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  WELCOME to Martins Bank
Archive, and to MARTINS
BANK MAGAZINE -
our news feature in honour of the Bank’s staff publication, which from 1946
to 1969 brought news of changing times, new Branches and services and even
new technologies to those working in branches and departments in England
Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. From Drive-In Branches to
computers and the Cash Dispenser, it seems that Martins Bank has it all,
yet on 1 November 1968, it becomes just one more of the Barclays Group of
Companies. This status is maintained only until close of Business on Friday
12 December 1969, as from the following Monday, 730 branches of the bank
will open their doors under the name of Barclays.
It's our birthday!
The collection of around 2000 items that makes up our physical archive
– photographs, publications, signs, badges, printing blocks, leaflets,
computer programs, staff records etc., etc., etc., began in the
pre-internet days of 1988, but our web site – www.martinsbank.co.uk – is SIXTEEN
years old this month. We are
delighted to have been able to bring you the flavour of Martins Bank in its
1960s heyday, to have put people in touch with each other, and help the
Grasshopper Pensioners’ Club to reinvent itself. We must offer a huge and heartfelt
THANKYOU to our website visitors, and to everyone who has helped with
images, comments and donations of physical items to Martins Bank Archive.
We are very proud of the relationships we have with a number of amatuer and
professional Archives, Museums and a wide variety of companies, with whom
we have been share information and images, and we are particularly
delighted that those three words - Martins Bank Archive put us at NUMBER ONE and several more places in the top ten searches on BING®,
as well as in the top three searches on Google®.
Summertime on the road…
 In what must have been a highlight in the annual calendar of many
staff at Martins, the Bank’s fleet of six Mobile Branches is out on the
road throughout the Summer months.
Our front page for July illustrates a selection of events at which
visitors could bank, Managers could “network”, and teams of two spent weeks
on the road, staying between one and five nights in a local hotel. Start with trade stands in the 1930s, and
the introduction of Mobile Branch Caravans in 1948, these forms of banking
were a fixture of agricultural shows right up to the 1990s. You could find a Martins Mobile Bank or
Trade Stand at Scout Jamborees, Dog Shows, even major international shows
like The Boat Show and The Ideal Home Exhibition. The mobile branches were also used as
temporary branches in areas where the Bank was due to open for business in
a permanent site. They were vital
service on two post-war Liverpool Housing Estates, where houses had been
built, but where shops churches schools or banks were yet to be
placed. Trade stands becmae more and
more elaborate, with Martins transporting an entire two storey
pre-fabricated building to shows all over Great Britain. Our MOBILE BRANCHES, OUT
AND ABOUT and TRADE
STANDS sections are rich with images and memories of these
times, and include the Archive’s Graham Nicholls Collection - 35mm
colour slides which really bring the past back to life.
She’s Dotty - but not about banking…
From the end of the second World War, until the early 2000s, it was
quite normal for someone to set out on a career path that  led them all the way to retirement. For many of us even in the 1980s
and 90s, movement from one job to another was seen as detrimental to your
CV, whereas the twenty-first century is all about gaining experience
wherever and whenever you can. The
Martins Bank Staff Database reveals a number of staff, for whom British
branch banking just wasn’t what they wanted. Many went to banks and financial
institutions abroad, others changed direction completely, many of these
following their beliefs in roles within the church. A few used their talents to break into
the worlds of writing, performing or writing music, even careers in
entertainment on radion and television.
Meet Dorothy (“Dotty”) Wayne (pictured, right), who left Harrogate
Grammar School in 1954 to beome a typist at Martins Bank in Harrogate. Within three years, her talents for
singing, whistling, guitar playing, and as a comedian got her noticed, and
she began an astonishingly full career in the world on entertainment. Spotted by impressario Greatrex Newman,
Dorothy joined his “fol-di-rols” performing group, and toured the resorts
of Britain, as well as performing at the famous Windmill Theatre in London.
