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Bacup is an original branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Bank and is not alone in having a church-like appearance – many outlets
inherited by Martins Bank are built on a grand scale, even the
sub-Branches. This harks back to the
days when a bank was a place to feel in awe, as well as somewhere that needed
to look safe and secure.
Bacup is, alphabetically at least, first on the list of
closures scheduled by the 1969 merger with Barclays, and remains open as
Martins Bank until 16 February 1970. The following visit by Martins Bank
Magazine to Bacup in 1951 sadly omits a listing of names from the group
photograph. However, we have identified
as many as we can, and put them into our staff gallery at the end of this
page.
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In Service: February 1876 until 16 February 1970
Image © Barclays
c.1950
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The image of Bacup shown below dates from 1922, Bacup’s
Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank days, and is courtesy of the W N Townson
Bequest.
 We
had to visit Rossendale to be told of the origin of the carpet slipper. This
is where felt is made, as many of our readers know, and to prevent the heels
of their footwear from making impressions in the felt when it was necessary
for them to clamber over the bales the workers used to bind strips of it
round their shoes. It was not long before they discovered that it kept their
feet warm and then one man devised a felt shoe. This was all right except
that it wore through quickly and so a means was invented of fixing a sole and
so comfortable was the resulting shoe that the man-made pairs for his family.
From this small beginning grew the slipper industry which today is one of the
characteristic occupations of the Valley. Bacup is at the head of the Valley
and as it takes rather a long time to reach it by train Manchester District
Office arranged for us to go by car, with Mr. Southworth to guide us on this
occasion, January 25th. Mr. H. Maden has been
Manager of our branch there since August 1946 and his previous service has all
been spent in the district, at Waterfoot, Bacup and Rawtenstall. He served
with H.M. Forces from 1942 to. 1945. His daughter Barbara is on the staff of
our St. James' Street branch, Burnley.
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
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 The
branch itself is somewhat ecclesiastical in appearance, with pointed windows,
alcoves and niches, and if Mr. Maden had received us in his little office in
clerical garb it would not have seemed at all out of place, so strongly is
his little sanctum reminiscent of a vestry. Our conversation
with Mr. F. Rudman was somewhat scrappy owing to the demands of the counter.
He is a veteran of the 1914-18 War and nearly all his service has been spent
in the Valley. S. Walker was ill on the day
of our visit and so we missed seeing him. He served in the Navy during the
last War and has spent his time since his entry into the Bank in 1925 in
Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Rochdale and Burnley, going to Bacup last year.
We were delighted to meet two members of our 1949
Swiss Tour in Miss E. M. Law and Miss K. Hallsworth and seized the
opportunity to have a very pleasant talk about that very happy time. Miss
Law, who acted as Clerk-in-Charge of our Stacksteads branch during the war,
has already had her photograph in the Magazine in that connection. She has
been with us since 1933: Miss Hallsworth since 1941.
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