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Brave new World…
 Ambitious plans are drawn up in the
early 1960s that will completely change the face of Cheltenham High
Street. Very much at the centre of the
new development is the futuristic building that will house the new
branch. As usual, the Bank
commissions a piece of artwork that will reflect the confidence of this new
age of straight lines and concrete, and add the Bank’s own unique signature
to the building. In the design
above, the architect has given his own impression of how the Bank’s name
and coat of arms might appear.
The reality is a little different, as we shall see below.
The new building has taken shape and the Bank’s name has been added. Martins’ expansion into the South and West is a serious affair, and
one that continues right up to the very day of the merger with
Barclays.
We have already seen brand
new branch buildings such as EATON (Norwich) completed
and handed straight over to Barclays, and Martins Bank’s sub branch at
Goring By Sea exists only a few months before being closed in favour of a
nearby Barclays branch.
Martins Bank opens it first
Branch in Cheltenham in 1939 at 107 HIGH STREET, moving to the present
address of 155 High Street in 1957.
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In Service: 1957 until 9 February 1987
Branch and Planning Images © Barclays Ref
0030-0616
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Thanks to the major town
centre redevelopment of Cheltenham the new branch becomes a modern,
purpose-built outlet in a prime part of the new shopping area. The specially designed artwork is
unveiled, and Martins Bank’s traditional grasshopper receives the modern
treatment with this ceramic made by Philippa Threlfall (see also DESIGNING
MARTINS).
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 Philippa
designs and crafts a total of three artworks for Martins Branches, the
other two being at the new branch in Gloucester, and the redesigned branch
at Bristol Clifton. Luckily for us, (and posterity), Philippa took colour
photographs of her work, and we are pleased to be able to bring these
images to you here, and on the Gloucester and Clifton pages. The rare glimpse below of Cheltenham’s brand new High Street
is socially important, as it shows the shops, shoppers, and cars of the
time. Could it really be that everyone is flocking to Martins Bank’s
new Branch? At the end of
1965, Martins Bank Magazine tells the story of the rebuild – and as we will
see, the writer might just have had their tongue in their cheek a little,
as this would seem to be a story that is not so much about banking, as much as the measuring of
“bonking” and THRUST!
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GONE BONKERS AT CHELTENHAM
- supplanted by a SILENT piledriver…
 after our premises at 155 High Street,
Cheltenham, had been demolished and before work on the new building could
begin, Premises Department was faced with a problem. The Council insisted
that noise and vibration be kept to a minimum to avoid nuisance and danger
to adjacent property and this called for an alternative to the
old-fashioned, nerve-wracking, 'bonking' piledrivers.
 The problem was solved by
the Taywood Pilemaster, a
recent invention of the Taylor Woodrow Group, which can drive steel piles
into the hardest clay with no more noise than an idling car engine. This
scarcely seems possible with a nine-ton machine but the secret lies in the
principle behind the operation. Eight piles (there is virtually no limit to
their length) are attached to the machine's eight hydraulic rams in the
steel crosshead. Each has a thrust of 30 inches.
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Image © Martins
Bank Archive Collections - Philippa Threlfall
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With
the machine suspended from a crane, two rams begin to press their piles
into the ground while the others remain 'locked'. The force exerted on
these two piles is the weight of the machine plus the weight of all the
piles. When the first two piles are embedded 30 inches, another two rams
come into operation and so on, the resistance of the soil adding to the
force behind each pair of rams as driving progresses. The machine receives no assistance from
the crane which is removed when the piles are sufficiently deep to support
the machine's weight. Operations are controlled electrically at ground
level by one man working a small cabinet of switches. The Pilemaster
is quickly ousting the old 'bonkers' and anything that contributes
to a lessening of noise deserves success. In time the loudest noise on a
construction site may come from the workmen's transistor radios…
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‘Topping out’ at our rebuilt branch at
Cheltenham.
This image shows the District General Manager with Mr K E Tomlinson
(Manager), Mr I M Williams (Architect) and Mr J H Bryan (District Office)
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Let’s go inside…
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Branch Images © Barclays Ref 0030-0616
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