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Martins Bank’s Branch at Silsden is one of fourteen original main
offices of the Craven Bank, which amalgamates with the Bank of Liverpool in
1906. The Craven Bank area covers a
large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and part of Lancashire with
branches at Skipton (Head Office) and thirty-nine Branches and sub-Branches
across Yorkshire and Lancashire. Pictured
here in 1918, Silsden Branch bears the name of the Bank of Liverpool, which
in turn absorbs Martin’s Private Bank in the same year, becoming The Bank of
Liverpool and Martins Limited.
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In service: ca.1880 – 25 February 2011
Image © Barclays
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 This cloth bag – very handy when you need just the
right transportation for those one hundred
Sovereigns you have lying about the place – is personalised to Silsden
branch, and was kindly donated to the Archive by Julian Taylor. In 1928
the modern day Martins
Bank is born. with the amalgamation of the Bank of Liverpool and
Martins and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank. Silsden
makes it through the subsequent merger with Barclays, and into the
twenty-first century, closing its doors for the final time on Friday 25 February, 2011. After it was announced that Silsden would
be amongst a number of local Branches to be closed, this photograph of the
branch was taken for posterity in 2010 by a member of Barclays’ staff. It
seems almost reassuring that apart from the addition of a cash machine and a
bus stop, little seems to have changed at Silsden in the last one hundred
years or so! For our feature, we journey to 1957 and the retirement of Mr
Lucas, a long serving member of staff who has been manager at Silsden since
1949…
 At the close of
business on October 31st a small but very happy tea party was held in the Manager’s
room to mark the retirement of Mr. L. S. Lucas after 44 years’ service. No official presentation was made, as
a sum of money
contributed by colleagues, past and
present, had already been handed to Mr. Lucas who intends to use it towards the purchase of a pair of binoculars. Two evenings previously Mr. Lucas
entertained the staff
and a number of other colleagues to dinner
at the Crescent Hotel, Ilkley. Among them
were Mr. Earnshaw of Keighley, Mr. Mashiter of Skipton and Mr. Hardcastle of
Guiseley. Although informality was
observed throughout at Mr. Lucas’s request,
the occasion was used by those present to pay tribute to him and to express their good wishes. Mr. Lucas commenced his service in
1913 at Otley, served
in the first war from 1916 to 1919, and
afterwards returned to Otley. He went to
Skipton in 1932 and his first appoint
ment, as Pro Manager at Nelson, came in 1940. He became Pro Manager at Skipton in 1945, Assistant Manager there in 1947 and Manager at Silsden in 1949.
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Image - Martins Bank
Archive Collections © Courtesy Rachel Hollings
Banking
by an open fire…
Image - Martins Bank
Archive Collections © Courtesy Rachel Hollings
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We were delighted to
receive this photograph of the informal gathering to celebrate the retirement
of Mr Lucas on 31 october 1957. Many
of our Martins colleagues have been racking their brains to try and name
everyone in the picture, and we now have just two positive identifications to
be made. If you recognise either of
them, please let us know at martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.
1?
2 Eric Ellison
3 John Mashiter
4 Eric Earnshaw
5 W C M Perkins (new Manager)
6 Joan Sant
7 L S Lucas (outgoing Manager)
8 Roy Hutchinson
9 A W Denton
10 Bertie Jones
11 (POSSIBLY) Johnnie F Bauer
This image (left) for which
we are once again indebted to Rachel Hollings and Dave Baldwin, was taken
about the same time as Mr Lucas’ tea party. It features Silsden staff member
Joan Sant hard at work at her desk, by a lovely roaring open fire – a health
and safety nightmare today, but back then, an essential form of heating…
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