|
Belford was an
original branch of the Alnwick and County Bank, taken over by the North
Eastern Banking Company in 1875. The
Branch is rebuilt between 1958 and 1959, but unlike many of Martins Bank’s
knocked-down and reconstructed offices at that time, it doesn’t receive a
visit from Martins Bank Magazine until a few years later, in 1965. Even then, this is part of the “A’s and
B’s in Northumberland” feature, a kind of “whistlestop tour” where the most
said about a particular branch fills around two or three lines of copy. There is much about
1960s architecture at which with the luxury of hindsight we can shudder. Some of the best (or worst) examples of
“before and after” can be seen by visiting two more of Martins’ own North
Eastern Branches – HARTLEPOOL
YORK ROAD and
NEWCASTLE
UPON TYNE WINGROVE. Martins Bank Magazine visits Belford in the Summer of
1965, and gives its own (rather short) opinion on the transformation that has
taken place…
We set off
through  well-farmed countryside to Belford, where our
rebuilt branch is a masterpiece of design and décor on an excellent site.
Farming predominates here, in the hunting country of Surtees, benevolent
feudalism combining with the best of twentieth century ideas in agriculture
to spell prosperity…
|
In Service:
1874 until 1958 - Rebuilt 1959 open until 7 April 2000
Belford Branch in 1958 – Before being
rebuilt
Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections
1960 Afterwards – but looking perhaps a
little like a public convenience?
Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0152
|
|
|
|
Thanks
to our friends at WARD
PHILIPSON PHOTO MEMORIES, we are able to bring you a flavour of that “masterpiece
of design and décor”. Since the invention of photography, banks have used professional
photographers to take pictures of their branches.
The
Photo Memories Archive contains many of the images of Martins Bank’s North
Eastern District Branches that were taken by the Bank’s official
photographer for that part of the country. Here we have the impression of a
great deal of space and light created for the customers and staff of the
rebuilt Belford Branch…
|
|
Images - Martins Bank
Archive Collections © WARD PHILIPSON PHOTO MEMORIES – John A
Moreels M.B.E
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A
day to remember…
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At the start of the 1960s, the “Stamp Duty Paid” logo is
changed to the simple circle and crown you see above. Prior to this, a more
elaborate logo (left) was used which included the month and year in which
the cheque was printed.
Images - Martins Bank
Archive Collections © BELFORD MUSEUM
|
|
In
1953, to commemorate the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the
Second, Belford held a gala, with floats parading through the town. Our
thanks go to Belford Museum for this wonderful image, which shows the Bank
with the floats parading past it.
From an upstairs window, two members of the staff can just be seen
looking down onto the parade, and the bunting above their heads tied to the
front of the Bank and draped round. We are also most grateful to Belford
Museum for the image of a Belford Branch Cheque from the beginning of the
1960s…
|
|
