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  WELCOME to Martins Bank
Archive, and to MARTINS
BANK MAGAZINE -
our news feature in honour of the Bank’s staff publication, which from 1946
to 1969 brought news of changing times, new Branches and services and even
new technologies to those working in branches and departments in England
Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. From Drive-In Branches to
computers and the Cash Dispenser, it seems that Martins Bank has it all,
yet on 1 November 1968, it becomes just one more of the Barclays Group of
Companies. This status is maintained only until close of Business on Friday
12 December 1969, as from the following Monday, 730 branches of the bank
will open their doors under the name of Barclays.
Victory in europe Day - A significant Anniversary
 8 May 2025
is the EIGHTIETH anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and the beginning
of the end of the Second World War.
Thanks to a long departed member of staff of Martins Bank’s Branch
at Walsall, we have an almost complete set of Head Office Circulars
covering early 1940 to late 1945.
This section of the Archive is a valuable mirror of British Social
History, as among the various instructions to “batten down the hatches”,
bombings of some branches, mothballing of others, the introduction of Women
Bank Managers, and an ever increasing list of countries NOT to be dealt
with financially, we see the effects of the increased demands of the Kennet
Committee, deciding who should be released from previously reserved
occupations, to be sent to war. We
also see how the Bank tried its utmost to look after its staff, how special
grants and bonuses were paid to help keep them fed and clothed, and towards
the end of the war, there is the everyday “housekeeping” of removing
black-out blinds, re-opening branches, and getting business back to normal
once more. You can also visit our online feature MARTINS AT WAR – in which
we offers stories and images from the two World Wars, in relation to the
Bank and its staff. On our Facebook®
page, THROUGHOUT 2025, we will
feature the Head Office Circulars, and with the help of our good friends at
the British Newspaper Archive, we will bring you stories from the war,
which illustrate how people who worked for the Bank were affected by
upheaval and change.
Branches opened in 1965…
In the
swinging 1960s, banks in all parts of the United Kingdom opened new
branches like there was no tomorrow!
It seems a strange concept indeed to us in the twenty-first century
to think of any bank opening a new branch, but sixty years ago, we were not
quite at the stage where computers would begin to take over in the way that
they eventually did, leaving thousands of bank branches closed, and the use
of cash for everyday transactions significantly diminished. The following Branches were opened in
1965, so why not visit them and marvel, as that most fantastic of all bank
services – the branch – comes to town in so many places!
 
Branches from A to
Z
We have now relaunched our BRANCHES A TO Z page, to enhance the experience of browsing our portfolio
of just over 1000 buildings in use between 1928 and 1969 as Branches of
Martins Bank. The new menus include,
wherever possible, images of buildings, to guide you as you search out
branch pages that take your fancy.
More relevance has been placed on the origins of some branches which
came from among the many constituent Banks that at one time or other were
merged, taken over, or amalgamated into what became the modern day Martins
Bank.
We are sure you will enjoy your journey around Martins Bank’s
Branches. Please note that the
Branches by District sections have now been removed from the web site. You
will however, still be able to visit individual District Offices and their
departments.
Important News
about the Martins Bank Staff Database
 We would like to draw your attention to the completion of the first
major phase of the Martins Bank Staff Database. The career details of more than 25,000
member of the Staff of martins Bank Limited, have been put together from
the information published by Martins Bank in its magazine and other
publications, and this has been in the public domain for at least
fifty-five years. It is vital that surviving members of Martins Bank’s
staff have the opportunity to see the career details held for them, and to
understand about how and why the database exists as a social history
resource that seeks to preserve the name of Martins Bank for the interest
of future generations.
Please CLICK
HERE or on the image of
the NEWS RELEASE pictured (left) to
obtain this information, and if, once you have read it, you would like to
receive your career details, please do get in touch with the archive by
email at the following address: martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com. If you are the relative of a deceased
member of the staff and would like to obtain details of their career –
perhaps as part of family tree research, please contact Martins Bank
Archive at the same address.
Banking on trust…
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 Formed from the existing
trustee and investment business of Martins Bank, which dated back to 1908
when the Bank of Liverpool first opened a trustee department, Martins
Bank Trust Company Limited brought together a number of servies which had
been key earners for the bank in the various parts of the country where
there was either a Trustee Office, an Income Tax Department, or both.
By the late 1960s,
notwithstanding the search for another bank with with to merge, Martins Bank
aquired a number of smaller specialist companies as subsidiaries, each of
which specialised in financial services, that would enable the Bank to
spread its interests, provide a more comprehensive offering to the
customer AND
that
would profit the Bank, by retaining those customers might have gone
elsewhere for these services.
Thanks to the Denis
Maxwell Collection, our Archive now has insight into these companies, as
well as the merger processes that began as early as 1961 and continued on
and off until the merger with Barclays.
When you visit our TRUSTEE AND INVESTMENT SERVICES feature page, you will
now find more detailed information than we have previously offered for
the following:
·
Dillon Walker
& Co
·
Griffin Assurance
·
Martins
Unicorn
·
Martins Bank (Finance)
Limited
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I bought the Bank (continued)…
 We are always delighted to
hear from friend of the Archive David Phelan, who featured on this site a
few years ago when he purchased the former Martins Bank Branch at
Grange-over-Sands following its permanent closure on 1 May 2019. He has
turned it not only into a beautiful and comfortable home, but has also
collected appropriate banking memorabilia with which to furnish and
decorate it.
David is of course very
interested in the history of the building, and always on the lookout for
period pictures. This lovely image (right) of the branch in its days as the
Bank of Liverpool Ltd, is one of those acquisitions, and we are always
grateful for David’s input to our own Archive. Many people down the years
have wondered if Grange-over-Sands branch was originally some kind of
chapel or even a church, but no, it was built this way as a bank.
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Images © Martins Bank Archive Collections – D T
Phelan
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An unexpected result of the closure of former Martins Bank Branches
in recent years, has been the sight of the Bank’s original signage still
etched – sometimes faintly, others clear as day – in the stonework above
the door or window of a branch.
Friend of Martins Bank Archive, Robert Montgomery, has since 2009
been on a mission to photograph former branches of the big banks, that have
fallen on their sword in the name of progress. In the process he has accumulated many
images of former Martins Branches. We look forward to being able to add
these to our Branch Network pages over the coming months, but as a taster,
we are showing here a side-by-side comparison of LIVERPOOL
WOOLTON Branch. On the left you see the branch in the
1960s, and on the right, looking almost as if time has stood still for
sixty years, you can see how the branch looked a couple of days after it
was closed in June of this year.
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