By the 1960s, she had appeared as a regular guest on The David Nixon Show
on ITV, from ABC Weekend TV’s Didsbury Studios in Manchester, home of
Opportunity Knocks. She went on to
tour the world, working on Cunard Cruise Ships as an entertainter. There
are then countless appearances on Radio and Television, including as host
of a weekly record request spot on the BBC Light Programme. In addition she
was regularly asked to perform in or host variety specials on BBC TV or
Radio. In 1974 she played a
character in an episode of “Are you Being Served”. Undoubtedly a canny
person, Dotty was her own agent, able to pick and choose from what seemed
like a never ending flood of bookings.
Next month, we’ll be looking at another member of Martins’ staff who
left the bank to find fame and fortune elsewhere. The TV show he is famous for is still
being shown today by our friends at Talking Pictures TV…
… and then there were SIX…
 A further closure of a Martins Bank branch slipped by us on 11 April
2025, when Ramsey Isle of Man closed permanently from 12 noon. There are
now only SIX Martins Bank Branches still open. Those of you who lost your
local Barclays branch in recent years will know that a number of banking
options remain following closure – “Barclays Local” involves the Bank
hiring a room in a public building, such as a town hall or library, and
sending a member of staff there for a certain number of hours each week. No
cash services are available, so if you visit your “local” you will need to
be prepared to talk products and services.
Barclays also operates a number of vans and pop-up “banking pods”
where again, if you are not relying on cash for your personal or business
needs, you can talk about banking. A
more universal service is offered by most banks – Barclays included – in
conjunction with the post Office, who run “Banking Hubs”. Here, your bank is likely to offer
attendance for one day each week, with cash services provided by the Post
Office.
Branches opened in 1965…
In the swinging 1960s, banks in all parts of the United Kingdom opened
new branches like there was no tomorrow!
It seems a strange concept indeed to us in the twenty-first century
to think of any bank opening a new branch, but sixty years ago, we were not
quite at the stage where computers would begin to take over in the way that
they eventually did, leaving thousands of bank branches closed, and the use
of cash for everyday transactions significantly diminished. The following Branches were opened in
1965, so why not visit them and marvel, as that most fantastic of all bank
services – the branch – comes to town in so many places!
Important News
about the Martins Bank Staff Database
 We would like to draw your attention to the completion of the first
major phase of the Martins Bank Staff Database. The career details of more than 25,000
member of the Staff of martins Bank Limited, have been put together from
the information published by Martins Bank in its magazine and other
publications, and this has been in the public domain for at least
fifty-five years. It is vital that surviving members of Martins Bank’s
staff have the opportunity to see the career details held for them, and to
understand about how and why the database exists as a social history
resource that seeks to preserve the name of Martins Bank for the interest
of future generations.
Please CLICK
HERE or on the image of
the NEWS RELEASE pictured (left) to
obtain this information, and if, once you have read it, you would like to
receive your career details, please do get in touch with the archive by
email at the following address: martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com. If you are the relative of a deceased
member of the staff and would like to obtain details of their career –
perhaps as part of family tree research, please contact Martins Bank
Archive at the same address.
Banking on trust…
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 Formed from the existing
trustee and investment business of Martins Bank, which dated back to 1908
when the Bank of Liverpool first opened a trustee department, Martins
Bank Trust Company Limited brought together a number of servies which had
been key earners for the bank in the various parts of the country where
there was either a Trustee Office, an Income Tax Department, or both.
By the late 1960s,
notwithstanding the search for another bank with with to merge, Martins
Bank aquired a number of smaller specialist companies as subsidiaries,
each of which specialised in financial services, that would enable the
Bank to spread its interests, provide a more comprehensive offering to
the customer AND
that
would profit the Bank, by retaining those customers might have gone
elsewhere for these services.
Thanks to the Denis
Maxwell Collection, our Archive now has insight into these companies, as
well as the merger processes that began as early as 1961 and continued on
and off until the merger with Barclays.
When you visit our TRUSTEE AND INVESTMENT SERVICES feature page, you will
now find more detailed information than we have previously offered for
the following:
·
Dillon Walker
& Co
·
Griffin Assurance
·
Martins
Unicorn
·
Martins Bank (Finance)
Limited
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