11-85-70 Silsden

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Craven Bank

Martins Bank’s Branch at Silsden is one of fourteen original main offices of the Craven Bank, which amalgamates with the Bank of Liverpool in 1906. The Craven Bank area covers a large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and part of Lancashire with branches at Skipton (Head Office) and thirty-nine Branches and sub-Branches across Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Pictured here in this lithograph image from 1918, Silsden Branch bears the name of the Bank of Liverpool, which in turn absorbs Martin’s Private Bank in the same year, becoming The Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited.

In service: ca.1880 – 25 February 2011

Image © Barclays

1920 s Bank of Liverpool Silsden bag for £100 Sovreigns This cloth bag – very handy when you need just the right transportation for those one hundred Sovereigns you have lying about the place – is personalised to Silsden branch, and was kindly donated to the Archive by Julian Taylor. In 1928 the modern day Martins Bank is born. with the amalgamation of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. Silsden makes it through the subsequent merger with Barclays, and into the twenty-first century, closing its doors for the final time on Friday 25 February, 2011. After it was announced that Silsden would be amongst a number of local Branches to be closed, this photograph of the branch was taken for posterity in 2010 by a member of Barclays’ staff. It seems almost reassuring that apart from the addition of a cash machine and a bus stop, little seems to have changed at Silsden in the last one hundred years or so! For our feature, we journey to 1957 and the retirement of Mr Lucas, a long serving member of staff who has been manager at Silsden since 1949…

1957 04 MBM.jpg At the close of business on October 31^st a small but very happy tea party was held in the Manager’s room to mark the retirement of Mr. L. S. Lucas after 44 years’ service. No official presentation was made, as a sum of money contributed by colleagues, past and present, had already been handed to Mr. Lucas who intends to use it towards the purchase of a pair of binoculars. Two evenings previously Mr. Lucas entertained the staff and a number of other colleagues to dinner at the Crescent Hotel, Ilkley. Among them were Mr. Earnshaw of Keighley, Mr. Mashiter of Skipton and Mr. Hardcastle of Guiseley. Although informality was observed throughout at Mr. Lucas’s request, the occasion was used by those present to pay tribute to him and to express their good wishes. Mr. Lucas commenced his service in 1913 at Otley, served in the first war from 1916 to 1919, and afterwards returned to Otley. He went to Skipton in 1932 and his first appoint ment, as Pro Manager at Nelson, came in 1940. He became Pro Manager at Skipton in 1945, Assistant Manager there in 1947 and Manager at Silsden in 1949.

Image - Martins Bank Archive Collections © Courtesy Rachel Hollings

Banking by an open fire…

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Rachel Hollings

We were delighted to receive this photograph of the informal gathering to celebrate the retirement of Mr Lucas on 31 october 1957. Many of our Martins colleagues have been racking their brains to try and name everyone in the picture, and we now have just two positive identifications to be made. If you recognise either of them, please let us know at martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.

2 Eric Ellison

3 John Mashiter

4 Eric Earnshaw

5 W C M Perkins (new Manager)

6 Joan Sant

7 L S Lucas (outgoing Manager)

8 Roy Hutchinson

9 A W Denton

10 Bertie Jones

11 (POSSIBLY) Johnnie F Bauer

This image (left) for which we are once again indebted to Rachel Hollings and Dave Baldwin, was taken about the same time as Mr Lucas’ tea party. It features Silsden staff member Joan Sant hard at work at her desk, by a lovely roaring open fire – a health and safety nightmare today, but back then, an essential form of heating…

For our Silsden “then and now” feature, we are grateful to Dave Baldwin for the contemporary image of the branch when it was still open as Barclays in 2010. The search for an image of the building with the Martins Bank branding is still ongoing…

Image © Barclays

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections - Dave Baldwin



Mr A Dewhirst On the Staff 1916 to 1919	Mr P A Scott Joined the Bank Here 1917 to 1917	Mr Jack R Hardcastle Joined Here 1920 On the Staff 1946-56	Mr G H Clark Joined the Bank Here 1921	Mr D Tindall On the Staff 1924 to 1932	Mr C J Verity Manager 1926



Mr M Coates Joined the Bank Here 1932 to 1936	Mr A W Denton On the Staff 1939 to 1941	Mr L S Lucas Manager 1949 to 1957	Miss Joan Sant On the Staff 1957	Mr E Shackleton On the Staff 1957 to 1967	Mr C M Perkins Manager 1957 to 1967



Mr Geoff J Whitley Joined the bank Here 1960 to 1963	Mr D Julian Taylor On the Staff 1963	Mr A S Petty Manager 1967 onwards