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A very busy year…
 A pivotal
year for the newly formed Martins Bank Limited, 1928 sees a flurry of new Branches
appearing all over the country, including one in the village of Irby, in
Cheshire. It is not often that we come across such a nostalgic scene of life
in the 1950s, as in the image of Irby from October 1959 shown above.
You
could almost be there now. The branch
closes in 1939 and re-opens in 1946. With so many of Martins’ staff called up
to fight in the Second World War, it becomes impossible to keep some branches
open. Many, like Irby, are essentially
mothballed for “the duration”,
but many are less fortunate, and will never open their doors again.
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In Service: 16 February 1928 until 7 April 2000
Image © Barclays
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Image ©
Frith Ltd Ref I42007
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Extracts
from Martins Bank Limited
Annual
Report and Accounts for 1928 – © Barclays
This view of Irby Branch was immortalised on a postcard
in 1955 by Francis Frith®, whose photograph is of particular historic
interest as it shows how Irby looked before the Branch was extended into
the premises next door. During the
mid 1960s and up to the merger with Barclays, Martins undertook a huge
programme of renovation, expansion, knock-down and rebuild of its Branch
stock. This was in addition to opening dozens of new offices particularly
across the South of England and Wales.
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At the time of the 1969 Merger of Martins and Barclays,
Irby is kept on, and continues as a sub-Branch to Heswall, serving customers for more than thirty
years before being closed in April 2000.
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