11-23-50 Liverpool Kirkby and Croxteth Mobile Branch

Martins Bank’s Mobile Branch caravans are well known in England and Wales, having put in numerous appearances at up to 80 shows and events each year since 1948. But they are also of great use to the Bank when a new branch is being built, or an existing one is being renovated.

Martins can often gain from an extra six months’ or so valuable exposure in areas where they are about to open. In 1957 the Bank pitches up three days a week in both Kirkby and Croxteth, and stays for nearly FOUR years! The Service is officially known as Kirkby and Croxteth Mobile Branch.

In Service: 16 September 1957 until 27 July 1961

Image © Barclays Group Archives Collections

Whilst in 1961 a permanent branch is opened at Cherryfield Drive in Kirkby, the Bank does not establish a Branch at Croxteth. Friend of the Archive Sir Brian Pearse was, in 1957, one of the staff chosen to help run the mobile service on these housing estates. We asked him to recall for us how the service came about, and what it was like in practice…

{During the war, large parts of central Liverpool were bombed. Very many houses were old anyway and few had inside toilets and so it was decided to build new towns in Kirkby and Croxteth. The remnants of the houses in Liverpool were demolished. Huge numbers of houses were built and also schools and, surprisingly, churches but hardly any shops. Martins decided that a mobile service was the answer until permanent branches could be built and so we started the Kirkby and Croxteth arrangement, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in Kirkby and afternoons in Croxteth. Platforms were built on both sites with appropriate notices. “Head Office” for us was Clubmoor Branch and with a clerk (Tom Gilkes who now lives near me) and a driver, we commenced operations. The police had a sweepstake to see who could guess the date when we would be raided but that never happened.

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collection

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I then moved to Liverpool District Office, and over the next couple of years, Kirkby branch was opened and both services were withdrawn. As far as I can recollect, we did not open a branch in Croxteth. When the driver was on holiday, I had to drive the vehicle which frightened the life out of me!}