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Closing a noticable
gap…
 Bromborough sub-Branch has been converted from a café,
and opens for banking business in 1963. Unfortunately it can only manage to
go to extremes to be helpful until the merger with Barclays when the business
is transferred to an existing Branch, just a few doors away.
The merger bring casualties to BOTH sides, and a number of Barclays Branches are closed
permanently in favour of a Martins counterpart being newer, or perhaps
larger, or generally having a greater potential for the percieved future
business of the combined Bank.
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In Service: 1963 to 12 December 1969
Branch Images ©
Barclays Ref 0030-0438
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As a self accounting sub-Branch
to Ellesmere Port, Bromborough is likely to have been a busy little branch,
and it was opened for the full six day banking week. Back in 1963, the doors
have hardly been open five minutes (well, five DAYS actually)
before Martins Bank Magazine pops in for a visit, and they are full of praise
for the work done by the Bank’s Architect Mr Silcock. It is his job to
produce new and enticing looking branches in the 1960s. The branch also
reflects a well used device of the Bank of Liverpool – the choice of a
property with a corner aspect. This rather cleverly gives your business a
presence in two streets at once!
 Visiting
a new branch five days after its opening may constitute a record but this was
not in our minds when an optimistic weather man, encouraged no doubt by a
fitful sun, forecast a slow thaw. Although sceptical, we set forth for
Bromborough in conditions which did nothing to encourage local residents to
try their new bank. Only the buses ploughed relentlessly back and forth:
those cars which had to stop in the village sought to halt on level surfaces
or downhill gradients to ensure a reasonable take-off, and housewives were
plainly confining their activities strictly to unavoidable shopping sorties. Yet the welcome in
the branch would have warmed any caller and we were pleased to find Mr. R. W.
Nuttall, the Clerk-in-Charge, optimistic about the premises and the business
potential.
 The new
office, though temporary, is sited centrally at The Cross in a former cafe
and the conversion, for which the Bank's architect, Mr. D. D. J. Silcock,
deserves praise, has been very well done. Bromborough, though largely a
dormitory area to-day, still retains much of the village atmosphere and
towards the Mersey there is considerable industrial development. The new branch
closes a noticeable gap between those on the fringes of Birkenhead and
Ellesmere Port. Mr. Nuttall has valuable
experience on which to draw and those who use the new branch will get good
service. He began his career at Sale branch and apart from war service with
the Fleet Air Arm, worked in Manchester District branches until going to
Nantwich as second in command in 1953. He attended the Domestic Training
Scheme in 1957/8 and joined the visiting inspection staff in January 1959. In
his spare time he still enjoys flying, when he can, despite an unpleasant
experience five years ago when he landed a plane in the south of France on
one wheel but without any damage.
 Mr.
Brian Woods, who will take charge in Mr. Nuttall's absences, is a happy choice
for the new office, having a natural ability to get on with people. He entered the Bank in 1946 and all his experience has
been gained in the Liverpool District: before going to Bromborough he was on
securities and overseas work at East branch. Many will remember his father,
Mr. W. R. Woods, as Assistant Manager in Liverpool City Office and now in
retirement. The third member of the staff,
Mr. David L. Irving, joined us at Claughton Village branch in October after a
year at Oxford University. He attended a cashier's course and had machine
instruction immediately before going to Bromborough, all of which might have
induced a state of mental indigestion, but it was encouraging to find his
thoughts a long way ahead of the position he occupies at present. We were loath to leave this cheerful office for the
skating rink outside and we wish them well.
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