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Lewis’s Department Store opens in
Manchester in 1877, and closes in 2002.
Lewis’s Bank first appears in the store around the time of the Bank’s
establishment in 1928. Amazingly, this advertisement (whose fonts would look
easily at home in advertising today) is from the same year. It advertises the second week of the
Manchester Store’s Mid-Season Fashion Clearance Sale. The run up to Christmas 1928 is obviously
going to be a good time for all customers of Lewis’s, with the promise of new
and different “bargains” being offered
every single day. With this Store stretching from 106 to 122 Market
street, Lewis’s tradition of occupying very large premises certainly
continues in Manchester. Add this to
the unrivalled buying power of the group iteslf, and the unique offerings
within each store – hairdressing, breakfast lunch tea and dinner, live music,
and of course a bank with a children’s counter open six FULL days each week,
and you are onto a winner! Martins
Bank Magazine visits the branch and its twenty seven strong staff in 1959,
and discovers that the Bank has already relocated three times within the
store! Our second feature concerns
Lewis’s Bank staff member Susan Trenor who in 1967 is presented with her Duke
of Edinburgh’s Gold Award at Buckingham Palace, by the Duke himself…

A
full line up…

The
branch of Lewis's Bank in the Manchester store is the second largest of the
nine branches of the Bank, having a staff of 28, six men and twenty-two
girls. Although Lewis's Bank is comparatively young in years, the Manchester
branch has about it a certain aura of respectable antiquity. Here you can
still see the high stools and desks and the solid fixtures of another
generation, though at the time of our visit there were signs on every hand of
the march of progress and mechanisation that is now in operation. The branch was opened in 1928 and its
present location is its third site in the store. It is not outside the bounds
of possibility that the constant growth of the business may cause a further
re-siting in the near future.

Image (right) : Burnley Express and
Advertiser 03/11/1928
Image © D.C.
Thomson & Co. Ltd. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

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BACK ROW:
E Adamson L Tilley
L Ridge J Bent N McElroy
D Freebairn
B Beaton P Neild

SECOND ROW:
P Baker J Redfern
M Brumby J Birch B Tyler
J Wood
S Kirhham

THIRD ROW:
H Foulkes S Walker
D Barnie A Thompson

FRONT ROW:
F Stones (20 years)
H Birchenough (30 years)
Mr J A Kibble Mr L Watson
K G Royle (26 years)
L Smith (29 years)
E Seymour (21 years)
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An attractive children's counter
stands at the entrance to the branch, on the right of the door, and we were
rather amused to note that not by any means all its customers were
children. It seems that once a child opens an account in the children's
section the habit is formed of using the children's counter and although
every effort is made to persuade the customers to promote themselves to the
adults' counter and to change their accounts into ordinary accounts when
they grow up, some of them decline to alter their habits and continue to
patronise the section of the bank which custom has made familiar. Unlike the Liverpool office, the bank in
the Manchester store is not separated from the store except by a partition
and there is no separate entrance from the street.
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This Lewis’s Bank Cheque from the early 1960s
bears an
unusual variation of Martins Bank’s Coat of Arms
Image © Barclays

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Two of the ladies have been with the branch almost since it was
opened, and before that they were employed in the store itself. Miss
Birchenough can do any job and at the moment is engaged on general duties.
Miss Smith is correspondence clerk and is in charge of Standing Orders. Other ladies of long service
are Mrs. Stones, cashier, very highly thought of by the customers; Mrs.
Seymour, in charge of the current accounts, and Mrs. Royle, in charge of
credits and dividends. Most of the other girls are teenagers
or in their early twenties. The Manager is Mr. Lewis Watson, who commenced
his career in 1938. He served with H.M. Forces from 1942-1947, and in 1948
was appointed Manager of the Leicester branch. The following year he was
promoted to be Assistant Manager at Manchester, and in 1956 he became Deputy
Manager. He has been Manager at Manchester since last year. Mr. J. A. Kibble, the Assistant Manager,
entered the Bank in Birmingham in 1950, after military service, 1947-1949,
and was appointed in 1957. Mr. Kibble's wife was formerly a member of the
Birmingham staff of the Bank and it was there they met. During the hours we spent at the branch we
were most impressed with the business of the counter and the volume of business
handled. We were also impressed with the very obvious cordiality of the
relationship which exists between the bank and its customers. The atmosphere
is most homely.
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Going For Gold!

 after three
years of hard but very enjoyable work Susan Trenor, aged 19, of Manchester
branch travelled to London on February 7 to attend at Buckingham Palace for
the presentation by the Duke of Edinburgh of her Gold Award. Award winners
are allowed to take one guest to the presentation and, while Susan's mother
along with the many relations and friends was being shown to her seat in the
State Ballroom, the 450 winners were organised alphabetically in the
adjoining corridor. On receiving her certificate Susan was able to assure
Prince Philip in response to his enquiry that she had not pinched any money from the Bank! Under four headings in the Award Scheme - Adventure, Service, Interests and
Design for Living - an increasingly high standard must be attained for the
Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Susan's 'Adventure' activities ranged from
rambles and two-day hikes to a 50-mile hike and a fortnight at a residential
college which included canoeing, lessons in pottery and a visit to the cells
in a police station. 'Service' included hairdressing and make-up, hospital
work and a W.V.S. course, while 'Interests' covered badminton and knitting.
In 'Design for Living' Susan studied first aid, Junior Red Cross work, home
nursing and mothercraft. With the continuing and growing
popularity of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme among younger people,
blending as it does personal achievement with service to others, we hope it
will not be long before we are able to feature the successes of other young
colleagues.
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Mr G K Moore
Manager
1964
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Miss Jean
Redfern
Cashier
1966
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Mr J D
Millar
Assistant
Manager
1967
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Mr Lewis
Watson
Assistant
Manager
1967
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Mr W J Hatton
Manager
1967
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Miss Susan
Trenor
On the
Staff
1967
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Sort Code:
and/or National Number:
Title:
Address:
Telephone Number:
Manager:
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11-97-90
74-052
Lewis’s Bank Limited - Manchester
106-122 Market Street Manchester 1
CENtral 6604
Mr W J Hatton
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