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  The pride with
which this carving is placed outside Martins Bank’s Head Office Building is
completely justified. Personal thanks
from the Governor of the Bank of England himself are praise indeed for the
role that Martins Bank plays in the protection of our country’s reserves of
gold during the Second World War. The
story has been told many times - in fact we have two slightly conflicting
versions here – and from this we find it impossible to say whether or not the
entire gold reserves were held in
the vaults. The truth itself may still
be a secret – judge for yourself from our feature below…
 In the
gloom of the blackout, towards midnight on an evening in May, 1940, a small
group of bank officials gathered on the platform of Lime Street Station,
Liverpool, to render a national service which the tragic collapse of France
had made a regrettable necessity. For the Bank
of England, too, had its Dunkirk, and the heavily laden train which drew up
alongside the waiting officials was the first of three special trains bearing
a part of the gold reserve of the Bank to a place which seemed less
vulnerable to the threat of air attack and possible invasion. That place was
the strongroom of our new Head Office building. Built upon rock, with walls and ceilings nearly a yard
thick, made of concrete reinforced by interlaced steel bars, equipped with
doors each weighing nine tons, our strongroom accommodation was adjudged by
the Bank of England bullion officials admirable for storing a considerable
portion of the gold reserve.
 Accordingly,
preparations were made with as much secrecy as could be observed by vacating
our Treasury and Branch Security sections and crowding the contents into the
Bond and Custody rooms. The problem of getting
the heavy loads down to the basement had to be solved as our bullion lift
could not cope with a job of this magnitude, and moreover, trucking would
have been required from the only entrance on a street level. An examination was made of the escape hatches opening
from the air-raid shelters, and by good fortune the only one operating to the
street in a manner suited to our purpose was found to give access to a large
room convenient to the strongroom corridor. We then borrowed from a customer
a long wooden chute used for warehousing butter and cheeses, and fixed it to
the hatch with its lower end anchored on a strong steel cupboard. When the first train arrived on the night of May 22nd the
boxes of gold were loaded on to lorries and brought through the streets under
police protection to the bank. Every box was lettered and numbered as its
contents and value were exactly assessed and it was required of us that they
be accessible for delivery to a pre-determined plan. The boxes containing the gold bars and bullion had been
hastily made and banded with iron strips. Each one weighed about 130 Ib. and
was as heavy as a strong man could carry for a few Steps. As they came down
the chute the corners bit into the wood and gradually tore it to shreds and
wore out the sides. A few boxes crashed to the floor and one containing coin
burst open, but by a little coaxing of the contrivance it was made to last
out the night and a new chute was acquired for the next consignments. Strongly-built platform conveyors, each capable of
bearing 20 to 24 boxes in stacks five or six high and weighing 1¼ tons, were
supplied by the Bank of England.
 A special type of trolley was run
beneath the platforms to lift them from the floor so that they could be
manoeuvred into position for Storage, in spite Of their weight the piled
boxes were not very secure when in motion and one load capsized and injured a
man who could, not jump clear in time. He was taken to hospital and happily
soon made a recovery. To hold the Stacks more securely for movement we
invented an adjustable iron collar, and this was later presented to the Bank
of England and considered a useful gadget. The work
continued throughout the night and finished in time for breakfast and a
clean-up before the next day's work began. A similar operation was undertaken
two nights later and a third consignment arrived on May 3ist. By this time we
had received 4,719 boxes weighing about 280 tons and all our space was
packed. The following letter was received
from the Governor of the Bank (now Lord Norman) after the second consignment
had been handled. Dear Mr. Chairman., We
here have been so impressed by the helpful attitude adopted by Martins Bank
in connection with the recent storage of a large consignment of boxes of
unknown content that I feel impelled to write and express my appreciation and
gratitude for all that has been done. I
understand that your principals as well as their staff have all given their
utmost assistance, both by day and by night, and that your bank has gone so
far as to express a desire that the expenses incurred should be regarded as a
contribution to National Service. For this,
for the hospitality extended to certain members of the Bank of England staff,
and for all the other evidences of your co-operation I am indeed grateful and
I hope you will see fit to convey an expression of my thanks to those who
have given such willing and efficient service. I am, Yours sincerely, M. Norman'.
 It
was soon realised that the boxes would have to be taken out some day—perhaps at short notice—and that the problem
would present greater difficulties than that of getting them in as the force
of gravity would be against us instead of in our favour. The bullion lift (Shown here, left) could not deal with such a weight in a single day. Other lifts had
to be made available and this involved breaking down a wall dividing the bank
basement from the rentable portion of the building so as to bring into use
the two-ton capacity service lift. This was done and a steel door substituted
for the wall. We also had constructed a ladder with roller
sleeves over steel spindles, so that the boxes could be passed through a
ground floor window for loading direct on to lorries. The wisdom of these preparations was manifest when a
month later a decision was taken to remove the gold hastily to Canada and all
hands were required to load up the convoy of lorries to take it to the docks
for shipment—this
time in daylight. It reached its war-time home safely, and all that was left
to us was a sense of pride at being, if only for a short time, custodians of
the gold of the Bank of England.
All that
glisters…
In 1993, a fictional account of this wartime escapade
- “The Bullion Boys” - is made by the BBC.
Not for the first time in its life, Martins Bank’s wonderful Head
Office building is used as the film set, this time to re-create an event that
actually took place there. The background to the relocation of the gold
reserve is told in this extract from Four Centuries of Banking:
 {When
the Germans advanced across Europe and invasion seemed imminent, the cabinet
instructed Montagu Norman, later Lord Norman, to transfer the gold reserves
from the Bank of England to a safe place in the provinces, whence they could
be quickly moved again if necessary. It was decided that the strong room of
Martins Bank Head Office was a suitable repository. The gold was despatched on three trains on
three separate days. Each consignment was approximately 100 tons. As it would
have taken a long time to unload the gold by wheeled truck, a chute was
installed leading to the vaults used as air raid shelters in the Bank's
basement.
The first consignment arrived on No. 8
platform at Lime Street Station on 22 May 1940, just before midnight. It took
nearly three hours to transfer the gold from the train to the lorries. In
all, 4,719 boxes, weighing about 280 tons were transported. Each box contained
about 130 Ibs of gold in either four bars of solid gold or sovereigns. The
only chute available was borrowed from a firm who used it for cheese and
butter. It was, therefore, not strong enough to stand the weight of gold. Its
wooden sides cracked, and some boxes fell to the stone floor. The Bank also
held the dollar securities in transit to Montreal. The gold bullion was in store about a month
and was then shipped to Canada, where it arrived safely. Montagu Norman wrote
to the Bank thanking it for its services and for its desire that the expenses
be considered a contribution to national service.}
 Then and now…
This photograph of a room in the
basement at 4 Water Street was taken on 14 May 2013, and with its gaudy
yellow décor, and peeling wall coverings, it is very hard to imagine that
such a historic event might ever have taken place there. The room is however
situated directly below the point where the Country’s reserves of gold
bullion were dropped into the basement of the Bank, and was the scene of one
of the most secret wartime activities that Martins was involved with. In May
2013, on a joint visit to Head Office at 4 Water Street with our friends from
Barclays Group Archives, we came across the basement room into which the
Wartime gold reserves were placed using a chute from the ground floor level
outside.
 M
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