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A total of eight Martins Branches
are available at one time or another between 1924 and 1969, just the thing
when you need a ten bob note to treat the family to a fish supper, and still
have change for ice creams. In 1950,
ten shillings (50p) was worth almost £20 in today’s money. |
In Service 8 April 1929 until 25 September 2015
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The images that we have of
Blackpool staff are all currently on display in the staff gallery for Martins
Bank’s main Blackpool Branch at 22 Clifton Street. If you worked at Whitegate Drive, Bispham,
North Shore or South Shore, please let us know, along with the approximate
year, at: martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.
Whitegate Drive is a sub-Branch
to Blackpool Clifton Street, and like so many of Martins’ sub-Branches serves
this area of the town from can best be described as someone’s house! During
World War II the Branch remains open, and is run by Miss Dorothy Hoyle, one
of the army of women clerks in charge that helped keep Martins Bank trading
throughout the conflict. You can read
more about the Wartime Clerks in Charge on our Martins at War Feature Page: GENTLEMEN
– THE LADIES.
At the time of the merger of Martins and Barclays Bank in 1969,
Whitegate Drive is in a prime enough position to be allowed to remain open
for business, which it does for the next forty-six years. The doors are closed for the final time on
25 September 2015, part of the policy of mass Branch closures adopted by all
banks in the wake of new banking technologies. |
Image
© Barclays Ref: 0033-0080 |
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Some banks have realised that at least one generation of customers have
been displaced by being forced to use the internet, and we are beginning to
see the revival of the bank Branch, albeit on a smaller scale, with the
opportunity for face to face interaction. “What goes around, comes around”
has always been true of banking in the UK…
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