11-68-30 Ellesmere Port Station Road

As the Bank of Liverpool expands throughout what we now call Merseyside, and the North Western parts of Cheshire, Ellesmere Port Branch is one of a number to be opened at the turn of the twentieth century.

Built to last, many will survive the merger with Barclays, and some are still going strong today, but although Barclays still operates from a Martins Branch in Ellesmere Port, it is not the original branch. This wonderful image from Craig Turner shows his father Peter (on the right) at the age of sixteen, at the counter of Ellesmere Port station Road Branch on 25 May 1944.

In Service: 1898 until 1967 moved to Whitby Road

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Craig Turner

The cashier counting the money is as yet unidentfied, so please get in touch if you know who it is. The poster in the background is “selling” National Savings Certificates using the idea of supporting the future of the Nation’s children as its message. As Mr Vaughan, manger of Ellesmere Port for the last sixteen years retires at the end of October 1963 (see feature below), plans are already in the pipeline to look for a larger and more practical site for a branch in Ellesmere Port that will adequately serve the needs of the branch and its self accounting sub branches at Bromborough, Eastham and Little Sutton. A new office opens for business at 100 Whitby Road 1966, and makes a very modern statement compared to the old branch. Less than a year later we bid farewell to Station Road which has served as Ellesmere Port Branch for the last sixty-eight years. We were delighted to be contacted by Paul Haydock who worked for Martins in the mid 1960s, at both Ellesmere Port branches, and their sub branches. He recalls what happened to Station Road, after the opening of the newer and larger Branch at Whitby Road in 1966…

“Station road was operated as a sub-branch when the new branch was opened. Two of us (very young) used to walk down from the new office with the cash and open up the sub branch. One day, our “escort” locked the front door of the sub-branch and returned to the main office, leaving us locked in and forced to serve customers through the side window, which you can see in the photo!”

It seems that even the new branch at Whitby Road didn’t run too smoothly at the start – you can read about one customer’s adventure in another recollection from Paul Haydock on our WHITBY ROAD page…

1963 04 MBM.jpg 1947 to 1963 Mr G E Vaughan Manager MBM-Wi63P58.jpg there can be very few members of the staff whose birthday, falling on the last day of the month, will coincide with their retirement, but it seemed most appropriate that Gerry Vaughan, Manager of Ellesmere Port, Eastham and Little Sutton branches for the past 16 years, should be one of these if only to underline his firm belief in ‘early off’. On October 31^st at the Cheshire and North Wales Glider Club, Eastham, Mr and Mrs Vaughan gave a cocktail party attended by nearly 100 guests to celebrate his birthday and his retirement. The large proportion of young people present, all of whom had at some time worked with him, was clear proof of their regard for him and Mr I. Buchanan (Liverpool District General Manager), in a short speech in which he not only expressed the good wishes of the Bank but stressed the effervescent youthfulness of one of our most active managers, paid tribute to Mr Vaughan for running the happiest of offices. In the sporting field he had participated enthusiastically in rugby and hockey and he was still playing tennis. He was, said Mr Buchanan when presenting a stainless steel tea set from many subscribers, ‘a cheerful, kindly man and we all wish him well. After Miss Carole Francis had presented a bouquet to Mrs Vaughan, Mr Vaughan opened his short speech of thanks typically with ‘Mr Buchanan, friends and colleagues in Martins Bank, (pause} and personal friends—1 think that’s rather good don’t you ?’ but his next words were drowned by laughter. However, he gave us to understand that he would start work again in a new sphere and intends to pack up at 70. We hope, however, that he will still find time to come along to Bank functions, especially the hockey fixtures. Mr Vaughan entered the service in 1920 at Liverpool City Office, working at Liverpool District branches until becoming Clerk-in-Charge at Eastham in 1937. He spent 3 years in the Royal Navy during the war and joined the visiting inspectors on demobilisation. He was appointed Manager at Ellesmere Port in 1947.

Hell for (Mr) Leather…

It is not often that we report on the sadder events of life, but the story of Mr Charles Nicholas Leather, who worked at Ellesmere Port Branch for more than ten years is indeed sad. The appropriately named Mr Leather was mad about motorcycling, and a glance at Martins Staff Database shows some of his many successes on two wheels. It is a sad irony that injuries incurred in a MOTOR CAR accident will prove too much for Mr Leather’s resilience and fighting spirit, and he dies in the service of the Bank in 1949…

Newspaper Cutting: Liverpool Evening Express 22 October 1945

Image © Trinity Mirror Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk



*Mr Oswald Morris* *Manager* *1919 to 1932*	*Mr Frank E Bold* *Manager* *1932 to 1947*	*Mr J F Willis* *Joined the Bank Here* *1936 to 1939*	*Mr Peter Turner* *Joined Here 1943-45* *On the Staff 1956-60*	*Mr G W Shepherd* *On the Staff 1946-56* *Manager 1963-66*	*Mr G E Vaughan* *Manager* *1947 to 1963*



*Mr D A Melling* *Joined the Bank Here* *1952 to 1953*