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Brighouse
is one of the oldest Branches of Martins Bank, having been in continual use
since being opened by the Halifax Commercial Bank in 1863, right through to
being closed by Barclays on 5 June 2020. Some of the images of Brighouse
shown on this page are taken from postcards, and we would like to thank
Julian Williams for finding them for us.
It did seem unusual to us that three postcards were actually
produced, between the 1930s and the 1960s.
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In Service: 8 November 1863
until 5 June 2020
Image ©
Lilywhite Ltd., Brighouse Yorkshire and successors
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Perhaps, as
the postcard company was once itself based in Brighouse, they might have
banked with Martins? Putting the two
images below side by side, you can see that the view in front of the town
hall and Martins Bank changes quite a lot, and these two views along with
that shown above (right) show the subtle changes that went on around the
Branch over the decades…
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Images Above © Lilywhite Ltd
(Brighouse) and successors
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 By the 1960s a roundabout and traffic islands have been
built, replacing the mini-roundabout and standing street signs that went
before. Martins Bank’s branch at Brighouse
certainly does seem to have been a popular subject for photographs, and in
July 2020 we were contacted by Chris Helme, a retired policeman from
Lightcliffe West Yorkshire, who now writes and publishes a quarterly local
history magazine BRIGHOUSE & DISTRICT
HERITAGE NEWSEUM. Chris sent us this wonderful image of Thornton Square, circa 1930,
with the Bank on the right hand side, looking very grand indeed!
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Image © 1930 Martins Bank Archive
Collections – Chris Helme
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During yet another of Martins Bank Magazine’s flying visits
to Yorkshire in 1966, do the editorial staff find themselves “up a nick in
Briggate” (As an old Yorkshire saying apparently has it)? No, they actually find that all
stereotypes of a “grim up North” existence are shattered by a swinging new addition to the
town…
Brighouse
a-go-go?
  On the first
Tuesday in April we called at Brighouse where the branch takes a bit of
finding if one is persistently directed to it by a well-meaning customer of
one of our rivals. Thus we arrived
late, and though Mr Ingham was away on holiday, we spent an enjoyable
twenty minutes with Mr Wood and a young staff who gave us as good as they
got. We had better say now that
Brighouse turns in a nice fat profit, and deal with carpets, spinning and
doubling, valve manufacture and brandy snaps. Lest readers imagine that the Calder
Valley is all grit and greyness Brighouse has just opened a night club…
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Branch Images © Barclays Ref 0030/0391
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This lovely example of a Brighouse
Cheque is from August 1932, and part of the extensive collection of Martins
Bank vouchers that belongs to friend of the Archive, Stephen Walker. He also provided the image below, a rare
example of a paying slip slip for the Halifax Commercial Banking Company
Ltd, Brighouse Branch, from the 1910s…
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Call the
grammar police!
 In the days of bartering, when you could pay
using sheep, or pebbles, life was much simpler. Yet a careful look at this
paying in slip might give the impression that you pay in cheques made from
Scotch Whiskey? – The word Scotch is used here of course to mean “Scottish”
– a mistake still made today, more than 100 years on. Our apologies to Scots people everywhere! Note too the rather alarming column
headed “Poo’s” refers, you will be glad to know, to nothing worse than
Postal Orders! This apparent
Yorkshire disregard for the sensitivities of the Scots, and the common
misuse of the apostrophe to indicate quantity, makes for a bank that
obviously “says what it likes, and likes what it says”…
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