What sets Martins apart from other banks in a big way, is this: Whilst making a bold statement of identity with branding, Martins never forgets where it comes from, and so the many and varied banking companies that make up the Martins of today are celebrated and treasured as important spokes in the wheel. This is evident in the north of England in particular, where the windows of many offices are decorated with phrases such as “Bank of Liverpool Branch” “Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank Branch” “Halifax Equitable Branch” etc.. Extensive histories of the constituent banks are published as special features throughout the lifetime of Martins Bank Magazine, and the bank even goes so far as to publish books telling the story of three of them – 68 Lombard Street, Cocks Biddulph and Company, and the subject of this page in our branch directory: Arthur Heywood Sons and Company, which is the oldest constituent provincial bank of Martins Bank Limited. The books are distributed mainly to the branches involved, to allow the manager to explain the pedigree of his office to potential customers.
Heywoods Bank is founded in 1773 by Arthur Heywood at the premises which are now our branch at 5 Brunswick Street in Liverpool. One hundred and ninety years later, it is the proximity of Heywoods Branch to our Head Office at 4 Water Street that makes it an ideal choice for automation. Along with our branch at CASTLE STREET, Heywoods’ day’s work is processed via adding machines onto punched paper tape in such a way as can be read by the Pegasus Computer. In this way, records of customers’ accounts are maintained and updated each day.				1963: The busy machine accounting room at Heywoods
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						Heywoods is also one of the first of our branches to have its customer bank statements produced by printer directly from the computerised records. You can read more about the process of automating Martins’ Branch Accounting in our NEW TECHNOLOGY section, and our feature LIVERPOOL COMPUTER CENTRE . Although Heywoods branch survives the merger with Barclays, it lasts as a bank only until the 1990s, when the cull of smaller branches by ALL banks, sets in…
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Know your customer…
Knowing your customer by name is a particular banking art that has all but died out in the twenty-first century, where cashiers rely amost solely upon their computer screens to guide them through contact with anyone who dares walk in off the street to do their banking in person. rather than on the internet. As Martins is not fully computerised until after the merger with Barclays, our staff are adept at recognising our customers by sight or signature. The following extract from Martins’ book “Arthur Heywood Sons and Company 1773 to 1883 shows how the bank clerks of 1800 went about solving the problem of identifying customers, but with an added twist – they had to find a way to recognise customers who couldn’t write…
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Today it is the exception to have a customer who cannot write, but the signature books of the early years of the nineteenth century contain the names of so many illiterate customers that some method of identification had to be adopted. The method chosen was that of a description of the customer in the space reserved for the signature. Some of these descriptions, a few examples of which follow, are somewhat trenchant:— Little pug-faced woman with a squeaky voice. Rather short and remarkably plain. A little like a monkey. Rings on her fingers. About 12 hands high. Shows the whites of his eyes all round. Sallow, and marked with smallpox. Old man, red wig, wedding ring on right hand. Young woman, rather bold-looking. Dark hair and eyes. Sharp-faced old woman. Punch's spirity woman. Short round-made man. Small rings in his ears. Little woman, inmouthed—lost her teeth. Short man. Whiskers all round his face, one tooth out in front. Looks like a coal heaver. Clean looking old lady with frill cap. But the most revealing of all is surely this description : Thick-lipped old woman of 45. Abridged from ARTHUR HEYWOOD SONS AND COMPANY © MARTINS BANK LIMITED January 1949
{Some idea of the life of the Liverpool bank clerk shortly after the absorption of Heywood’s Bank and the Liverpool Commercial Bank is given by an outstanding series of articles contributed to Martins Bank Magazine…} {“I served for a short period at Heywoods Branch, many of the clerks still bore the outward semblance of servants in a private banking house. Some of them had outstanding personalities, one was later to become a well known actor, another (Ernest Newman) became the doyen of our musical critics. A ledger clerk told me that as a junior he was sent up to town for a sack of rats. Afterhours, in the partners’ stables, there was exciting sport with rats and terriers. In my time, the manager, known as ‘The Guv’nor’, was a handsome figure in a grey frock coat, with a charm of manner and courtly old-world air, the exemplar and beau-ideal of a Victorian banker}. Abridged from FOUR CENTURIES OF BANKING VOL I © MARTINS BANK LIMITED 1964
Mr E B Gillard On the Staff 1903 to 1912		Mr H Dickman On the Staff 1908 to 1919			Mr H G Herbert On the Staff 1909 to 1914		Mr T A Samuel Joined the Bank here 1910
Mr J F W Kermode On the Staff 1910 to 1928		Mr A C Sanderson On the Staff 1914 to approx 1920			Mr L K Hyde Joined the Bank Here 1915		Mr W R Woods Assistant Manager 1920 to 1922
Mr T A Johnson On the Staff 1921 to 1927		Mr Alec R Ellis On the Staff 1923 to 1941			Mr R H Price Manager’s Secretary 1925 to 1929		Mr W Brookes Joined the Bank Here 1928 to 1934
Mr J W Hobley On the Staff 1932 o 1935		Miss Drusilla M Meacock On the Staff 1936 to 1946			Mr A H Nutt Accountant 1936 to 1948		Mr W E J Wess Joined the Bank Here 1937 to 1947
Mr R L Cockhill Joined the Bank Here 1939 to 1942		Mr R F Dixon Joined the Bank Here 1941 to 1942			Mr B L Skiming Joined the Bank Here 1944 to 1945		Mr N E Blake Joined the Bank Here 1944 to 1946
Mr K E Jarvis Joined the Bank Here 1945 to 1947		Mr C P Williams Manager 1945 to 1947			Mr N Atkinson On the Staff 1946 to 1960		Mr J R Whittle Manager 1947 to 1953
Mr W Alderton On the Staff 1948 to 1949		Mr A D Barlow Joined the Bank Here 1949 to 1950			Mr J A Kirk Chief Cashier 1950		Mr J N Quine On the Staff 1952 to 1954
Mr G R kelly On the Staff 1953 to 1956		Mr J Randle Manager 1953 to 1958			Mr D J Crellin On the Staff 1957 to 1958		Mr J M Holdsworth On the Staff 1957 to 1958
Mr W E Turnbull On the Staff 1957 to 1959		Mr D G Telfer On the Staff 1958 to 1959			Mr A D Gollifer Manager 1958 to 1963		Mr S J Johnson Accountant 1958 to 1965
Mr D Craig Head of Securities 1959		Mr B O’Brien Sub Manager 1959 to 1961			Mr W A Inglis On the Staff 1961 to 1964		Mr H F Smith Sub Manager 1961 to 1967
Mr B Bithell Manager 1963 to 1967		Mr N K Gibson Accountant 1965			Mr A T Foulkes Manager 1967 onwards		Mr C R Mills Pro Manager 1967
Mr G L Humphreys Deputy Manager 1967		Mr J Nicholls Accountant 1967
Title:			11-00-30 Liverpool Heywoods
Type:			Full Branch
Address:			PO Box 74 5 Brunswick Street L69 2BW Liverpool 02
Hours:			Mon to Fri 1000-1500
			Saturday 0900-1130
Telephone:			CENtral 0641/3
Services:			Automated Branch
			No Nightsafe
Manager:			Mr A T Foulkes Manager
© gut informiert 2007 to date