was the Staff that made Martins Bank so
special and fondly remembered, and the more faces we can add, the stronger
the collective memory will become. Pictured here
is Jean Stapleton, South Western District Relief staff. 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, Friday 31ST May 2019
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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