11-667 Read

The Bank of Liverpool and Martins opens a sub-Branch to Padiham – in the nearby village of Read – in 1926. A Banking service is offered here within the premises of the Simonstone Constitutional Club, for a total of thirteen years. According to local directory information, from the time, the branch is closed during the week, and opens for just two hours each Saturday.

In Service: 11 October 1926 until September 1939

Extracts from the Annual Report of the

Bank of Liverpool and Martins 1926 © Barclays

Advertisements like this one, (right), are published in newspapers throughout the country. Their main purpose is to raise the profile of the Bank and of one or more of its services, but often a more local flavour is added by incluing a list of branches – here including READ amongst the many local offices in the Burnley area. Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

Padiham A combination of factors – from economic conditions to a shortage of trained staff - means that a large number of smaller rural sub offices and “front room” branches become casualties of war in their own right, for whilst it is intended to close them for the duration of the second World War, many of these branches are not re-opened afterwards. Sadly the sub-Branch at Read joins this number, closing its doors for the final time in 1939.