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 It’s 1964 and the times they are already a-changin’ in the
centre of Birmingham, where the now tired Jamaica Row and Markets areas of
the City is bulldozed to make way for the (in)famous Bull Ring Centre. Martins Bank’s Birmingham Markets Branch at
72 Jamaica Row is demolished, and the business is relocated to the new
Smithfield House. From now on this
office will be known as Digbeth Branch, and its new home at Nos 24/28
Digbeth is a branch to be proud of. Numbering amongst the larger and more
modern offices of Martins Bank, Digbeth has a spacious interior which is just
the right place to transact business in the swinging sixties The theme of
Martins Bank’s 1960s new branches, rebuilds and refurbishements, is space and
light - a real departure from the dark wood panelling and the oppresive
atmosphere of the more tradional banking halls… Coupled with this, Martins
staff will of course always go to extremes
to be helpful, but at Digbeth, one member of staff in particular literally does
go that extra mile…
sp2
This is Gloria Dourass, secretary at Digbeth. Quiet, skilled and efficient, she works
away at her typewriter as do secretaries in Martins’ branches up and down the
land.
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In Service: Monday 13 April 1964 until Friday 12 November 1976
Images © Barclays Ref 0030-0212
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Gloria is not, however, all she appears to
be. It would not be an exaggeration to
mention that she is WORLD FAMOUS in a
particular “field”(!) This is all is down to something special that she does
in competition with others from around the globe. Is is shorthand? Is it filing? No, not even we would be so sexist.
Put simply and accurately, Gloria is:
  . .
. but in the nicest possible way, and quite unspoilt by her successes and the
attendant publicity: that is Gloria Dourass. When at the age of nineteen she travelled to Motspur Park
in 1964 for the second year and helped the Bank to win the Ladies'
Championship she twice equalled the I.B.A.A. Ladies' 100 yards record and set
up a new record for the 220 yards. Until then few people outside the world of
athletics had heard of this slim, dark girl from Digbeth branch, but in our
Autumn issue that year the Midland District news said she had been making
headlines in Midlands athletics that summer. She won the Warwickshire women's 440 yards
championship in a time of 58.1 seconds,
later becoming the Midland women s 400 metres champion. Recently at an inter-club meeting in Birmingham she
set up a new Midland women's record in the 440 yards with a time 'of 57.1 seconds. Since then her successes
have continued - Warwickshire quarter-mile champion,
Midland 400 metres champion, and with the English team in Berlin last year.
This year she added the Welsh 440 yards championship to her Warwickshire
title with a new record and was one of four girls who represented Wales at
the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, where she reached the
semi-final of the 220 yards and in the final of the 440 yards ranked 8th in
the Commonwealth with a time of 55.5 seconds. With her team she achieved 5th
place in the 4x 110 yards relay, a considerable triumph for a small nation. Why Wales? The answer is nationality. Gloria's mother is
Welsh, coming to Birmingham from South Wales in the depression of the 1930's,
and later marrying Sidney Dourass. It is a strange quirk of fate that
Gloria's grandfather who left Wales to find work in Birmingham for his
family's sake now has a granddaughter of whom Wales is proud. Gloria might never have become an athlete but for her
lively mother and her eminently sensible father who decided, as other wise
parents have done, that children are better employed doing than watching.
 Sidney
Dourass had always been interested in young people and in sport of all kinds:
feeling that  Gloria
might take to athletics he took her along at the age of nine to an athletics
club to see what they'd say. They advised him to take her to Small Heath
Harriers and she has been with them ever since. At first she played about and
her school friends came too; she practised, listened, became absorbed, and
won some school events. When she was seventeen John Walker, the Small Heath
coach, told Mr Dourass that he would like to train his promising daughter and
Mr Dourass agreed. John Walker trained Gloria hard for two years, and then
sent her out to win the Warwickshire 440 yards championship in 58.1 seconds - the fifth best time in the country. In athletics one can train and become good;
one can train with dedication and become very good, or one can persist in
training until at times everything screams for relief. That way one becomes a
champion.
