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In a moment a member of the Kidderminster staff has a
starring role on the mighty ATV, a television company that is barely five
years old in 1960, but which, under the stewardship of the Grade brothers
is destined to become a worldwide success.
First of all we find that Kidderminster branch is featured in
Martins Bank Magazine in 1960 for an altogether different reason from the
usual branch visit - which explains the picture above - the River Stour has
burst its banks, and deposited without notice, a great deal of water in
Martins Bank…
Row-In Bank
 Towards
the end of January the River Stour overflowed its banks and flooded parts
of Kidderminster. Local flooding is caused owing to the fact that when the
River Severn is full it cannot take away the water from the Stour. There is
a warning system in operation and a siren sounds in the town when the level
of water reaches 105.5 ft. (measured in feet above sea level). The town is
flooded when the level reaches 107 feet. The first intimation our Manager,
Mr. K. S. Peal, had of the situation was a telephone call from the local
police at 6.05 a.m. on Monday,
January 25th. This warning gave sufficient time for the staff to get to the
office and empty the basement and safe of all contents. The bank opened as
usual at 10 a.m. with water just beginning to appear in Vicar Street. The
River Stour runs at the back of the shops opposite to the bank and the
first flooding appears through those shops and a cinema. Amazingly enough,
during the first hour of business the branch was very busy, but as the
water rose steadily, it was impossible to reach the branch except by boat
and no customers risked the journey after 11.30 a.m. Water kept out of the basement
until 3.45 p.m., but as the level rose to within one inch of the front door
step, it was too much to hope for that our branch could continue to act
like King Canute and a cascade of water entered the basement from 4 o'clock
onwards until the evening. We would like to mention particularly the work
of the staff in clearing up on the following day. The Fire Brigade's pipes
took some of the water away, but the staff removed 600 gallons of water by
means of dustpans and buckets, each bucket being carried up the stairs and
emptied into the drains. In addition, all the branch records were carried
to and from the basement on numerous occasions during the week without
complaint.
A further warning occurred at 5 p.m.
three days later, on Thursday afternoon, which necessitated attendance at
the branch until 4.45 a.m. on Friday, but on this occasion no flooding of
the branch occurred. We are informed, however, that this sort of thing
could well become more frequent now as local farmers and carpet
manufacturers have over the years built high walls to keep out the flood water.
This has resulted in a re-channelling to other areas in one of which is
situated the branch. Incidents arising out of this disconcerting event
which stand out in the memory of our staff are as follows :
·
The arrival
of a gentleman by pickaback in order to open a new account!
·
The trusting
nature of a customer who handed a case unlocked and containing more than Ł2,000
to a complete stranger who possessed Wellington boots and was therefore
able to navigate the deep water to the bank.
·
The elderly
lady who came to enquire whether her money would be safe or whether she
ought to take it home with her.
·
The young
customer who enjoyed the boat ride so much that she paid into the bank
again later in the day !
·
The only
means of reaching the Post Office was for the junior to stand on the front
doorstep and shout "Skylark" to the boatman at the end of the
road,
·
The
insistence of several customers on being called—if
necessary from their beds—in the event of further flooding, so that they
could assist.
·
Owing to the
shortage of sandbags in the town, the staff improvised by filling cloth
coin bags. Subsequently the local
newspaper telephoned to enquire whether it was "really money on your
doorstep". Later a youth was caught trying to steal a bag after wading
through water above the level of his Wellington boots.
A Midland Montage…
  Miss
Iris Mason, who is a cashier at our Kidderminster branch, with Mr. Leslie
Dunn of A.T.V. Midland Montage. Miss Mason was selected earlier in the year
as the Queen of Kidderminster and Stourport in a local contest of which Mr.
Dunn was one of the judges. She has since been invited to appear on the
television programme “Rainbow Room” and has received the further honour of
being adjudged Stourport's 1960 Carnival
Queen. One of the judges was Miss Olive Carpenter, a former Miss Great
Britain.
 KIDDERMINSTER =
carpets; the association is
inescapable. We did not have time, unfortunately, during the course of our
visit on April 25th to visit a carpet-weaving factory and so did not
satisfy our curiosity as to why it is correct to speak of an Axminster but
not a Kidderminster. Furthermore, as Axminster is a particular weave, a
carpet so woven in Kidderminster would be an Axminster—very confusing! Brussels and Axminster weaves form a
large part of the output. Minus the dirt and the kilns of the
pottery towns the concentration of carpet-making factories in main streets
and side streets, quite close to the shopping centre, is rather reminiscent
of the Five Towns, but much pleasanter. Though a town of some 40,000
inhabitants it seems quite small and in a few minutes one is out into
lovely country. On the day of our visit we stepped from the station into
gaily bedecked streets and for a fleeting moment thought that Mr. H. E.
Williams, our Kidderminster manager, had arranged things in style for our
visit. Then the truth dawned—Her Majesty the Queen had visited the town two days
previously.
Mr. and Mrs.
Williams were at the station to meet us and we went to their lovely house
on the outskirts of the town, on the edge of the golf course and with a
view across the countryside such as few suburban dwellers enjoy. After
lunch at the Club House we went for a drive round the town and out as far
as Bewdley, from which place Stanley Baldwin took his title when created an
Earl. On our way we saw the signboard of a local firm of estate agents, and
had to look a second time for confirmation of what we saw. “Doolittle and
Dalley” was the title of the firm and it reminded us of our visit to
Bradford last year when we noted the “Idle Working Men's Club”, (“Idle”,
for the benefit of our Southern readers, being a place near
Bradford).
On reaching our
branch in Vicar Street we found it quite difficult to  understand
how it could possibly have been flooded from the Severn two years ago, just
as we were about to open. The branch is very attractively
furnished in light walnut panelling and part of the working space is a sun
trap on a good day. Mr. Williams entered the Bank in 1925 and served at
Liverpool City Office, Exchange, Chief Accountant's Department, Breck Road,
Hoylake and on Head Office Relief until war service 1941-1946 took him to
Assam and India with the Royal Artillery. After the war he served at
Mossley Hill, and then in Liverpool City Office Securities and Victoria
Street before his appointment to Worcester with signing authority in 1950.
He opened Kidderminster branch in 1955.
Mr. A. Warren is second-in-command, with
a background of training at Skipton (1938), Hanley and Newcastle (Staffs).
He very obligingly came in from holiday in order to be in the staff
photograph. Mr. A. E. Rose entered the Bank in 1954 at Stourport and was
transferred to Kidderminster last year. Miss P. Harris joined the staff
last July and will shortly be the wife of the minister of the local
Pentecostal Church. On relief on the day of our visit was Mr. W. P. S.
Lucas, from Birmingham, whose appearance in no fewer than three photographs
in our spring issue was the subject of some caustic comment in Birmingham.
Mrs. Williams, too, is bound to the Bank with especially close ties for she
served on the staff in the Liverpool District, at Liscard and elsewhere
during the Second World War. Our visit was all too brief, but every moment
was enjoyed to the full.
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