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 The
merger with Barclays might well be about to happen, but Martins Bank still
presses ahead with some of its new branch builds right up until the APPOINTED DAY -
15 December 1969. The following
extract is from “Merger News” a detailed staff newsletter, published by
Martins Bank in October 1968:
Building
projects shelved - The bank's building programme is one sphere
greatly affected by the merger situation. Work already well advanced is going
ahead but several projects have been shelved.
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In Service: 3 July 1968 until 29 October 1971
Branch
Images © Barclays Ref 0030-0637
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No action is being taken over sites acquired for new premises
until a policy for the new group is decided. Even at one
branch virtually completed the merger has raised a complication—whether or not to drill holes in an expensive
piece of granite to take the name 'Martins Bank'. The solution has been to
fix the letters in a less permanent way.
So a shiny new branch at Chichester is allowed to
have its moment of glory, opening in July 1968 and wearing with pride the name
of Martins – for seventeen months, at least.
The opening of the new branch is featured in Martins Bank Magazine in
the Autumn of 1968, alongside a rather over-helpful map…
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  if the frequency of in-coming telephone
calls can be used as a measure of the potential success of a new branch, then
our new Chichester office will be all right. When we visited the branch less
than a week after it opened in early July the office activity and our talks
with the staff were punctuated continually by the ring of the telephone. Yet John Adams, our Manager, is not content to be just a
voice at the other end of the line. He belongs to the 'get out and bring 'em
in' breed of manager and he was busy making new acquaintances at Chichester
market when we arrived. Acting as his guide was Tom Blossom, better known as
the Bank's ambassador at exhibition stands but a familiar figure in
Chichester where he comes to sail.
At Chichester's markets and amid the
city's largely agricultural hinterland Mr Adams is finding himself very much
at home. His interest in agriculture stems from his work with Sir John
Reeling's dairy herd at Brede before he joined the Bank in 1954, and he comes
to Chichester after two-and-a-half years as Pro Manager at Canterbury,
another 'farming' branch. And as a native of Brighton he is pleased to be
back in Sussex. Our branch is situated in
South Street, one of the four main streets taking their names from the points
of the compass and converging at the Cross, a graceful edifice, fifty feet
high, given to the city in 1501 by the then Bishop of Chichester. Despite
the city's great age—the
Romans knew it as Noviomagus—Chichester
today is referred to as the Georgian City and the exterior of our branch has
been constructed in keeping with the surrounding style. The inevitable newness of the
building has to some extent been avoided by roofing with tiles salvaged from
the previous building on the site. From
Middlesbrough to Chichester is a fair distance to move but Colin Thompson,
the second man, is not complaining. He likes what he sees of Chichester and
its environs, finds the climate agreeable and at the time of our visit he was
arranging to bring his wife and two children to their new home at Donnington,
south of the city.
 He joined the Bank at
Wolsingham in 1957 and is now adjusting himself to small branch routine after
four years at Middlesbrough branch. Neil Gregory came
from Worthing branch where he entered the Bank a year ago. He is pleased with
the move and at the prospect of helping to put the new branch on its feet. At
the time of our visit the fourth member of the staff was still completing her
schooling but now Roberta Saunders, who lives at nearby Emsworth, is getting
to grips with her new job. From the branch you look directly down Canon Lane
which presents a picture of 'guide-book England' as typical as Clovelly's
cobbles or Wiltshire thatch. The Lane has a row of ivy-covered, terraced,
clergy houses —part
of the Cathedral precincts—which is a Mecca for photographers, both amateur
and professional. The Cathedral is one of the two
buildings that attract visitors to Chichester—and neither is Georgian. Parts of the
Cathedral date from the twelfth century with subsequent extensions and
re-buildings as, over the centuries, fire, desecration and neglect have taken
their toll; Chichester Festival Theatre, the 'theatre in the round', is only
seven years old but already the annual festival of plays is an institution. To the casual visitor there is a strong feeling of conservatism
about Chichester; not the sort of place where a new branch bank might be
expected to make rapid progress in attracting new customers. Yet if John
Adams's telephone continues to ring with such regularity . . .
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 Today,
the only clue that Chichester Branch ever existed is the blue door to the
right, with the stainless steel panel and letterbox where once the
architect’s own nameplate proudly displayed news of Chichester’s Branch of
Martins Bank… We are grateful to
Dave Baldwin for yet another comtemporary image for our series of “Then and
Now” comparisons.
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Image
© Barclays Ref 30-0637
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Image ©
Dave Baldwin 2014
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