11-093 Blackburn Cherry Tree

Historically, the presence of Martins Bank in Blackburn is a large one, with branches open at one time or another at DARWEN STREET, EANAM, MILL HILL, Cherry Tree and NOVA SCOTIA. It is these last two suburbs of Blackburn which have proved difficult for us to research in much detail.

Blackburn Times 24 May 1929

In Service: 30 April 1929 until 1941

Extract from the Annual Report and Accounts of Martins Bank Limited 1929 © Barclays

Image © Barclays 1929

Thanks to the assistance of our friends at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Community History Department, we have at least been able to piece together some of the statistical information.Cherry Tree sub-Branch is mentioned only once in Martins Bank Magazine, in the Winter of 1962. This is to commemorate the service of Mr J J Openshaw.He worked at Blackburn and was Clerk in Charge at Cherry Tree between 1929 and 1938. The opening of Cherry Tree sub-Branch is also mentioned in Martins Bank’s Annual Report for 1929 (above, right). The advertisement showing the opening of this sub-branch is actually referred to by the Blackburn Times as a “Public notice”. The image is courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive, and the successor rightsholder of the Blackburn Times is currently unknown. Like so many of the Bank’s smaller offices, Cherry Tree is mothballed in 1941 for the Second World War, but on economic grounds it is not re-opened…