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 In 1922, the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Bank is in its prime – celebrating 50 Years since its
foundation, the Bank publishes a lavish book which sets out to chronicle its
first half century of trading. By the
time that the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Bank merges with the Bank of Liverpool and Martins just six years later,
there are one hundred and thirty-five branches and sub branches in its
portfolio. The high standards and ethics of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank are
ones that will live on within Martins, and it is interesting to note that the
L and Y has its own staff pubication – the “Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank
Club Magazine” decades before Martins Bank Magazine comes along. Indeed it is generally accepted that one
provided the impetus for the other. Oldham Street is a key City Centre site, and one which is
used by Martins to maximise business in the very heart of the City. Our records show that throughout its life,
Oldham Street has been a standalone full branch, open for full banking hours
over the six day banking week.
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In Service: 1881until 4 October
1983
Image © Barclays Ref
0030-1823
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Twenty-one years at the
same branch is a long time for anyone, and Mr Lomas uses that time to climb
the ladder to Manager, a post he holds for thirteen of those years. In 1959 it is time for him to retire, and
for our first Oldham Street feature, we have the report of his retirement
gathering, taken from Martins Bank Magazine…
  To mark
the occasion of the retirement of Mr. J. E. Lomas at the end of November,
after 43 years' service, he and Mrs. Lomas entertained the staff of Oldham
Street branch to dinner and a dance at Rowntree's Restaurant, Manchester. During the afternoon, after the District General Manager
and his colleagues at Spring Gardens had suitably marked the occasion, there
was a presentation at the branch by Mr. W. E. Letham, the Sub Manager, on
behalf of the subscribers, of a picnic case to match a recently acquired car. A bouquet was presented to Mrs. Lomas by
Miss G. M. Owen. Mr. and Mrs. Lomas are
known to a wide circle of friends outside the Manchester District by reason
of their participation in the Bank tours of 1949, 1951 and 1956 and all will
want to join in wishing them every happiness in the years to come. Mr. Lomas entered the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank at
Oldham in 1915. After three years in the Middlesex Yeomanry he returned to
Oldham and subsequently served at Shudehill, Portland Street, Manchester City
Office and Brown Street before going to Oldham Street in 1938. He was
appointed Pro Manager in 1940 and Manager in 1946.
 Sadly, ALL Banks can be the victims of raids
and robberies. Sometimes the robber is
armed, sometimes an opportunist takes swift advantage of a particular
situation. Our second feature concerns
this latter, spontaneuous type of crime, which takes place at Oldham Street
Branch in 1954. A pile of banknotes is
grabbed from the counter, and despite staff giving chase, the thief
disappears into the crowds of Christmas shoppers in the centre of Manchester. Our copy of the story is presented here in
association with our friends at the British Newspaper Archive, and for ease
of reference, we have printed the wording alongside the article, which
appears in the Aberdeen Evening express, on 21 December 1954…
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CHASED–VANISHED
GRABS Ł194 FROM BANK
In
a daring lunch-hour grab raid on Martins Bank, Oldham Street, Manchester,
to-day, a man, aged about twenty-five, snatched Ł194 10/- and disappeared
among Christmas shopping crowds in Piccadilly. The raid was made when there was only one
customer in the bank. The man walked
into the bank, grabbed a bundle of notes from the counter, and dashed out.
Bank employees and passers-by joined in the pursuit for about a quarter of
an mile before the man was lost among the crowds.
Hand Shot Out
The
bank cashier, Mr F Nuttall, said: -
“I was checking money with a representative of a Manchester
firm. On the counter was a bundle of
notes. All I saw was a left hand
shoot out, grab the notes, and then I saw the back of the man as he dashed
through the door. I sprinted out and
other bank employees followed. I saw the man disappearing round the corner
into Spear Street. Two young
employees of the bank passed me.
They kept track of the man until he merged with the shopping crowds
and was lost.” Police cars quickly converged on the Piccadilly area and a
comb-out began.
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Aberdeen Evening Express 21 Dec 1954
Image ©
Northcliffe Media Limited Image created
courtesy
of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD
Image reproduced with kind permission of
The British Newspaper Archive
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No
“smash OR
grab” this time…
Not
every bank robber gets away with it, and not every bank  robber encounters
a junior member of staff with quite the presence of mind or courage in the
face of potential danger as Tony Higgs.
On wednedsay 7 June 1967, he came face to face with someone trying
to take what didn’t belong to them, and what happened next saw Tony
receiving this letter of thanks from the Chief General Manager of the
Bank. Tony told us:
 “I was serving a customer who was paying
in a large amount of cash and a man who was queuing behind her suddenly
grabbed a Ł100 bundle of pound notes and ran out of the branch. I jumped
over the counter and chased him down Dale St and caught him. I took him
back to the branch and we held him in the Manager’s room until the police
came.”
At
this time, most bank counters are still “open” – that is to say they have
no bandit screens. As robbery with violence increases steadily throughout
the 1960s, the screens are introduced as standard in new branches, and many
branches in large towns and cities begin to convert to this form of
protection for their staff. It is
interesting that the safety of the money seems to come top of the Chief
General Manager’s list(!) By the 1980s cashiers are instructed to comply
with the demands of the thief, and to rely on the connection of each branch
to the local police station by alarm.
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 Some Martins Branches still look the part today,
others such as OLD TRAFFORD have been terribly neglected. In between are
those which have undergone some change, but can broadly be recognised, and
one such is Manchester Oldham Street which has been photographed for us in
2016 by Alan Thomond. The name above
the door is different, and many of the original standing height features
gone, but at least Oldham Street has a purpose…
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Image ©
Barclays Ref 0030-1823
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Image ©
2016 Martins Bank Archive Collections - Alan Thomond
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