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When its doors first are first opened on
18 October 1914, Birkenhead Claughton Village Branch is one of the last offices
of the Bank of Liverpool to be established before the creation of the Bank of
Liverpool and Martins. Sadly, this
Branch does not survive quite long enough to be able to celebrate its one
hundredth birthday, as it is closed by Barclays on 26 July 2013. For our feature, we go back to October
1959, and the retirement of one of Martins Bank’s long serving Managers, Mr
Wall-Jones. He has actually worked at
Claughton Village twice, the second time as Manager of the Branch for around
twenty-one of his forty-three year career…
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In service: 18 October 1914 – 26 July 2013
Monochrome Branch
Images © Barclays Ref: 0030-0196
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  At the
end of October Mr. A. Wall Jones, Manager at Claughton Village since 1937,
retired after 43 years' service. To mark the occasion a little ceremony was
held, during the course of which Mr. J. H. Pickering, Staff Manager, made a
presentation on behalf of the subscribers of a cheque which is to be used
for the purchase of rose trees for the garden of Mr. and Mrs. Wall Jones's
new home at Parkgate; the balance being used for the purchase of a fireside
chair. A bouquet was presented
to Mrs. Wall Jones by Miss E. J. Laughland, the junior girl at Claughton
Village. In the course of his remarks Mr.
Pickering recalled the active part which Mrs. Wall Jones had taken in the
early years of the Society of the Arts, immediately after the war, and to the
constant support they had both given to the social functions of the Bank and
expressed the hope that they would both enjoy many years of happiness in
their new home. After the speeches a tea party was held. Mr. Wall Jones entered the Bank in 1916 at Victoria
Street, and subsequently served at Claughton Village (twice), Mossley Hill,
Bootle, Water Street, Formby, on the Relief staff, Liverpool City Office and
Egremont. He was appointed Manager at Claughton Village in 1937.
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One for the album…
We are delighted to be
able to show this photograph from around 1957, which was kindly donated to
Martins Bank Archive by Craig Turner.
It features the Manager, Mr A Wall Jones (Second from left) and Mr
Turner’s Uncle, Mr John C Lewis (Right).
Thanks to an email from Mary Hughes who worked for Martins Bank, we
are now able to identify the young lady in the picture as Miss Val
Foster. Mary whose maiden surname
was Reid, writes:
“Just
spent a happy hour trawling through the Martins Archive and noticed that
you have an unknown lady at Birkenhead Claughton Village Branch in 1957.
She was Miss Val Foster, later to become Mrs Val Brock and she is the
daughter of Arthur (known as Mac) Foster who was Manager at Wallasey
Egrement Branch. I was at Wallasey Branch
between 1961 and 1970 and was trained by Val. Gilly Walker was my
first Manager, Tony Clayton was my second Manager”…
This just leaves us
with the man on the left of the photo, and if you can help with this
identificiation, or have any memories or images of Claughton Village or
indeed of any of Martins Bank’s 1000+ Branch Buildings, please do get in
touch with us at the usual address gutinfo@btinternet.com
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Image ©
Martins Bank Archive Collections
- Craig
Turner
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 Thanks to the
foresight of Robert Montgomery, there exists a large collection of
photographs of British Bank Branches that have closed down in recent years.
Robert has kindly made available to us, those photographs that represent
former branches of Martins Bank. Here we see Claughton Village Branch in
August 2009, just under four years before its permanent closure by
Barclays…
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Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0196
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Robert
Montgomery
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It is also really good to know, that
even though 28 Upton Road has ceased to be a bank, the memory of Martins
will still be preserved within this beautiful carving of Martins Bank’s Coat
of Arms that sits atop the front door.
This is one of several examples of the Bank’s history being stamped
onto the very buildings it once occupied…
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Image © Barclays Ref 0030-0196
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Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections – Robert
Montgomery
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