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Oxenhope
is one of several sub branches to Keighley that come to Martins through the
acquisition of the Craven Bank by the Bank of Liverpool in 1906. Four of them, including Oxenhope, survive
the merger with Barclays in 1969 by three years. These tiny outlets are part of the very
fabric of life in the villages that sustain them, and it says much for the
traditions established by the successive owners of Branches in the Craven
District, that so many survived several decades beyond the merger and into
the twenty-first century.
A
sub-Branch is not some kind of bucolic fantasy designed to impress tourists
and city columnists who move out to the sticks, it is a living breathing snapshot
of everyday life as it happens. Increasingly nowadays, local services are
re-appearing in the very places from which they were long since ripped
out. It might be that you now have a
so called “convenience” store (so prohibitively expensive, that “convenient”
for you, or the shopkeeper is a moot point) but at the very least perhaps,
many of these modern stores fulfil local traditions by bringing us butcher,
baker, post office, bank and corner shop all under the same roof. |
In Service from before 1906
until 22 January 1973
Image: Barclays Ref 0030/2198
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Whilst
reminiscing about the traditional corner shop (see also BARROW
IN FURNESS RAWLINSON STREET),
why not step up now, and wait to be served in style at the magnificent
sub-branch at Oxenhope. Sub branch
clerk, Julian Taylor tells us below of procedures that would not only make
any bank inspector raise both eyebrows, but that also in this day
and age would be simply unthinkable… X “A £7,000 return to Oxenhope,
please”…
The
sub branch clerk based at Keighley was responsible for running Oxenhope
Branch on Wednesday & Friday mornings. Returning to the parent branch in
Keighley at lunchtime he then had to complete balancing his cash and
replenish it ready for the following morning. His responsibility was then to
sort, list and balance the remittances for both the parent & the sub
branch. Security for Oxenhope Branch was enhanced by comparison to Haworth
& Denholme. On Wednesday morning cash deposits could be quite substantial.
On Friday mornings a number of local factories drew wages, including Hield
Brothers a major textile firm. This meant carrying up to £7,000 from the
parent branch, a considerable sum in the 1950s. To cover the increased risk,
& to help carry the heavy Gladstone Bag, the parent branch Messenger,
Jack Roberts accompanied the sub branch clerk. Having
this second pair of hands proved useful on many occasions but particularly on
Wednesday mornings. The last half hour of trading always seemed most popular
with local businesses paying in. In particular a local farmer, wholesale
butcher & slaughterman, Mr Jim Bowcock, inevitably arrived in the last
five minutes with substantial cash deposits. The critical point being the
branch closed at 11.45 and the bus departed at 12 noon. I’m sure I wasn’t
alone in agreeing with the customer on many occasions, to accept the credit
subject to checking the £100 bundles later. As the customer left we swept all
the cash into the Gladstone bag, hurriedly locked up & dashed for the
bus. The object then was to claim the front seat upstairs where the messenger
checked & sorted the cash whilst I wrote up the cash book & worked
out the balance. Invariably we were all done & dusted by the time the bus
arrived back in Keighley. Even in those days the Inspectors would have
frowned on the procedure, but now over 50 years on it is hard to imagine. D.J.T.
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