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The North Eastern Banking Company opens a Branch at Chester
le Street in 1873 in these unassuming premises in Front Street. Although “High Street” is an almost
universal generic road title throughout the UK, the North of England is home
to a number of imaginatively titled thoroughfares, such as Front Street, and
Main Street. In 1956, aware that it has been recently singing the praises
only of newly built branches,
Martins Bank Magazine pays Chester le Street a visit, in order to show that
life does indeed continue in some of the Bank’s oldest outposts…
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In Service: 15 May 1873 until 1984
Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0633
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The Branch where tigers
are welcome?
 Every Branch featured in these pages during
1956 is a new branch and a great deal of publicity has been given both here
and elsewhere to the contemporary trends in the architecture of our new
branches and to their beauty and amenities. We have been reminded from time
to time, perhaps just a little sourly, that bank profits are also made by the
older branches whose staffs contend with antiquated heating appliances,
overcrowding, inadequate staff facilities and out-of-date buildings. We
thought it would be rather a nice gesture to the Manchester and North-Eastern
Districts in particular, therefore, to conclude our 1956 programme with a
visit to one such branch, representative of many, and our choice fell on
Chester-le-Street which we visited on November 15th.
 Chester-le-Street is a town of Roman
origin, half way between Newcastle and Durham, with a population of some
19,000 people. Its industries are coal mining, clothing manufacturing, sweet
manufacturing and, recently, a big new factory producing one of the principal
raw materials of the plastic industry. Our branch, one of the North Eastern
Banking Company branches, has been operating there since the latter part of
the nineteenth century and its contribution towards the prosperity of the
Bank as a whole is no mean one. The Manager is Mr. T. S. Glendinning, who
after managing West Cornforth from 1948 was promoted to Chester-le-Street in
1952. Prior to that he served at Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, Durham and on
the North-Eastern Inspection staff. He commenced his career in the Bank in
1920 and during the last war served in the Royal Marines.
Mr.
R. J. Soulsby, second-in-command, is nearing the end of his service which
commenced in 1913 and has all been spent in the North-Eastern District, at
Stanley, Jesmond, Wallsend, Team Valley and on the North-Eastern Inspection
Staff. He was appointed Clerk-in-Charge at Team Valley in 1943 and held the
position until 1945 when he became a member of the District General Manager's
staff at Newcastle. He has been at Chester-le-Street since 1946. The remainder of the
staff are all girls. Miss Audrey Hutchinson takes the second till and is a
most popular and efficient cashier. She is well known to many members of the
staff in other districts who have met her with the Bank parties in Austria
and Switzerland. She has been in the Bank for 14 years, 12 of them at
Consett.
 Miss Dorothy Crosby has been in the Bank
since 1950, all the time at Chester-le-Street and is the leading lady of the
backroom girls. Next comes Miss Joan Churchman who entered the Bank last
year, and the remaining girl is Miss Mollie Greathead, a trainee. Mr.
Glendinning is fortunate in his staff. Shortly after our arrival we went to the house of Mr. J.
Walton, customer of the branch whose passion for keeping wild animals and
whose book on the subject have brought him some fame. Readers will recall the
picture we published earlier in the year of Mr. Walton at the counter of the
branch accompanied by Ranee, his pet tigress. Well, Ranee is too big and
powerful now to go about on a chain and the staff have to content themselves
with Rikki, a young lion, whose delight at the moment is to seize one's hand
and suck one's fingers as a kind of comforter. We were fascinated and
delighted to be able to play with him as he runs about the house loose at
present, his worst offence being his passion for destroying cushions. We were
also thrilled to be allowed to stroke Ranee's head and fondle her ears,
through the bars of her cage, and felt it to be quite an experience to be able
to fondle a fully grown tigress, even from the safe side. Mr. Walton told us
of his horrifying and terrifying experience when he was mauled by a lion and
nearly killed, only the prompt arrival of his wife and daughter, who both
shot it, saving him Mr. and Mrs. Walton are two most interesting and
refreshing personalities whom we felt most privileged to meet.
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Image
© Martins Bank Archive Collections - Stephen Walker
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We
visited Lumley Castle, belonging to the Earl of Scarborough, now used as a
dormitory for Durham University, and Lambton Castle, seat of the Earl of
Durham, now used by Durham Education Committee as a residential college for
week-end training courses for students. Miss Crosby has been on one of
them. The setting of Lambton Castle, in woodlands through which the River
Wear runs, is truly magnificent.
We had the pleasure of entertaining Mr. and Mrs.
Glendinning to lunch and we shall long remember this most pleasant and
crowded day.
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 Chester-le-Street
is seen here in the 1960s, and then as Barclays in the 1970s, when the business
has expanded into the former Lockwoods store next door. Judging by the wkward shape and size of
the window signage, this is perhaps seen as a stop gap measure before more
suitable premises can be found, and in 1984 the Martins building is closed with
Barclays moving to 103 Front Street where they continue to trade today.
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Images © Barclays Ref 0030-0633
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