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 Swindon joins the now burgeoning South Western
district of Martins Bank early in 1964.
It is the last of four branches to be opened in Wiltshire, and only
the second full Branch.
The bank has a full branch at Salisbury with a sub at
Salisbury Cattle Market, and a self accounting sub-Branch at Calne, which by
virtue of its geography is looked after by Bath. As Martins Bank Magazine reports, optimism
is high, as are two of the Swindon staff who stand atop the roof of the new
building in March 1964…
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In Service: 1964 until 10 September 1984
Image © Martins Bank
Archive Collections
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'Topping-Out' at
Swindon
 On
Tuesday, March 9th, a rather pleasant custom which has its origin in ancient
ritual was observed at our new Swindon premises now under construction: a
'Topping-Out' ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the main
structure and roof. The ceremony calls for
refreshment to be provided by the client for all involved with the building,
including the architect, the contractor and his men. The venue is normally the topmost part of
the building but owing to the sloping roof this would have been a rather
dangerous operation for so many so it was held on the flat roof of the
single-storey portion at the rear. The Bank was represented by Mr D. E.
Brewis (Superintendent of Branches) and Mr C. J. Wall of District Office.
So that tradition should be observed as closely as
possible Mr Brewis and Mr Wall, much to the amusement of onlookers, made a
difficult ascent up an extremely shaky ladder to be photographed on the very
pinnacle of the roof…
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when in
1840 Daniel  Gooch
advised Brunel to build the Great Western Railway Workshops at the foot of
the Swindon hill, what had been little more than a village was destined to
become a town.
Until a few years ago Swindon was so
much a railway town that newly arrived housewives had to accustom themselves
to the query from shopkeepers and neighbours 'Is your husband inside?'
To Swindonians 'inside' meant 'working for
the Railway' and not, as elsewhere, 'in jail'. As the township expanded it
remained divided between Old Swindon, on the hill, and Swindon New Town
below.
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Image © Martins Bank
Archive Collection
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  Though
some overlapping was inevitable the development has left a peculiar
lopsidedness with the centre - Old Swindon - on the edge of a bustling community. The decline of the
railway has been offset by industrial expansion, with the factories of
Plessey, Pressed Steel and Vickers, along with many light industries, easing
the redundancy of the railway workers, and it seemed to us as we walked
through the town to our new branch in Regent Circus that London voices
already heavily out-numbered those of Wiltshire. Swindon's population has now
reached 110,000 and within a few years will increase by 85,000.
Our new office comprises the ground floor and basement of a
brand-new building
- airy, tastefully decorated, with ample room for expansion - on an excellent
site. When we arrived, a few teething
troubles were responding to treatment under the supervisory eye of Mr D. J.
Crellin, our Manager, and although his branch had been open for only a
fortnight, we soon realised that he had got off to a good start with, as usual,
the utmost co-operation from his District Office. On
reading Mr Crellin's earlier career elsewhere in this issue, nobody will be
surprised that his optimism is focussed not only on Swindon as it is and will
be, but on the fact that this booming industrial town is set in a thriving
world of agriculture.
 Mr
R. H. Shorland, who entered the service in 1954, was temporarily on loan to
another branch when we called. His banking career has covered the Bristol
branches, Bath, and a spell on relief duties and in his absence we met Mr H.
J. Ellwood of the Relief Staff who was making the most of the evenings by
sampling the Swindon golf courses. The other
members of the staff are Mr C. N. Frost, a native of Torquay who came from
Paignton branch, Miss A. S. Rugg who previously spent nine months at Calne
branch, and Miss C. M. Sheppard who joined the new branch direct from
college. Before returning to London we had
dinner with Mr Crellin and explored the older part of the town where much
still remains to remind one of more leisured times and where one can sense
the resistance to the commercialism and industrialisation in which it has
been caught up. When we came upon the old Corn Hall drowsing against the
trees in the square in the warm evening sun, we were not really surprised
that it had become the Locarno Ballroom. And when we noticed the inscription
on the stonework above the door, we felt some sympathy for Old Swindon. The
old days will not return, progress will continue, and eventually the old and
the new will work together. But just at present it must seem to many people
that energy and enterprise are synonymous with brashness and bingo.
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 Some former Branches of Martins Bank are in a sorry state
– empty, unloved, even worse – they might be in terrible disrepair. Luckily, as we can see from the
contemporary image, Swindon Branch seems still to be cared for in the
twenty-first century…
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