11-08-30 Coniston

In one of the most scenic parts of the Lake District we find a small cluster of Martins Bank Branches. Controlled by the main branch at Ambleside, sub-Branches at Grasmere and Hawkshead operate an alternate days opening system. At Coniston, the Branch is self remitting and open every day of the banking week including Saturday morning. As its address might suggest, the branch itself is situated literally at the end of a bridge – a bridge that takes many a motorist off “over the tops” to Broughton in Furness and beyond. Our map is also a reminder of how much of the Lake District - including all of Coniston Water and a large proportion of Windermere – used to be in Lancashire. Martins Lake District branches are inherited from the amalgamation of Messrs Wakefield Crewdson’s Kendal Bank – with the Bank of Liverpool in 1893.

In Service: 1884 until 7 December 2018

Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0706

Image © Barclays Ref 0033-0156	Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0706
The village of Coniston has plenty of charm, and much to interest the visitor, with many places to eat, and small but quaint gift shops. The inside of the Branch is extremely compact, with room only for a counter and a small office. Fortunately space is provided one floor DOWN for a small staff and storage area. Coniston will continue to be an important office beyond the merger with Barclays and into the twenty-first century, as it continued to go to extremes to be helpful to every new generation of customer and tourist until the axe finally fell on Friday 7 December 2018. Whilst zooming-in to an exterior shot of the building we found, ostentatiously fixed to the wall, this advert for Hellens of Coniston, who promise the local motorist all manner of service including reboring and sleeving, cellulose spraying tyre and battery service, welding and wing and body repairs! Lucky the bank is at hand to provide the ready cash for those nasty repair bills…


Image © The Sankey Collection		Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0706
Thanks to the amazing foresight of the Sankey Family collection of glass plate photographs of Lancashire and the Furness Peninsula, we are delighted to be able to bring you (above, left) this rare image of Coniston branch in its days as an office of the Bank of Liverpool. As the Bank of Liverpool amalgamated with Martin’s Private Bank in 1918, this particular photograph can be dated to 1918 or earlier.