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The
Staff Magazine pays a visit to the branch a month or two before it moves to
permanent premises at 124 HIGH STREET,
which is every inch the modern style of bank branch that sets Martins apart
from the rest of the pack. Sadly, there are currently no images of the
temporary premises to compare the two, but If you can help with images and/or
information about this or any of the 1000+ buildings used by Martins as
branches between 1928 and 1969, please do get in touch with us at the usual
address gutinfo@btinternet.com.
  northallerton is a place of divided
loyalties but is none the worse for that. Commercially and industrially it
looks northwards towards Darlington and Stockton in County Durham: administratively
and agriculturally it is wholly Yorkshire and is in fact the county town of
the North Riding. Our branch belongs to the
North Eastern District and Mr T. A. Douglas, our Manager, began his banking
life at North Shields. He
even speaks of N'thallerton in the same way that our North Eastern friends
say Ny’cassel, but apart from this he is strongly pro-Yorkshire in his
assessment of Northallerton, the centre of a highly prosperous farming area.
Yorkshiremen may therefore rest assured that there is no further take-over
pending and agree that it was reasonable for the District which provided much
of the initial business at the new office to see it safely launched. Northallerton is remarkable in that it
has both a rural and an urban district. Some 25% of the population is engaged
in primary production—
mostly farming, approximately 12% in manufacture, with the remaining 63%
largely in government, shops and offices. It is not so alarming when one has
walked around the town and seen the vast administrative centre of the County
Hall and the headquarters of county police, motor taxation, ambulance and
fire services, and subsidiary government offices.
 In the
future the town will expand to take the over-spill from Darlington, raising
the population figure from about 9,000 to 30,000. Meanwhile in the wide main street, the
stalls appear every Wednesday and the market operates much as it has done for
more than 750 years, the multiples watch impassively from shops with narrow
frontages but of tremendous depth, and parking a car becomes a nightmare
rather than a problem. Our temporary office in Zetland Street just off High
Street was formerly a cafe and the clean, workmanlike frontage, quite apart
from the Bank's name, should have been sufficient deterrent to the gormless
individual who recently pushed a betting slip hopefully across the counter. The new premises, which should be ready within a year,
will replace a big house in the High Street. We think it is purely fortuitous
that the barred windows of Northallerton prison stare malignantly across the
road at the end of the long garden behind the new site, but we can visualise
an expressionless manager showing a “sticky overdraft” out of the back door. However,
Mr Douglas’s experience should make such ceremonies rare – Entering the
service in 1941, he carried out a variety of branch, relief and inspection
duties in the North Eastern District, becoming Clerk-in-Charge at Felling
Branch in 1959. In December 1960 he was appointed manager of Blyth Branch,
and opened Northallerton Branch on 1 July. His home is still near Whitley
Bay, for his new house has not yet been started, so he travels North to see
his family when he can. He also travel a lot to see farms and farmers in the
thriving Vale of York, a veritable Carter Paterson amongst Bank Managers –
Distance No Object – and we are grateful to him for an interesting journey to
and from Darlington and for a most enjoyable day. Two young men comprise the staff. Mr M. P. Ramsdale
entered the service at Newcastle in June 1959 and all his service has been at
North Eastern branches. We hope that his energy will be rewarded by passes in
the recent examinations to complete Part II. In Mr J. R. Carter, who entered the service
in 1962 and enjoyed four months on the relief staff prior to joining
Northallerton on July 1st, we found enthusiasm and also a lively
determination not to be persuaded that our
old car is better than his old
car. That is the difficulty—to persuade these determined men from the
north-east. Ny'cassel by all
means—they should know. But N'thallerton . . .?
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