|
 Skelton, like many of Martins Bank’s smaller
sub-Branches receives no mention in Martins Bank Magazine, so it’s great that
the images on this page are still in existence. This little sub-Branch opens in 1947 and
offers convenience to those personal and business customers who might
otherwise have to travel to Loftus to do their banking. Skelton joins two
well-established sub-Branches to Loftus, which are found at BROTTON, opened
in 1874 in the days of the North Eastern Banking Company, and at CARLIN HOW
which was opened by the Bank of Liverpool and Martins just after the end of
the First World War. By the late 1960s Martins Bank Staff arrive to open up
for business at Skelton for one and a half hours on four mornings each week,
which would indicate via a fairly brisk business, a customer footfall comprising primarily
the needs of local shops paying in takings, and of personal current and
savings account holders. The interior photograph here, shows albeit in
rudimentary form, some thing that will become ubiquitous in Banking to this
day – bandit screens. The increase in
armed raids and real the danger these put Bank staff under requires action,
and sadly the removal of true face to face contact with customers begins a
rapid advance throughout all Bank branches, large and small. The only other
“protection” afforded to staff at this time is the alarm system, and the
Branch being allowed its own telephone line – expensive but necessary.
Surviving the merger with Barclays, Skelton sub branch remains open for a
further thirty years, making it (just) into the Twenty-First Century, closing
its doors for the last time in April 2000…
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In Service: 12 September 1947 until 7 April 2000
Images
© Barclays Ref 0030-2662
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