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MANCHESTER DISTRICT OFFICE

Martins Bank’s Manchester District Office comes into being in 1928 with the amalgamation of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. Mr F S Kitchin is appointed the first District General Manager, although under the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, there have already been two separate District Managers since 1919. Martins’ District Offices are responsible for the control of the local branches that make up each particular district. This is achieved by a number of specialist departments within each District Office.

Those departments are represented in our District Office pages by the photographs we have available of the people who worked in them. Based on the information given in the pages of Martins Bank Magazine, we do our best to match photographs of staff to their correct department, but if you find an error, please let us know about it by sending us an e-mail to the usual address:

martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com

No 43 Spring Gardens which is home to Manchester District Office, is the Bank’s principal office in the city, being formerly the Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank Limited. It is upon the insistence of the directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank that the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, shortens its name to Martins Bank Limited in 1928. See also: FOUR CENTURIES OF BANKING and COAT OF ARMS. Nowadays the building at 43 Spring Gardens houses a highly commended Indian Restaurant. Importantly, the building, and its impressive banking hall remain largely as they were, but in the late 1960s, even when the Bank’s merger with Barclays was already on the cards, Martins was doing ambitious things – like appointing its first female Bank Inspectors in Manchester, AND planning to knock down its Spring Gardens premises to put something altogether different in its place…

Here come the inspectors!

Stepping out from Spring Gardens are Margaret Ashworth and Maureen Thomas, members of a Manchester District outside inspection team and the first girls in the Bank to take part in a full branch inspection. How have their male colleagues reacted? 'They've been very patient and helpful/ Maureen said, 'and soon accepted us—once they got over the initial shock.' 'We were apprehensive about breaking into what has until now been regarded as the males' prerogative/ Maureen remarked, 'but all our doubts were soon dispelled.'

Manchester – City of Trees?

The Bank’s 80 year old building at Spring Gardens Manchester, once the Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank, and since 1928 the home of Manchester District Office and City Office, may be pulled down. Outline planning permission has been given for the Bank’s £1.25 millions development scheme which would replace the decorative Victorian building with an eleven storey block. Included in the project is an open space at the front of the building which would be decoratively paved and planted with trees. So the Bank may be helping Manchester to become a city of trees: already twenty-eight plane trees have been planted in Albert Square.

An impression of the eleven storey block that may take the place of our present office at Spring Gardens

Sir Cuthbert Clegg Board Member 1948 to 1968	The Rt Hon Angus D Campbell CBE Board Member from 1949 Chairman from 1960	Mr W D’Arcy Madden Board Member 1950	Mr H Mancknols Walton Board Member 1951	Mr Kenneth Stoker Board Member 1951	Mr Percy Woodhouse Board Member 1951
Mr J F Simpson OBE TD Board Member 1955	The Rt Hon The Viscount Walberton - Board Member 1958	Mr N G Lancaster MBE Board Member 1960	Mr I A D McLean Director 1962	Mr Alan Green Board Member 1964	Mr E H Priestley Local Director 1965 to 1968
Mr C G Seddon Director 1967	Mr R B Stoker Director 1967	Mr W Wormauld Director 1967
MANCHESTER TELEPHONES			DISTRICT OFFICE – GENERAL STAFF
Miss Dorothy Eaton Manchester Switchboard Relief Operator 1947	Miss Maragret Lord Manchester Switchboard Operator 1947	Miss M P P Glover Relief Staff 1953 to 1968	Mr Alan Brierley Sim On the staff 1953 to 1957	Mr C A Shuttleworth District Office Staff 1957	Mr T R Froggatt Relief Staff 1957
Mr J Pendlebury Pro Manager 1959 to 1960	Mr F Kirkham District Relief Staff 1961 to 1969	Miss A C Mossop Centralised Posting Unit 1964	Mr W P Glover Asst Staff Manager 1967	Mr T E Hopley Relief Staff (Retiring) 1968	Miss M E Goddard Manchester District Lady Supervisor 1968
Mr M P M Brown Assistant Staff Manager 1968
MANCHESTER DISTRICT CATERING STAFF
Mrs C Dick Manchester Girls’ Canteen 1958	Mrs E Martin Manchester Girls’ Canteen 1958	Mrs H Roberts Manchester Girls’ Canteen 1958	Mrs C Courcoux Brown Street Canteen 1958	Mrs W Whitelegg Brown Street Canteen 1958	Mrs E M Bidwell Manchester Men’s Canteen 1958
			DISTRICT GENERAL MANAGER’S DEPT
Miss M J Whalley St Ann’s Square Canteen 1958	Mrs M E Douche Manchester Management Dining Room 1958	Mrs S Johnson Manchester Management Dining Room 1958	Mr C J Verity Manchester Assistant District General Manager 1938 to 1946	Mr J Froggatt Joint District General Manager 1946	Mr G R Tarn Joint Manchester District General Manager 1946
Mr D O Maxwell Manchester District General Manager 1950	Mr T Cowpe Assistant District Manager 1952	Mr R Tonge Asst Dist Manager 1953 then District Manager 1953	Mr C Whiteley Manchester Assistant District Manager 1954	Mr E H Priestley Asst Dist Gen Manager 1958 then DGM from 1961	Mr J H Jennings Manchester District Assistant General Manager 1961
		INSPECTORS
Miss M M Graveson Manchester DGM’s Lady Representative 1966	Mr N E Foster Manchester Assistant DGM 1966 then DGM from 1968	Mr Mungo Conacher Manchester District Senior Inspector 1935	Mr L K Holden Chief Inspector 1947	Mr H J Southworth Inspector 1949	Mr H S Mellor Inspector 1952
Mr J S Laver Inspector 1956 to 1960	Mr R Tanner Inspector 1959 to 1964	Mr T Derbyshire Inspector 1963	Mr J Speak Inspector 1964	Mr J W Ottaway Inspector 1964	Mr A Meadowcroft Inspector 1965
Mr A N Barratt Inspector 1965	Mr C Mitchell Inspector 1966	Mr R Paulson Inspector 1967	Mr J P Smith Inspector 1968	Mr R S Hilton Inspector 1968	Mr M Flint Inspector 1969
		SUPERINTENDENT OF BRANCHES
Margaret Ashworth Inspector 1969	Maureen Thomas Inspector 1969	Mr J Froggatt Asst Superintendent of Branches 1934 to 1946 Jt Dist Gen Manager 1946	Mr Harold Blundell Manchester District Superintendent of Branches 1949	Mr N R Manser Manchester Superintendent of Branches 1958	Mr F Tunstall Superintendent of Branches 1964
	PREMISES	CENTRALISED POSTING
Mr D S Gallagher District Superintendent 1968	Mr D E Snelson Asst Premises manager 1967	Miss Audrey Ann Case Staff 1957 to 1961	Miss A C Mossop Staff 1965

Title: Address: Index Number and District: Telephone: District General Manager: Assistant District General Manager:

Martins Bank Limited Manchester District Office 43 Spring Gardens Manchester Lancashire 701 Manchester 061 832 4061/3585 Mr N E Foster (1968) Mr J H Jennings (1961 to 1966)

A number of self accounting sub-Branches are under the direct control of Manchester District Office:
	11-13-00 Manchester All Saints
	11-71-00 Manchester Birchfields
	11-12-30 Manchester Cornbrook
	11-62-50 Manchester Longsight
	11-17-60 Manchester Moss Side

1889 3 January 1928 15 December 1969 14 May 1990

Head Office of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank Martins Bank Limited Barclays Bank Limited Closed

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