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Like so many of the branch
buildings inherited by Martins Bank, this one at Batley is indeed a most grand
affair, endowed with the sort of ecclesiastical look that is so very popular
with so many of the Banks of the late 1800s.
It is 1876, and still some twenty-six years before the absorption of
the West Riding Union Bank by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. At this time
the West Riding Union Bank has been trading well, building up good reserves
and surplus funds sufficient to be able to build a number of new branches,
and a brand-new office of the West Riding Union Bank is built at Hick Lane,
Batley. It speaks volumes, and serves
as a good lesson to today’s banks and governments, that the West Riding Union
puts money aside for the bad times.
Most Banks will have “reserves” and contingency monies, but many overstretch
themselves financially, hence the constant round of mergers and amalgamations
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries. In 1878 a large number of
local businesses founder and the West Riding Union Bank is actually able to
absorb the losses incurred from its own resources. There are ample funds with
which to do this, and it would seem that the phrase credit crunch has yet to
be coined in this very canny part of Yorkshire! For our somewhat short Batley feature, we
wind forward to 1966, when Martins Bank Magazine bids farewell to Mr Slater,
who has managed Batley Branch for some eighteen years… |
In Service: 1876 until September 1998 Branch Images © Barclays
Ref 0030-0129 |
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The informal presentation to Mr Slater
of a table lamp and a cheque with the best wishes of past and present
colleagues and friends marked his retirement as Manager of Batley Branch at
the end of August. His career began in Leeds in 1923
but from 1934 he had worked in the Manchester District. Apart from four years in H M Forces he had
been Clerk in Charge at Manchester Fallowfield Branch from 1936 to 1948 when
he was appointed Manager at Batley. |
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Just occasionally we can bring you images of a Branch as it
looked under THREE separate owners. Thanks to W N
Townson Bequest and Barclays’ Branch Photographs, we can see that very little
changes over the years at this lovely little building… |
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1922 – Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank… Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections – W N Townson |
1940 – Martins Bank Limited… Image
© Barclays - Ref 0030-0129 |
1970 – Barclays Bank Limited… Image
© Barclays - Ref 0030-0129 |
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