Martins Bank Limited was a Liverpool-based British financial services company that was taken over by Barclays Bank in 1969. The company has its origins in the 16th century and was said to have been founded by Sir Thomas Gresham , who began trading in Lombard Street under the sign of a grasshopper. After the Second World War it was the first bank to enter into partnership with a major retailer, opening banking concessions inside branches of the Lewis's department store chain.
Image © Barclays Ref 30/1399 Courtesy Martins Bank Archive.
Martins Bank Hyde Branch which was situated on Market Street.
The bank was bought by Barclays Bank
in 1969, when all of its seven hundred branches became branches of
Barclays. Around 30 branches closed immediately, and ten were downgraded
to sub-branches. Some, such as the sub-branch at Eaton, Norwich,
Norfolk were brand new and handed over to Barclays on the day appointed
by Act of Parliament for the merger of the two banks, 15 December 1969.
The Martins grasshopper logo was retained for part of the combined
business until the early 1980s, with "Martins Branch" and a small
grasshopper appearing first on both statements and cheque books, later
cheques only (see the Martins Bank Archive Project link below). Martins
numbered among its customers a football pools company, a major airline
and a world renowned shipping line. When these customers wanted to
borrow large sums, Martins was known to have borrowed from other banks
on a number of occasions to fulfil these requests. Even so, many who
worked for the bank believed that Martins could have survived on its
own, as at the time of takeover it was expanding its UK banking
operation, and continuing a run of "firsts" which included:
- First in the north of England with a cash machine in 1967
- First with mobile banks to provide banking to remote areas
- First with a drive-through bank in Leicester in 1959 and Epsom in 1966
- First and only English bank to have a head office outside London
- First to recognise and embrace the swinging 60s in its advertising
- First to experiment with and then use a computer to operate current-account business
- First with a branch on the centre court at Wimbledon
Women were contractually obliged to leave the bank upon marriage, and
as late as 1965, men were not allowed to get married until their salary
reached a prescribed level. Many of Martins' forms, and some
procedures, were retained or later adopted by Barclays as being more
advanced than their own.
Thanks to
Wikipedia
Barclays Bank as it is today.
Thanks to Google maps.