  With fleetness of foot, normal fitness
and a few practice sprints one might not be disgraced over 100 or even 220
yards but more is needed for the quarter mile which, as a sprint, has been
termed a killer race. Gloria's training
continues throughout the year in all weathers. In winter there are cross
country runs and races, and 660 yards 'repetitions' - perhaps five in one evening - interspersed
with walks and jogs; there are 3 to 6 miles of roadwork, accelerations and
decelerations, sprints, hill work and weight training. In summer there are
timed sprints from 4 x 110 to 3 x 330
yards, and starts over 60 yards. She stops all training for one or perhaps
two evenings before an event, but for really testing competition she often
has to practise against the men in her club. She
tries to give herself one evening off each week, eats everything, puts on a
little weight in winter and loses it without difficulty in the spring to
scale about eight stone eight and, except at weekends, is in bed by 10
o'clock every night without any prompting.
 In addition to this there is
her job as manager's secretary at Digbeth branch. Before asking 'Is it worth it?' we should remember that
Gloria Dourass has found something at which she excels and is thus in a very
different position from those who have not. To excel she has had to give up a
lot of the fun which girls of her age enjoy. The strain of keeping at peak
fitness in and out of season has been eased by the help and understanding of
her parents, the co-operation and goodwill of her colleagues, and the
attitude of a Bank which goes to extremes to be helpful. All these things she
knows and appreciates, but there must be occasions when she would like to
feel that she didn't have to drive herself so. She is young, full of life,
and is a thoroughly happy person. She may have another two or three years
before she reaches her peak but neither she nor anybody else can be certain.
Were she to stop now she would never
know what she was really capable of achieving and might then have to live
with regrets. By continuing she might reach greater heights - might even become a successful half-miler -
or find she was not as good as before. Speaking as
one of her many friends we hope she will continue, not for the honour and
glory of herself, her club or the Bank, but because she epitomises what so
many of us would like to be but never will be - successful but modest, determined but
considerate, dedicated but human, and a credit to far-sighted parents. We have a feeling
this won't be decided by her parents or by her friends. One day a young man
who also happens to be a quarter-miler is going to say That's enough. Now
we'll get married!', and when that time comes it will be the right time. He
will know it and so will she and all her friends will be sorry and glad.
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When it’s
all still “shiny and new”…
The newspaper feature and advertisement for the
new Branch of Martins Bank at Digbeth, appears on the day the Branch first
opens its doors – 13 April 1964 – in the Birmingham Daily Post. As it is
fairly difficult to make out some of the words in this original copy, we have
provided below a synopsis of the main body of the article as it relates to
the Bank’s moving to Digbeth from its former Branch at Jamaica row, which is
only a few yards away. The article, (reproduced here by courtesy of our
friends at the British Newspaper Archive), also provides us with a brief
profile of Mr C A Brockbank, first manager at Digbeth Branch…
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{BECAUSE
of a considerable increase in business at the Jamaica Row, Birmingham, branch of Martins Bank, the
branch has been transferred to larger, modern premises at 24-28 Digbeth,
only a few yards away. These new premises open for business for the first
time today. The Jamaica Row site where Martins opened a branch in 1936 will
ultimately be taken over as part of the Corporation's development scheme
for that area. Mr W E Turnbull. District General Manager of Martins Bank,
said “We are bursting at the seams in the old premise and much in need of
larger and better accommodation in the area – particularly with the growing
number of professional industrial and commercial account the branch is
handling. The signs are that this growth is gathering momentum.”
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Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections
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NEW CONCEPTS
The manager of the Jamaica Row
branch for the past 2˝ years, Mr J B Cullen, is taking up an appointment with
the Bank in Manchester. New manager at Digbeth 39 year-old Liverpool born Mr
C. A. Brockbank who has been transferred from the Bank’s South Western
District office in Bristol. Traditional concepts of what a bank should look
like have been discarded in the construction of the new branch It provides a
good example of the new styles of architecture which the Bank is encouraging.
