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 Martins Bank’s connection with Newport begins in
1938, and by 1969 there will have been three
branches in the town. Of those, High Street will be the longest survivor. Our
Newport records include a rare colour image (see below) from the Barclays
collection. Look out too at the foot
of this page for more examples of the fledgling post code system which in
1969 was still to be finalised into a system of letters and numbers that
would work for the whole country…
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In Service: 19 September 1938 until 17 March 1986
Image © Barclays Ref: 0030-2041
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South Wales is one of
those places about which one forms opinions which have to be entirely recast
in the light of firsthand experience. The average Northerner or Londoner, for
example, can work up no great enthusiasm for Cardiff and Newport, which he
associates with the export coal trade, and by a process of association of
ideas, imagines them to be dirty, depressing places. Newport is a town of
some 100,000 inhabitants and although maybe it cannot be considered
architecturally very impressive it is bright and clean by comparison with
many Lancashire and Yorkshire towns. Five minutes' run in a car from our branch, which is near the
railway station, brings you to a beautiful residential district on a
hill, from one side of which a most
impressive panorama of Newport is unfolded. On the other side is one of the
loveliest views in South Wales, of mountain and valley on the grand scale.
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Images © Barclays Ref: 0030-2041
The dock area over which the Transporter is situated is much
more extensive than we had expected. After the close of
business, Mr. and Mrs. Newhouse took us for a drive along the Wye Valley,
stopping at Tintern Abbey. We also visited Caerleon, where we inspected the
Roman amphitheatre, and Monmouth—a very beautiful run on a perfect
evening.
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Near at hand in the
Wye Valley, is some of the loveliest country in Wales, and that is saying
something. We opened our South Wales branches in 1938 and the
footing on which they now stand reflects very great credit on the managers
who have worked them up and especially the present managers, Mr. Edward
Newhouse of Newport and Mr. W. A. Thompson of Cardiff. Mr. Newhouse
commenced his service at Kendal in 1934 and subsequently went to Ambleside
and Lancaster before going to Coventry as second man when the branch was
opened in 1937.During the war he served from 1942 to 1946, latterly as a
Captain in charge of army vehicle depots. He went to Branch Department,
Head Office, for a time after demobilisation, becoming Pro Manager at
Castle Street, Liverpool, in 1947 and Manager at Newport later the same
year. With him as Pro Manager is
Mr. R. Hughes, and Mr. D. L. Horton, both from the Liverpool District, and
two local young men, F. Youngson and I. Evans.
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The
girls are Miss J. Palmer, Miss J. I. Kerr, Miss B. A. Lewis, and Miss J.
Blake, the last-named officially on the H. O. Relief Staff.Jean Palmer has
only been in the Bank a little over a year. She succeeded her twin sister
Joan who was on the staff at Newport during the war and is now married. Her
keenness on behalf of the Bank is worthy of special mention for, since she
entered the service, she has been directly
responsible on more than one occasion for bringing new business to the
branch. Mr. Hughes has been at the branch ever since it opened and has done
a good job of work. We visited Newport on April 23rd and while the day's
work was being finished off, we took a
stroll
through the town, inspecting the castle ruins, quite near our branch, and
crossing the River Usk which here flows between deep walls of
clinging mud. We were also interested in the Transporter Bridge, similar to
that at Runcorn, and are still hoping to learn some day exactly why such
structures were built instead of ordinary bridges which seem much less
involved and much more satisfactory.
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Strange looking numbers…
 Newport, like every other full branch of Martins
Bank has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age from
around 1963 onwards, with the issue of these computerised cheques.
Encoded with the “MICR Line” in
magnetic ink, the rather strange looking numbers along the bottom edge of
the cheque can be read by the Bank’s new and powerful IBM READER
SORTER, which processes
950 cheques every minute – far outstripping the physical working
capabilities of even the most diligent of bank clerks!
By
1966 the customer’s name will begin to be printed on cheques and other
vouchers along with an account number with which to aid computer
processing. Hitherto the only way to
recognise a customer’s affairs with the Bank, was by knowing his or her
signature by sight! However, with
the advent of computerisation, the era of cashiers relying on numbers
rather than names, is upon us…
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