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most people will remember Whitsuntide,
1963 as a week-end of blazing sunshine spent by the sea, or on the hills, or
golfing, or just sitting in the sun. The staff of the two Burnley branches
will remember it as a week-end of evacuation and invasion, Dunkirk and D-Day
rolled into a lost week-end—the
evacuation of Hargreaves Street and St James Street into the new Manchester
Road premises. The exercise had been planned with the
precision of a military operation but, as so often is the case with military
operations, the strength of the enemy was miscalculated and on this occasion
the enemy was time. For months we had
watched the site for the new branch being cleared and had nostalgically recalled
the old Savoy Cinema, where we saw the first 'talkie' and where in the cafe
we used to meet our girl on Saturday evening and where one could gossip over
a coffee and chocolate biscuit with a group of friends until 10.30 at a cost
of 6d per head. |
In Service: 3 June 1963 until 19 June 1991
Images © Martins Bank Archive
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We
had watched the excavations for the strong room and during the appalling winter
had seen the same excavations so deep in water that it was suggested we were
to open the first Dive-in Bank: as the opening day drew nearer we had
realised it was going to be a close touch.
And so it was that on Whit Monday morning we found ourselves
inter-sorting ledgers and records of every kind at one end of the office
whilst in other parts plasterers plastered, joiners joined and paperhangers
hung. The movement of several tons of cash across the town had created
considerable interest as box-trucks, each holding 10 cwts, were manhandled
on to a lorry under the protection of a posse of the Burnley Police Force and
were safely transferred without the loss of anything more than a few tempers
as those at the receiving end deplored the delay at the dispatching end and
vice versa.
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Mr E G Earnshaw (Manager) with left to right the Mayor (Alderman J
Lord) Mr J E Wadsworth of Samuel Taylor Son & Platt Architects Mr A Ashworth Borough Treasurer Mr J Taylor Senior Partner in Samuel
Taylor Son & Plait Mr G A Weatherburn (Sub Manager) Mr C V Thornley Town Clerk
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The
checking out of each branch and into the new office of the securities, deed
boxes and other safe custody was a task occupying two full days and we defy
(dare we?) the Inspectors on their next visit to find anything out of order
in this portion of the strong room.
We
had tried to arrange for everyone to have some part of the week-end away from
the exercise but such was the enthusiasm that quite a few who had no particular
engagements turned up each day and, with the men in old flannels and the
girls betrousered but never bewildered, we swept, mopped, polished and
dusted, following on the heels of the workmen as they effectively, but oh! so
gradually, moved through the building.
It
was not until 11.30 on Whit Monday night that the joiners and most of the
staff called it a day, leaving the furnishers laying carpets and hanging
curtains through the night, with the architect and Mr Jobling still on duty
supervising operations until relieved by us all at 7.30 on Tuesday morning. |
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Thus
Mr Jobling, who had controlled operations throughout, created a record that
can never be beaten in working twenty-four hours' overtime in one day! We
welcomed our first customers at 10 o'clock next morning and a civic visit at
11 a.m., not only proud of our lovely building but very proud of and grateful
to so many who had never spared themselves to achieve what at one time seemed
the impossible…
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1969: Progress - in progress… After only six years, the first major hole to be
made in the wall of the new Burnley branch, is to install a “hole in the wall”! Funny
how at this stage, no-one knows quite what it will all lead to… |
- Above: John
Pettit 2013 and below: Ian Ashton 2007
The Bank’s Coat of Arms lives on in Burnley… |
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We
were delighted to receive these photographs which were taken in 2013 by John
Pettit, and in 2007 by Ian Ashton,
both of which show that the Martins Coat of Arms is still going strong on the
side of Martins’ Branch building at 8 Manchester Road. Obviously built to
last, this sign seems to have easily coped with all manner of weather
conditions over more than fifty years! |
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The following photographs demonstrate just how well the Burnley
Branch building has survived the first fifty-one years of its life. We are indebted to Robert Wade for the 2014
photo. It is striking how little has
changed, but also sad that the building is now empty… |
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1963 – Newly Built and ready for action
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2014 – Ready for yet another owner?
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Please
note that staff working at Burnley before 1963 can be found on our Branch
pages for 7 and 13 Burnley Hargreaves Street
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