11-85-02 Blackpool Bispham

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Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank

The saucy seaside postcard is a key element to experiencing the joys of a holiday to Blackpool. This Royal Mail® stamp from 1994 celebrates a century of this particularly British style of missive whose subject matter was actually scrutinised by the Postcard Censorship Board in the 1950s! The Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank opens its Branch at Bispham in 1923, and this is another of those “corner shop” style outlets that guards the Northern gates to the Bank’s Blackpool kingdom. The branch is amongst those kept open during World War II when women clerks in charge look after the business whilst the men were away fighting for King and Country. Miss Norah Towers is the clerk-in-charge at Bispham from 1943 until 1946, and you can see her image in the staff gallery below.

In Service: 1923 until 28 June 1987

1969 Bispham Exterior 2 BGA Ref 30-272

Image © Barclays Ref: 0030-0272

Bispham is lucky enough to remain open for eighteen years beyond the merger with Barclays, and shuts its doors for the final time in 1987. The longest surviving Blackpool Branch of Martins Bank is Whitegate Drive, which stayed open after the 1969 merger as a Branch of Barclays until 25 September 2015. Martins Bank’s once mighty kingdom of branches and sub-branches set amongst the ice-creams and donkey rides has now, sadly, passed into history…

Images © Barclays Ref 0033-0272

Bispham sub-Branch was opened in 1923 by Mr C W Aked, who apart from three year’s War Service, during which the office was maintained by Mrs Norah Towers, ran the place for thirty years until his retirement on 31 March 1953. As ever, Martins Bank Magazine was there to record the retirement festivities, which were held also to mark the retirement of Blackpool Branch Accountant, Mr E Barlow…

On the afternoon of 31st March, the staff of Blackpool Branch gathered together to pay tribute to Mr E Barlow, Accountant, and to Mr C W Aked, Clerk in Charge at Bispham Office, who were both entering their retirement and to wish them both many years of good health and happy leisure. Mr Aked had completed forty-seven years in the service of the Bank, and the Halifax Equitable Bank and had opened Bispham sub-Branch in 1923 becoming quite an institution in the Village during his years there. As a reminder of his banking days, he had chosen a travlling alarm clock suitably engraved, and Mr Sharples (Manager, Blackpool) expressed the wish that he would “tick on” for many years to come. both Mr Barlow and Mr Aked expressed their sincere thanks and referred to the happy years and the many friendships they had enjoyed during their periods of service.

Bispham in colour…

We are most grateful to Steve Palmer, whose atmospheric images of the Blackpool area appear in his book “Blackpool and Fleetwood, 100 Years by Tram” (Platform 6 Publishing Ltd.,1998), and who kindly provided us with this 1960s colour image of Martins Bank’s Branch at Bispham. Colour pictures of Martins Branches are relatively rare, and it is always interesting to see just how well they bring to life specific periods in our history.

Apart from the old road signs, and the glimpse of overhead tram cables, this picture gives little else away about when it was actually taken. It certainly adds to that nostalgic yearning for those times within living memory when everything seemed much less brash and impersonal than the huge out of town shopping “experiences” of the twenty-first Century.