11-701 Richmond Yorkshire

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A Branch at Richmond, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, is opened by Martins Bank Limited in June 1928, just a few months after the amalgamation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank with the Bank of Liverpool and Martins.

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

In Service: 4 June 1928 until 30 January 1937

This is a Branch that does seem to be in a good location, but it faces the axe quite early - 1937. Other Branches with a similar fate are Workington, closed in 1934, and Ripon, closed in 1935. In the early days of the newly restructured and renamed Bank, it was common for small advertisements like the one here (left) to be taken out in the local press to let customers know about the opening of a new branch. Richmond is closed by a reciprocal agreement with Barclays Bank, and we are currently investigating the details of this arrangement.

Extract from Martins Bank Annual Report and Accounts © Barclays 1928

Image © B T 1929

It will be interesting to find out which Barclays Branch fell on its sword to make way for a branch of Martins, and as soon as we have any information about this, we will add it to this page. Reciprocal arrangements are not uncommon in the history of the modern-day Martins Bank – in the Second World War, the Bank agrees to take on the business of the branch of Glyn Mills and Co at Carfax, Oxford. Around the same time, the business of Martins at Bexhill on Sea is temporarily moved to a closed Barclays Branch at Eastbourne, and when Martins’ Branch at Chorlton-cum-Hardy is bombed, the Bank leases, and later purchases a nearby branch of the District Bank. For a short period in the 1960s, Martins Bank and Lloyds Bank agreed with each other to share between them the opening of branches in areas not yet served by either, so that a town or city might at least be served by one of them, giving them an equal chance of expansion! Richmond is originally intended to be a full branch, and the first Manager, Mr M J Freeman, is in place from 1928 until 1932, when Mr R C Hall takes over until permanent closure in 1937.