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This
really is an optimistic period for the Bank, coinciding with the celebrations
for the 400th
Anniversary of the founding of a banking service at 68 Lombard Street, the
successful installation of the first regular-use banking computer and cheque
sorting equipment, and the prospect of steady future expansion which has been
brought about through years of careful trading and rapidly increasing
profits.
Sutton
Coldfield Branch opens in the Spring, and whilst it is a tasteful affair from
the outside, there does appear to be some questionable décor – including a
sort of leopard skin mural - on the inside, as we shall see below . . .
Obsessed
as it so often is by the history to be found in towns chosen for new Branches
of the Bank, Martins Bank Magazine visits Sutton Coldfield not long after it
opens, to have a look round and meet the staff… |
In Service: Thursday
20 February 1964 until Friday 3 September 1982
Image © Barclays Ref 0030-2848
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collection
Bishop Vesey also founded the famous Grammar School, built
houses and bridges, paved the streets and ensured the preservation of the
2,400 acres comprising Sutton Park where the World Jamboree was held in 1957
and which remains much as it was in the days when Warwick the Kingmaker
hunted the deer.
As a resident and ratepayer of the town Mr R. S. Arrand, the
Manager of our new branch, still has the right to collect acorns in Sutton
Park for his sows—if he had any—and if this seems a quaint
privilege it is worth remembering that at one time it was much valued.
Although we saw no piggeries in or around the town, we found plenty of
activity, excellent shops and ample proof that socially, culturally and
educationally Bishop Vesey's successors, the Town Council, are very much
alive to present needs.
“Goodness me, Sir, it’s awfully SQUARE around here”…
Our office is admirably sited in the shopping centre with a neat
but narrow frontage and much greater depth than one would expect. It is well
fitted out with two floors above the main office. Mr Arrand's career appears in the Appointments
pages of this issue, and we are glad that his wife, formerly Miss Pat Kirk of
Market Street branch, Nottingham, was able to join us for lunch while Mr L.
J. Williscroft, fresh from a Domestic Training Course, kept the branch
ticking. Mr Williscroft has served at Birmingham,
Walsall and West Bromwich branches and on Relief since entering the service
twelve years ago and he attended an Overseas Course in 1956. |
Image © Barclays Ref 0030-2848
Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections Advertisement Remastered 12 October 2017 |
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The younger members of the staff are Mr A. A. Bird, hooker for
Tamworth rugby club, with eighteen months' bank service, and Miss P. A.
Mulliner who joined the Bank only a fortnight before the branch opened and to
whom we have already apologised because the photograph fails to show our
readers what a charming girl she is. |
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