SIMPLE LINES
 Gone are the lofty pillars, plain stone floors and cold
clinical lines traditionally associated with banking. Gone also are the plain dark-stained
mahogany and austere furnishings. An official of the Bank said: “While a bank
must obviously look business-like and be defined along simple dignified
lines, it needs something else nowadays—atmosphere. We set out to give a branch brightness and
warmth as well as efficiency in our planning of new premises. Martins Bank
has leased the whole of the frontage, ground floor, and part of the basement
of the building housing the Digbeth branch. The interior has been completely
reconstructed, and customers transferring from Jamaica Row will notice not
simply a considerable increase in size but a much more attractive banking
hall. Entrance is by way of a wide plate glass door leading into a
generous-sized lobby. The only barrier
between this lobby and the banking hall is a glass screen and clear glass
swing doors over which is a concealed louvred duct pumping down hot air—preventing
draughts even when the doors are left open. Within the public space an
unusual slatted ceiling has been constructed out of 20ft-long strips of rich
Oregon pine This ceiling is completely isolated from the walls by a deep
recess in which is concealed strip lighting, The main wall and counter are
faced with Indian laurel hardwood, The floor and 14in high skirting consist
of marble slabs.
NEAT FURNITURE
 Beyond
the counter the staff work in bright clean surroundings with white walls,
fluorescent lighting and neat furniture sited for space and ease of
movement. A well-lit machine room,
though effectively screened from the public space is immediately adjacent to
the banking hall. Other up to date
features include a 22ft-long warm air curtain spread across the public space
allowing adequate warmth without the stagnant feeling often associated with
conventional central heating. In the
waiting room and manager’s office electric lighting is from specially-shaped
recessed reflectors which give a wider spread of light than conventional
recessed lights. Staff rooms have been decorated in relaxing pastel and olive
greens with furniture to match. An orange-coloured plastic material often
used today for upholstery, has been applied to a corridor wall, providing a
colourful hard wearing surface. Loose fittings and general furniture have
been designed or chosen to blend with the overall design in matching
hardwood. Even the customers' ashtrays
and wastepaper baskets and the clerks' blotters have been specially selected.
Passers-by may be intrigued by the shield on the end of the building facing
downhill. It depicts two creatures—one
a grasshopper, which has long been the Bank’s emblem, and the other the
legendary Liver bird which tells of the association with the Bank of
Liverpool. The bird has a piece of seaweed in its mouth signifying the
connection with the sea.
665 BRANCHES
The Digbeth branch is the latest
step in a national expansion programme being carried out by Martins Bank
which has a total of 665 branches throughout the country. The programme
involves both the opening of new branches and the reconstruction of existing
premises. Architects in charge of the fitting out of the branch were Messrs
Essex, Goodman and Suggitt of Birmingham, who also designed Martins’ recently
opened Sutton Coldfield branch. Main
contractor was J. & W Malley Ltd.
THE MANAGER ENGINEER
 Besides
being the new manager of Martins Bank's branch at Digbeth, Mr. Christopher A
Brockbank is also a qualified engineer.
He is a graduate of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This qualification was acquired during his
service career with the Royal Navy. He was commissioned and served as an air
engineer officer with maintenance units and squadrons in Britain and Ceylon
during the war. Mr. Brockbank, who is
married and has two sons, joined Martins Bank in 1941 in Liver pool. For the past four years he has been an
inspector at the Bank’s South Western District Office in Bristol. He represented Martins Bank at the
International Banking Summer School in Holland in 1960. He finds his
engineering training invaluable as a banker. “It gives me a chance to talk to
industrial and commercial customers, on their own terms and a better insight
into their problems”, he says.
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 Having read of the optimism of the new Digbeth
Branch in 1964, with its sleek modern lines and the use of finest
construction techniques and materials, it makes this particular “Then and
now” feature that bit more sad to see how the building looked in 2015…
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Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0212
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Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Keith Mason
2015
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News
Images and Text (excluding advertisement) © Trinity Mirror/Findmypast. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH
LIBRARY BOARD.
Image
reproduced with kind permission of The
British Newspaper Archive
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