11-25-80 Bootle Derby Road

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At the time of Martins Bank Magazine’s visit to the Bank’s four Bootle branches in 1964, 325 Derby Road - the first of the four to have been opened by the Bank of Liverpool in 1884 – is still a full branch. The remaining Bootle Branches were opened in this order: 211 Stanley Road , then Linacre, and finally 99 Stanley Road. We have divided the Martins Bank Magazine’s Summer 1964 article into four parts, in order to provide information about each of these branches, within their own pages of the Online Archive, and at Derby Road we find out quite a lot about the branch, and about the number of different trades practised in the area…

In Service: 1 May 1884 until 25 November 1983

1950 s Bootle 325 Derby Road Exterior BGA Ref 30-313

Image © Barclays Ref 0030/0313

1964 02 MBM.jpg Bootle has docks along its entire waterfront: behind, it has warehouses, timber yards, sidings, smoke and a great big smile. It has a General Hospital, parks, dingy streets, wide thoroughfares, pubs galore, an Art Gallery, and a Technical College where some of our best girls come from. Bootle does everything for ships, besides making bread and metal windows, cattle food and cables, pick-up balers and paint. It dyes clothes, tans leather and has a Merseyside accent.

For a long time Bootle was to Merseyside what Wigan Pier and mothers-in-law were to stage comics. But by the end of the 1941 blitz 8,000 of Bootle's 17,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged and a further 8,000 suffered in some way. 20,000 people were made homeless, another 20,000 were evacuated in 3½ hours, and over 2,000 were killed or injured; acres of property were laid waste, the main roads were blocked and all services were severed. People who remember these things don't laugh at Bootle any more— they laugh with it, for Bootle is quite happy to laugh at itself.

If you mention that an 18th century writer described Bootle as 'a wild place and roads execrable' your local man will reply 'What's wrong wit der roads? A bit crowded. But dere arl right!' And if you should recall that early in the 19th century Bootle was a fashionable resort 'with sands hard and smooth, the wind cool and refreshing, where old and young, agile and infirm, plunge together in the sea and exhibit a scene marked with cheerfulness and simplicity' cold eyes would be fixed on you and with awful finality would come the blunt statement : 'Well, you've 'ad DAT!'

Bootle has been a township since 1868 and the motto on its Coat of Arms reads Respice, Aspics, Prospice: 'Reflect on the past, consider the present, provide for the future'. Bootle seems to be doing all these things. To reflect on the past, the Bank of Liverpool opened its first Bootle branch at 325 Derby Road on May 1st 1884 and, despite the rather discouraging but simple statement reproduced above, the branch made a profit in its second year. Considering the present, Bootle branch stands opposite a side street leading directly down to the docks and, as an illustration of the maintenance problems in the area, it was repainted internally eight months ago and it is now necessary to have the paintwork washed down. Mr A. S. Jopling, the Manager, is the son of the late Mr W. E. Jopling, the first Staff Manager of the Bank.

1950 s Bootle 325 Derby Road Interior BGA Ref 30-313

Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0313

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections



*Mr R J Lees* *Joined the Bank Here* *1923 to 1931*	*Miss I M Scott* *On the Staff* *1964*	*Mr A S Jopling* *Manager* *1964*	*Miss L J Cook* *On the Staff* *1964*	*Mr J C Stockdale* *On the Staff* *1964*	*Mr J T McKenna* *On the Staff* *1964*



*Mr J D Birkett* *On the Staff* *1964*	*Mr C D Skelton* *Clerk in Charge* *1965 to 1967*	*Mr H V Bateson* *Manager* *1969 onwards*