11-199 Primet Bridge

Colne is one of those parts of Craven District where it seems as if a whole crop of Martins Bank Branches has grown out of the ground and taken he area over! Between the creation of the modern Bank in 1928, and the merger with Barclays in 1969, Colne has up to five sub-Branches, although this number goes down to one between 1950 and 1969. Cottontree, Laneshaw Bridge and Primet Bridge all serve their own tiny communities until Martins has its first consolidation of the branch network in the early 1930s.

In Service: 1920 until 1932

Extracts from the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd Annual Report 1920 © Barclays

Foulridge lasts a little longer, but goes in another branch re-shuffle in 1950, leaving Trawden as the only sub to Colne to survive to 1969.Burnley and Keighley have similar quantities of sub branches, and here too we see several disappearing from the network in the 1930s. We are most grateful to Rex Watson, whose father Frank worked for the Bank of Liverpool and Martins, and kept some basic records of the branches he worked at. The following entry is for Colne, where he worked from 1926 to 1935, and it lists Primet Bridge as one of Colne’s sub branches:

v Colne, from August 1926. About 15 on staff, ‘much smaller than Burnley’

v Cashier Tommy GREEN

v Junior Edwin ARMISTEAD (c.1928), also ----- IRVING

v 1931 : Manager George AYRE (retiring) replaced by Mr C J VERITY, formerly Assistant Manager at Burnley. ‘VERITY eventual General Manager’ (!)

v Manager’s Secretary Miss Hilda HARGREAVES (only woman on staff)

v Sub-branches at Trawden, Primet Bridge, Foulridge, Laneshawbridge, Cottontree (+ Cattle Auction Mart, later) (all closed within a few years)

We have no image of Primet Bridge, and we are yet to find record of its opening times. If you can help with information about this or any of our other branches, please do get in touch with us at the usual address martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.