11-51-80 Taunton 21 Fore Street

Martins Bank opens a Branch at Taunton in 1938 at 21 Fore Street, from where the Bank’s business is conducted for the next twenty-eight years. By the early sixties the Bank is looking at its portfolio of Branches keen to ensure that the maximum footfall is achieved – i.e. that passing trade finds each branch conveniently located.

In the days before the convenience of cash machines in pubs and shops, this is something that banks are particularly engaged in, as in the early part of the twenty-first century, the dynamics of the High Street change almost daily. This is in sharp contrast to the decline we are seeing in the twenty-first century where the high street is fighting for survival against shopping – and of course BANKING - from home…

In Service: 16 May 1938 until 1966

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Valentine and Successors

In 1966 Taunton Branch relocates to No 7 FORE STREET, a traditional looking bank building on the outside, but a striking declaration of the swinging sixties on the inside. The original Branch at Taunton has one visit from Martins Bank Magazine, in the middle of 1949, and above, we are fortunate enough to have (most of) an image of 21 Fore Street, which was taken in the early 1940s…

1949 03 MBM.jpg We took the train to Taunton and called upon Mr. Thompson and his little staff round about midday. There are many compensations for those who leave the more populous areas of the north and south-east to establish the emblem of the Liver and the Grasshopper in distant places, and not the least of the compensations attend those who come to the South-West.

Image © Northcliffe Media Limited Image created courtesy of

THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive

Mr. Thompson lives in a farmhouse eight miles outside the town, centred in some of the loveliest country in England. His is not a factory district, but a farming community. Like his colleague in Bath, Mr. Thompson is a keen Territorial Army Officer and is Colonel of the 630 Medium Regiment R.A. (T.A.), and served throughout the last war. He commenced his career in the Bank of Liverpool at Preston in 1925 and since 1928 has served the Bank at 68, Lombard Street. He became Manager at Taunton in 1946. His second man, S. B. Evans, commenced his career at Blackpool in 1929 and reached Taunton in 1948 after spells at Blyth, Bedlington, Northumberland Street, Cardiff, Newport and on Head Office Relief. He served in H.M. Forces from 1940-1946. Miss Buller joined the bank at Taunton in 1947. Between them they worthily maintain the Bank's reputation for courteous and cheerful service and the branch, nicely sited at the Town Centre is justifying the faith of those who started it there.



*Mr F H Mathias* *On the Staff* *1938 to 1948*	*Mr J D C Thompson* *Manager* *1946 to 1964*	*Miss Buller* *Joined the Bank Here* *1947*	*Mr S B Evans* *On the Staff* *1948 to 1956*	*Mr D G M Bray* *Joined the Bank Here* *1952 to 1957*	*Mr M Henderson* *Signing Authority* *1955 to 1963*
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*Miss C M Ingram* *Joined the Bank Here* *1962 to 1963*	*Miss M C Winslade* *Joined the Bank Here* *1962 to 1963*	*Mr J F Hearle* *Limited Authority* *1963 to 1966*	*Mr M M Parkinson* *Manager* *1964 onwards*	*Mr R J Williams* *Pro Manager* *1964 to 1967*	*Mrs Jasmine Dauben* *(nee Mills)* *Cashier 1965*