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This is Hawkshead Sub-Branch
in 1930, and apart from a slight sepia glow on the photograph, nothing else
seems really to have changed in the second image (below) apart that is, from
the tell-tale sign that heralds the merger with Barclays. With branches and
sub-branches all over the Lake District, it is difficult for any visitor to
miss the presence of Martins Bank in this, the Northern District of the
bank. It will probably have been the
tourist trade that kept Hawkshead sub-Branch in business for so long, all the
way to April 2000 in fact, when the doors closed for the last time on this
lovely little building.
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In Service: Before 1893 until 7 april 2000
Image © Barclays
Ref 0030/1232
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The Lake District being
just one of Martins Bank’s many Northern heartlands, there was a time when
there was a Branch, sub-Branch or Agency in almost every town and village.
Whilst Barclays does not have an opening date recorded for Hawkshead, it
was one of the branches that came to the Bank of Liverpool when it
amalgamated with Messrs Wakefield, Crewdson’s Kendal Bank in the Summer of
1893. This means a banking service
has been offered there for at least one hundred years by the time it was
closed for good. For our Hawkshead feature, we have the short text below,
which is part of a 1952 article describing Martins Bank Magazine’s first
visit to the Lake District. For some, career prospects in Martins mean
climbing the ladder to one of several differently titled management
positions. For many, the first step
on this ladder is CLERK IN CHARGE of
a sub-Branch. For a few this a
career high, as running a small branch in such a beautiful part of the
World brings satisfaction enough…
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Branch
Images © Barclays Ref 0033-0262
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 There
was another motive in making our visit to Ambleside when we did, for by a
coincidence Mr. J. Rigg, who looks after our Hawkshead branch, is about the
same age as our Ambleside Manager Mr. Gillespie and is also very well known
to many of our staff who usually include Hawkshead in their Lake District
itinerary. We visited him in his
tiny branch in the picturesque square, afterwards taking the photograph shown.
He missed being included in the Ambleside photograph later in the afternoon
by five minutes. The other sub-branch, at Grasmere, is looked after by Mr.
B. Tyson, a countryman with a real love of country pursuits, who is known
all over the Northern District for his dialect recitations at the Northern
District dinners. He has a great
sense of fun and is quite a character in the district.
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