|
 
A
branch with several lives…
Messrs
Wakefield Crewdson’s Kendal Bank opens a Branch in Carnforth in 1887 at 30
Market Street. There seems to have been a period of itchy feet, and a change
of owner, before the Bank of Liverpool finally settles on No 3 Market Street
in 1907, but even then, future expansion is on the cards. Our first image is
wonderfully evocative, showing the branch in 1936, with a poster that reminds
customers of the forthcoming August Bank Holiday. This image is a rare
enlarged and framed photograph from the Barclays collection, which was saved
when Carnforth was closed for good in October 2022.
 In each of the windows is a
promotion for Martins Bank’s Home Safes, with the slogan: “For The Odd Coins
That Do Not Usually Find Their Way Into The Bank Account”!
Compare and
contrast with the second view of the Branch (right), and you will find some
familiar aspects remain along with a smarter and cleaner “shop front”. Later
on this page we look at advertising copy from some of the local companies who
were contracted to effect this facelift at Carnforth…
Carnforth’s enduring claim to fame is the
starring role played by its railway station in the 1945 classic film, ‘Brief
Encounter’. Since then the station
itself has gone through several different phases, including a post-Beeching
ugly stage, and thankfully a twenty-first century handsome stage, whereby
period features have been restored, and you can even take afternoon tea in
the very café seen in the film. Even without many of the brutalist structures
and fashionable fads of the swinging sixties, some things do seem to have
changed forever.
Nowadays if wanting to travel North
from Carnforth to Kendal by electric train, you must first go south to
Lancaster by diesel, change trains and go back the way you came to pass
through Carnforth and head North to Oxenholme where you change again to
go to Kendal! No doubt modern PR would
hail this as a great service to customers…
Just like MORECAMBE, Martins Bank’s Branch at Carnforth bears a
similar, but smaller scale, resemblance to an eastern European palace. It would appear that Messrs Wakefield
Crewdson went in for a certain amount of grandeur in their bank branch
buildings.
“From
the North”…
 In this scene from a 1968 Granada TV documentary
about life in the town, we see the Martins Bank Branch captured in the
background of an interview at the nearby Royal Station Hotel.
Here, the bank has a pleasant corner
aspect, which faces the War Memorial in one direction and in the other towards
the Royal Station Hotel and the Carnforth Co-Operative Society and railway
station beyond.
|
In Service: 1887 until 13 October 2022
Carnforth Branch Pictured in
August 1936
Image © Barclays Ref 2364-1
Carnforth Branch 21 November
1938 until 13 October 2022
Image
© Barclays Ref 0030-0565
Carnforth Branch with onlookers
in 1968
Image © ITV Studios 1968 to date
|
|
It is also worth noting that even in the
smaller towns such as Carnforth, Martins Bank’s customers enjoy Saturday
morning banking. Just the thing when
you need money for your train ticket.
The Midland Bank next door is decorated with new branding that will
last until the 1980s, although the Midland Bank itself will not remain in
Carnforth beyond that particular decade.
Banking on horseback…
 John Mashiter Began his career with the Bank in
Manchester in 1925, worked throughout the Northern District of the Bank and
retired in 1969. In 1963 he was a member of the History of Martins Bank
Committee, whose remit was to collect the history of Martins Bank together
for Publication. He recalls his own
time at Carnforth Branch in Volume I of “Four Centuries of Banking”…
 {There
were only two of us at Carnforth. The Manager Edmund Herd was an old friend
and life there was very good. I cycled
the eight miles from Milnthorpe and with practice could do the daily stint of
sixteen miles in remarkable time. This
was the main A6 road but in those days traffic was light and I did the
journey for two years without mishap.
The Reynolds family from Leighton Hall were customers; one of them was a director of the Bank and
they frequently came to the Branch on horseback. On these occasions I had to go out and hold
their horses. The sight of me being
towed up and down the street by two restive horses always amused our
shopkeeper customers, who came out to watch the fun and urge on the horses.}
ABRIDGED FROM FOUR
CENTURIES OF BANKING
VOL I © MARTINS BANK
LIMITED 1963
Business as usual…
|
After several months at 2
Scotland Road, the Bank moves back into its premises at 3 Market Street on
21 November 1938. The building has been reconstructed, and an attractive
stone fascia gives customers a feeling of extra security. An advertisement
like this one, from our collection of remastered Martins Bank advertising
copy is published in the Lancaster Guardian on 18 November 1938, and an
accompanying news article explains just what has been done to the building…
 {On Monday next, 21st
instant, Martins Bank, Limited, will transfer the business at present carried
on in temporary premises in Scotland Road to their reconstructed building
at the corner of Market Street and New street, Carnforth. By the inclusion
in the Bank premises of the area of the adjoining shop in New Street the
Banking Hall has been doubled in size and it has enabled a spacious and
attractive modem office with Manager's room to be provided.
Those conversant with the
previous Bank front will remember the wooden cornice supported by wooden
pilasters, and the timber screen at the entrance. These have been removed
and the building has been refronted in stone with a new cornice and new
entrance door. It is considered that the design has added a feature of
architectural interest to the town and that customers will appreciate the
increased accommodation and comfort provided in the interior of the
building. All the internal fittings are in polished mahogany and have been
constructed to meet modem banking requirements. The counter has been
extended and there is ample desk accommodation for the clerical staff. In
addition to the ground floor extension, the basement has also been
proportionately enlarged wherein has been constructed an up-to-date
strongroom to provide all possible security both far the Bank's
requirements and customers’ needs.}
|
Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collections
Advertisement Re-Mastered 2018
|
|
|
Local companies whose services
were contracted to the Bank to bring about the renovations to 3 Market
Street, advertise alongside the opening announcement in the Lancaster
Guardian 18/11/1938.
|
|
  Frightfully
Keen…
A Bank manager used to be seen as a pillar of the local
community – someone who knows everyone and knows everyone’s business. Just
occasionally along with chairing a few local committees or holding the
treasurership of one or two charitable concerns, a manager may be called
upon to impart knowledge of his life’s experience. In October 1954, Mr G
Keen, Manager of Martins Bank’s Carnforth Branch lets members of the local
Junior Anglican People’s Association know all about his days in India
during the Second World War. Once again the trusty Lancaster Guardian is on
hand to report mr Keen’s presentation…
Newspaper
Images (above,) Lancaster Guardian 18/11/1938 and 29/10/1954 © Johnstone
Press.
Images
created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Images reproduced with
kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive
|
|
 This is not
exactly then and NOW, but it is a
good example of how Barclays’ Branding interfered only minimally with the
appearance of Carnforth Branch. Even the addition of a cash machine in the
1990s did not detract from the pleasant look of this building.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collections - Phil Dunster
|
Images
© Barclays Ref 0030-0565
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
